Erd\'elyi-Kober Fractional Diffusion

The aim of this Short Note is to highlight that the {\it generalized grey Brownian motion} (ggBm) is an anomalous diffusion process driven by a fractional integral equation in the sense of Erd\'elyi-Kober, and for this reason here it is proposed to call such family of diffusive processes as {\it Erd\'elyi-Kober fractional diffusion}. The ggBm is a parametric class of stochastic processes that provides models for both fast and slow anomalous diffusion. This class is made up of self-similar processes with stationary increments and it depends on two real parameters: $0 < \alpha \le 2$ and $0 < \beta \le 1$. It includes the fractional Brownian motion when $0 < \alpha \le 2$ and $\beta=1$, the time-fractional diffusion stochastic processes when $0 < \alpha=\beta <1$, and the standard Brownian motion when $\alpha=\beta=1$. In the ggBm framework, the Mainardi function emerges as a natural generalization of the Gaussian distribution recovering the same key role of the Gaussian density for the standard and the fractional Brownian motion.Comment: Accepted for publication in Fractional Calculus and Applied Analysi

Short note on the emergence of fractional kinetics

In the present Short Note an idea is proposed to explain the emergence and the observation of processes in complex media that are driven by fractional non-Markovian master equations. Particle trajectories are assumed to be solely Markovian and described by the Continuous Time Random Walk model. But, as a consequence of the complexity of the medium, each trajectory is supposed to scale in time according to a particular random timescale. The link from this framework to microscopic dynamics is discussed and the distribution of timescales is computed. In particular, when a stationary distribution is considered, the timescale distribution is uniquely determined as a function related to the fundamental solution of the space-time fractional diffusion equation. In contrast, when the non-stationary case is considered, the timescale distribution is no longer unique. Two distributions are here computed: one related to the M-Wright/Mainardi function, which is Green's function of the time-fractional diffusion equation, and another related to the Mittag-Leffler function, which is the solution of the fractional-relaxation equation

Variational problems in fracture mechanics

We present some recent existence results for the variational model of crack growth in brittle materials proposed by Francfort and Marigo in 1998. These results, obtained in collaboration with Francfort and Toader, cover the case of arbitrary space dimension with a general quasiconvex bulk energy and with prescribed boundary deformations and applied loads.Comment: 9 page