Random motions with space-varying velocities

Abstract

Random motions on the line and on the plane with space-varying velocities are considered and analyzed in this paper. On the line we investigate symmetric and asymmetric telegraph processes with space-dependent velocities and we are able to present the explicit distribution of the position $\mathcal{T}(t)$, $t>0$, of the moving particle. Also the case of a non-homogeneous Poisson process (with rate $\lambda = \lambda(t)$) governing the changes of direction is analyzed in three specific cases. For the special case $\lambda(t)= \alpha/t$ we obtain a random motion related to the Euler-Poisson-Darboux (EPD) equation which generalizes the well-known case treated e.g. in Foong and Van Kolck (1992), Garra and Orsingher (2016) and Rosencrans (1973). A EPD--type fractional equation is also considered and a parabolic solution (which in dimension $d=1$ has the structure of a probability density) is obtained. Planar random motions with space--varying velocities and infinite directions are finally analyzed in Section 5. We are able to present their explicit distributions and for polynomial-type velocity structures we obtain the hyper and hypo-elliptic form of their support (of which we provide a picture).