Lifetime-unified quadratic and cubic approximations of fluorescence peak time for a time-domain diffuse-light response

Abstract

We study the temporal maximum of a boundary response generated by a coupled diffusion system in a half-space with Robin boundary conditions and a point fluorophore. The fluorescence lifetime enters through a one-sided exponential time convolution. Previous peak-time approximations were derived under separate short- and long-lifetime scalings. We construct a single reduced peak-time formula for every positive ratio of lifetime to the intrinsic width of the transport peak, thereby describing the transition between these regimes without switching formulas. Starting from a known large-distance approximation of the zero-lifetime response, we normalize at its unique maximum and approximate its logarithm quadratically. The resulting scalar mode equation has a unique solution, expressed through the inverse scaled complementary error function. Its endpoint expansions recover the leading structures of the earlier approximations in the corresponding joint large-distance regimes. A cubic correction accounts for the leading local asymmetry. Under a stated bound on the normalized cubic coefficient, we prove uniqueness of its positive mode and agreement with the exact reduced-profile peak expansion through second order in the lifetime. A conditional peak-location stability estimate is combined with a decomposition into transport-profile and local truncation errors. Numerical comparisons with the full diffusion response support the accuracy of the construction. The lifetime-unified formula is distinguished from the fixed-geometry, infinite-lifetime limit, in which the transport tail yields a different peak-time growth law.