Existence and uniqueness of solution of the differential equation describing the TASEP-LK coupled transport process

Abstract

In this paper, the existence and uniqueness of solution of a specific differential equation is studied. This equation originates from the description of a coupled process by totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP) and Langmuir kinetics (LK). In the fields of physics and biology, the properties of the TASEP-LK coupled process have been extensively studied by Monte Carlo simulations and numerical calculations, as well as detailed experiments. However, so far, no rigorous mathematical analysis has been given to the corresponding differential equations, especially their existence and uniqueness of solution. In this paper, using the upper and lower solution method, the existence of solution of the steady state equation is obtained. Then using a generalized maximum principle, we show that the solution constructed from the upper and lower solution method is actually the unique solution in C∞ space. Moreover, the existence and uniqueness of solution of the time dependent differential equation are also obtained in one specific space X\b{eta}. Our results imply that the previous results obtained by numerical calculations and Monte Carlo simulations are theoretically correct, especially the most important phase diagram of particle density along the travel track under different model parameters. The study in this paper provides theoretical foundations for the analysis of TASEP-LK coupled process. At the same time, the methods used in this paper may be instructive for studies about the more general cases of the TASEP-LK process, such as the one with multiple travel tracks or the one with multiple particle species.