Different behaviors of diffusing diffusivity dynamics based on three different definitions of fractional Brownian motion

Abstract

The effects of a "diffusing diffusivity" (DD), a stochastically time-varying diffusion coefficient, are explored within the frameworks of three different forms of fractional Brownian motion (FBM): (i) the Langevin equation driven by fractional Gaussian noise (LE-FBM), (ii) the Weyl integral representation introduced by Mandelbrot and van Ness (MN-FBM), and (iii) the Riemann-Liouville fractional integral representation (RL-FBM) due to L{\'e}vy. The statistical properties of the three FBM-generalized DD models are examined, including the mean-squared displacement (MSD), mean-squared increment (MSI), autocovariance function (ACVF) of increments, and the probability density function (PDF). Despite the long-believed equivalence of MN-FBM and LE-FBM, their corresponding FBM-DD models exhibit distinct behavior in terms of the MSD and MSI. In the MN-FBM-DD model, the statistical characteristics directly reflect an effective diffusivity equal to its mean value. In contrast, in LE-FBM-DD, correlations in the random diffusivity give rise to an unexpected crossover behavior in both MSD and MSI. We also find that the MSI and ACVF are nonstationary in RL-FBM-DD but stationary in the other two DD models. All DD models display a crossover from a short-time non-Gaussian PDF to a long-time Gaussian PDF. Our findings offer guidance for experimentalists in selecting appropriate FBM-generalized models to describe viscoelastic yet non-Gaussian dynamics in bio- and soft-matter systems with heterogeneous environments.