3.2 Delayed degradation
3.2.2 More elaborated Case
We now consider a process including both instantaneous and delayed degradation steps:
∅
this is, particles are created at a rateCand each particle can be eliminated by two processes: i) instantaneous degradation at a rateγ; ii) delayed degradation, initiated at a rateDbut completed only a timeτafter initiation. Again, we will allow the delay-degradations times to be random variables with probability density function f(τ).
For the process to be completely defined, one has to specify if a particle that initiates delayed-degradation at time t and thus will disappear at t+τ (this kind of particles will be called
“infected"), can also disappear before the completion of this reaction, through instantaneous
CHAPTER 3. DELAY IN STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
degradation. In the most general case, this can happen at a rateγ0, not necessarily equal toγ.
Note that, in the case of first-order degradation (γ0not dependent on the number of particlesn), this instantaneous degradation is completely equivalent to a system withγ0=0, after modifying the distribution of the delayed-degradation times in the following way:
f(τ)→e−γ0τf(τ)+e−γ0τγ0F(τ).ˆ (3.17) That is, when instantaneous degradation is added to infected particles, the probability that the lifetime is equal toτhas two contributions: (i) a particle initially has a lifetimeτ(probability density f(τ)) and survives up to this time (an event with probabilitye−γ0τ); (ii) a particle has a lifetime larger than τ (probability ˆF(τ)), but survives up to τ (probability e−γ0τ) and then undergoes instantaneous degradation (at rateγ0). The consideration of these two contributions leads straightforwardly to Eq.(3.17). We see that omitting first order instantaneous degradation of infected particles comprises no loss of generality, given that the treatment is valid for general distributions of delay.
IfDandγare independent ofn, the process is equivalent to the one-variable system discussed in the previous subsection (3.23.2.1) with a conveniently modified distribution of delay:
f(τ)→e−(γ+D)τγ+ Z τ
0
dt0e−(γ+D)t0D f(τ−t0). (3.18)
This comes from the fact that a particle may disappear at timeτthrough two different processes:
(i) a particle does not disappear or is infected before τ and is degraded instantaneously at timeτ (probability density e−(γ+D)τγ); (ii) a particle gets infected at some previous time (t0) with an appropriate lifetime (τ−t0, probability densityRτ
0 dt0e−(γ+D)t0D f(τ−t0)). This includes as particular cases the ones studied in [Miekisz et al., 2011; Lafuerza and Toral, 2011a]. The results of subsection (3.2.1) allows us to obtain the full solution also in the more general case of distributed delay. IfDorγdepend onnthe processes are not anymore equivalent, two variables are necessary and a new approach is needed for the analysis. In the following we develop this method. We will also consider the case in which the creation rateCdepends on the number of particles.
The full process corresponds to the following two-variable system:
∅
C
−→XA,XA γ
−→∅,XA D
−→XI+Z,XI=⇒
τ ∅, (3.19)
where we have split the proteins into two types:XI are infected particles that will die precisely at a timeτ(itself a stochastic variable) after being infected andXAare non-infected (“active") particles (so X = XA∪XI). We allow the rates to depend on nA, the number of XA, active, particles, but not onnI, the number ofXI, infected, particles which are considered to be “inert";
this condition will be relaxed in the next subsection. Following [Miekisz et al., 2011], we have introduced the auxiliary particlesZwhose number is given by the stochastic variablenZ(t). The introduction ofZwill allow us to obtain the properties ofnIby using the relation:
nI(t)= Z t
−∞
dt0dnZ(t0)
dt0 s(t0,t), (3.20)
where the discrete processnZ(t) is a sequence of step (Heaviside) functions and its derivative must be understood as a series of Dirac-delta functions. Here we have introduced the family of
“survival” stochastic processess(t0,t) defined in the following way: first, for eacht0we obtain 48
3.2. DELAYED DEGRADATION Expressions (3.20-3.22) are the main advances of this section and provide us with the necessary tools to derive the main properties of the stochastic process (3.16). In the case considered in [Miekisz et al., 2011] there is a fixed delay (f(τ)=δ(τ−τ0)) and no instantaneous degradation of infected particles (γ0=0), so one has simplynI(t)=nZ(t)−nZ(t−τ). The inclusion of the survival processs(t0,t) allows us to consider the general case of distributed delay and rates depending on the state of the system.
Note that the process followed by{nA,nZ}is Markovian as the delay only appears in variable nI, so the properties ofnZcan be obtained using Markovian methods, and the properties of the variablenIcan be derived afterwards using (3.20-3.22). In particular, the first moments follow:
hnI(t)i = Using standard Markovian methods [van Kampen, 2004], one can see that the process{nA,nZ} is described by the master equation:
dP(nA,nZ,t)
dt = (E−A1−1)C(nA)P(nA,nZ,t)+(EA−1)γ(nA)P(nA,nZ,t)
+ (EAE−Z1)D(nA)P(nA,nZ,t), (3.25) withEithe step operator,Eif(ni,nj)= f(ni+1,nj). In this section, we allow the creation rateCto depend on the number ofXA-particles, constituting a feedback term on the number of "active"
particles. From the master equation one easily derives the equations for the moments, the first of them read:
2s(t0,t) is defined for allt0, regardless if a particle is actually infected a timet0. However it only contributes to (3.20) if a particle is actually infected at timet0, since only thendnZ(t
0) dt0 ,0
CHAPTER 3. DELAY IN STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
In the case thatC(nA) is a linear function ofnAandγandDdo not depend onnA(and none of them depend onnIornZ), the system of equations is closed and can be solved. For non-linear systems, we will make use of van Kampen’s expansion [van Kampen, 2004] (section 1.4.2). The equations for the macroscopic components are:
dφA
dt = C(φA)−[γ(φA)+D(φA)]φA, (3.31) dφz
dt = D(φA)φA. (3.32)
The stochastic contributions, to first order inΩ−1/2, read:
dhξAi variables to work (and so the expansion), the equations for the macroscopic components must have a single stable fixed point. In this case, however, the equation forφzdoes not have a fixed point, andφz(t) andhξ2Z(t)igrow without bound. This grow, nevertheless, is consistent with
σ2[nZ](t)
hnZ(t)i =O(Ω0) (σh2n[nZZ(t)](t)i → De
D[1+Dφe A,st2C0−D0−γ0
(eD+eγ−C0)2] asymptotically, with all functions evaluated at φA,stwhich will be specified latter), and the expansion can still be applied.
(3.33-3.37) is a system of closed linear equations and so can always be solved. To compute the time correlations ofnIfrom Eq.(3.24) we need the time correlations ofnZ. We note that:
hnZ(t1)nZ(t2)i = X
In the general, non-linear, case, using first order van Kampen’s expansion, one obtains, over the steady state:
3.2. DELAYED DEGRADATION Proceeding in a similar way, one can derive:
Kst[nA,nI](t) = ΩhξAξZistu
The second moment, when interactions are present (signaled byC0,D0orγ0 ,0), depends on the delay distribution in a more complicated way, through factors involving the integral of ˆF(t);
if there are no interactions, this case reduces to the previous and we again obtain a Poisson distribution. The time correlation typically decreases monotonically but it can increase over some time range if the correlation betweennZandnAis negative, which can be obtained with C0(φA,st)<0 (negative feedback) orγ0(φA,st) orD0(φA,st)>0, and also ifC0(φA,st)−
eγ(φA,st)>0.
In figure (3.2) expression (3.45) is compared with numerical simulations, showing a very good agreement. Note that the treatment of the delayed reactions is exact, the only approximation coming from the use of van Kampen’s expansion, which is needed when non-linearities are present, but whose error scales as Ω−1/2. Like in the previous case, the process in which the distribution of delay has fatter tail and higher variance shows slower decay for the correlation function.