Transport equations for subdiffusion with nonlinear particle interaction

•A microscopic stochastic model for subdiffusion with nonlinear interaction (volume filling and adhesion) is developed.•Macroscopic governing differential equations are derived which are consistent with the microscopic stochastic model.•Examples of stationary particle densities are computed which are subject to anomalous aggregation and nonlinear interaction.

We show how the nonlinear interaction effects ‘volume filling’ and ‘adhesion’ can be incorporated into the fractional subdiffusive transport of cells and individual organisms. To this end, we use microscopic random walk models with anomalous trapping and systematically derive generic non-Markovian and nonlinear governing equations for the mean concentrations of the subdiffusive cells or organisms. We uncover an interesting interaction between the nonlinearities and the non-Markovian nature of the transport. In the subdiffusive case, this interaction manifests itself in a nontrivial combination of nonlinear terms with fractional derivatives. In the long time limit, however, these equations simplify to a form without fractional operators. This provides an easy method for the study of aggregation phenomena. In particular, this enables us to show that volume filling can prevent “anomalous aggregation,” which occurs in subdiffusive systems with a spatially varying anomalous exponent.