Regular Article

Time evolution of entropy associated with diffusivity fluctuations: diffusing diffusivity approach

Science Division, Center for General Education, Aichi Institute of Technology, Aichi 470-0392, Japan

^a e-mail: itto@aitech.ac.jp

Received: 1 February 2019
Received in final form: 3 May 2019
Published online: 1 August 2019

Abstract

It has experimentally been found by Lampo et al. [Biophys. J. 112, 532 (2017)] that, for two different types of cell, the distribution of the diffusivities of RNA–protein particles over cytoplasm obeys an exponential law. Then, an interesting issue has been pointed out: this exponential distribution is the maximal entropy distribution. Here, time evolution of entropy associated with local fluctuations of the diffusivity is studied. The entropy rate under the diffusing diffusivity equation, which admits the exponential fluctuation as its stationary solution, is shown to be positive. The present result is expected to be useful for studying the dynamics of diffusivity fluctuations. Furthermore, the distribution of time being required for characteristic displacement of the RNA–protein particle is found to decay as a power law. A comment is also made on a formal analogy with the thermodynamic relation concerning temperature.