Bridging bulk and surface: An interacting particle system towards the field-road diffusion model

Abstract: We recover the so-called field-road diffusion model as the hydrodynamic limit of an interacting particle system. The former consists of two parabolic PDEs posed on two sets of different dimensions (a "field" and a "road" in a population dynamics context), and coupled through exchange terms between the field's boundary and the road. The latter stands as a Symmetric Simple Exclusion Process (SSEP): particles evolve on two microscopic lattices following a Markov jump process, with the constraint that each site cannot host more than one particle at the same time. The system is in contact with reservoirs that allow to create or remove particles at the boundary sites. The dynamics of these reservoirs are slowed down compared to the diffusive dynamics, to reach the reactions and the boundary conditions awaited at the macroscopic scale. This issue of bridging two spaces of different dimensions is, as far as we know, new in the hydrodynamic limit context, and raises perspectives towards future related works.