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We investigate a diffusion process in heterogeneous media where particles stochastically reset to their initial positions at a constant rate. The heterogeneous media is modeled using a spatial-dependent diffusion coefficient with a power-law dependence on particles' positions. We use the Green function approach to obtain exact solutions for the probability distribution of particles' positions and the mean square displacement. These results are further compared and agree with numerical simulations of a Langevin equation. We also study the first-passage time problem associated with this diffusion process and obtain an exact expression for the mean first-passage time. Our findings show that this system exhibits non-Gaussian distributions, transient anomalous diffusion (sub- or superdiffusion) and stationary states that simultaneously depend on the media heterogeneity and the resetting rate. We further demonstrate that the media heterogeneity non-trivially affect the mean first-passage time, yielding an optimal resetting rate for which this quantity displays a minimum., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; accepted for publication Physica A

We establish, in general terms, the conditions to be satisfied by a time-fractional approach formulation of the Poisson-Nernst-Planck model in order to guarantee that the total current across the sample be solenoidal, as required by the Maxwell equation. Only in this case the electric impedance of a cell can be determined as the ratio between the applied difference of potential and the current across the cell. We show that in the case of anomalous diffusion, the model predicts for the electric impedance of the cell a constant phase element behaviour in the low frequency region. In the parametric curve of the reactance versus the resistance, the slope coincides with the order of the fractional time derivative.

The various types of generalized Cattaneo, called also telegrapher's equation, are studied. We find conditions under which solutions of the equations considered so far can be recognized as probability distributions, \textit{i.e.} are normalizable and non-negative on their domains. Analysis of the relevant mean squared displacements enables us to classify diffusion processes described by such obtained solutions and to identify them with either ordinary or anomalous super- or subdiffusion. To complete our study we analyse derivations of just considered examples the generalized Cattaneo equations using the continuous time random walk and the persistent random walk approaches.

Recent experimental findings on anomalous diffusion have demanded novel models that combine annealed (temporal) and quenched (spatial or static) disorder mechanisms. The comb-model is a simplified description of diffusion on percolation clusters, where the comb-like structure mimics quenched disorder mechanisms and yields a subdiffusive regime. Here we extend the comb-model to simultaneously account for quenched and annealed disorder mechanisms. To do so, we replace usual derivatives in the comb diffusion equation by different fractional time-derivative operators and the conventional comb-like structure by a generalized fractal structure. Our hybrid comb-models thus represent a diffusion where different comb-like structures describe different quenched disorder mechanisms, and the fractional operators account for various annealed disorders mechanisms. We find exact solutions for the diffusion propagator and mean square displacement in terms of different memory kernels used for defining the fractional operators. Among other findings, we show that these models describe crossovers from subdiffusion to Brownian or confined diffusions, situations emerging in empirical results. These results reveal the critical role of interactions between geometrical restrictions and memory effects on modeling anomalous diffusion., Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Physical Review E

The spatial dynamics of criminal activities has been recently studied through statistical physics methods; however, models and results have been focused on local scales (city level) and much less is known about these patterns at larger scales such as at a country level. Here we report on a characterization of the spatial dynamics of the homicide crimes along the Brazilian territory using data from all cities (~5000) in a period of more than thirty years. Our results show that the spatial correlation function in the per capita homicides decays exponentially with the distance between cities and that the characteristic correlation length displays an acute increasing trend in the latest years. We also investigate the formation of spatial clusters of cities via a percolation-like analysis, where clustering of cities and a phase transition-like behavior describing the size of the largest cluster as a function of a homicide threshold are observed. This transition-like behavior presents evolutive features characterized by an increasing in the homicide threshold (where the transitions occur) and by a decreasing in the transition magnitudes (length of the jumps in the cluster size). We believe that our work sheds new lights on the spatial patterns of criminal activities at large scales, which may contribute for better political decisions and resources allocation as well as opens new possibilities for modeling criminal activities by setting up fundamental empirical patterns at large scales., Comment: Accepted for publication in EPL

We report on an extensive characterization of the cracking noise produced by charcoal samples when dampened with ethanol. We argue that the evaporation of ethanol causes transient and irregularly distributed internal stresses that promote the fragmentation of the samples and mimic some situations found in mining processes. The results show that, in general, the most fundamental seismic laws ruling earthquakes (Gutenberg-Richter law, unified scaling law for the recurrence times, Omori's law, productivity law and Bath's law) hold under the conditions of the experiment. Some discrepancies were also identified (a smaller exponent in Gutenberg-Richter law, a stationary behavior in the aftershock rates for long times and a double power-law relationship in productivity law) and related to the different loading condition. Our results thus corroborate to elucidate the parallel between seismic laws and fracture experiments caused by a more complex loading condition that also occurs in natural and induced seismicity (such as long-term fluid injection and gas-rock outbursts in mining processes)., Comment: Accepted for publication in PRL