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Fokker-Planck equation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Fokker-Planck equation (named after Adriaan Fokker and Max Planck; also known as the Kolmogorov Forward equation) describes the time evolution of the probability density function of position and velocity of a particle, but it can be generalized to any other observable, too.
The first use of the Fokker-Planck equation was the statistical description of Brownian motion of a particle in a fluid.
Brownian motion follows the Langevin equation, which can be solved for many different stochastic forcings with results being averaged (the Monte Carlo Method, canonical ensemble in Molecular Dynamics).
However, instead of this computationally intensive approach, one can use the Fokker-Planck equation and consider 
, that is, the probability density function of the particle having a velocity in the interval 
, when it starts its motion with 
at time 0.
The general form of the Fokker-Planck equation for 
variables is
![\frac{\partial f}{\partial t} = \left[-\sum_{i=1}^{N} \frac{\partial}{\partial x_i} D_i^1(x_1, \ldots, x_N) + \sum_{i=1}^{N} \sum_{j=1}^{N} \frac{\partial^2}{\partial x_i \partial x_j} D_{ij}^2(x_1, \ldots, x_N) \right] f,](../../../math/7/1/1/71139c7d8cd7fa3f7a3f7b8fba70d0af.png)
where D1 is the drift vector and D2 the diffusion tensor, the latter of which results from the presence of the stochastic force.
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The Fokker-Planck equation can be used for computing the probability densities of stochastic differential equations. Consider the Itō stochastic differential equation
where 
is the state and 
is a standard M-dimensional Wiener process. If the initial distribution is 
, then the probability density 
of the state 
is given by the Fokker-Planck equation with the drift and diffusion terms
A standard scalar Wiener process is generated by the stochastic differential equation
Now the drift term is zero and diffusion coefficient is 1/2 and thus the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation is
that is the simplest form of diffusion equation.
- Hannes Risken, "The Fokker-Planck Equation: Methods of Solutions and Applications", 2nd edition, Springer Series in Synergetics, Springer, ISBN 3-540-61530-X.
- Crispin W. Gardiner, "Handbook of Stochastic Methods", 3rd edition (paperback), Springer, ISBN 3-540-20882-8.