| Abstract: | In this paper we solve an initial‐boundary value problem that involves a pde with a nonlocal term. The problem comes from a cell division model where the growth is assumed to be stochastic. The deterministic version of this problem yields a first‐order pde; the stochastic version yields a second‐order parabolic pde. There are no general methods for solving such problems even for the simplest cases owing to the nonlocal term. Although a solution method was devised for the simplest version of the first‐order case, the analysis does not readily extend to the second‐order case. We develop a method for solving the second‐order case and obtain the exact solution in a form that allows us to study the long time asymptotic behaviour of solutions and the impact of the dispersion term. We establish the existence of a large time attracting solution towards which solutions converge exponentially in time. The dispersion term does not appear in the exponential rate of convergence. |
