One-dimensional steady-state Poisson-Nernst-Planck systems for ion channels with multiple ion species (Q2378201)

The one-dimensional Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP) system is a basic model for ion flow through membrane channels. If the Debye length is much smaller than the characteristic radius of the channel, the PNP system can be treated as a singularly perturbed system. The paper provides a geometric framework for the study of the steady-state PNP system involving multiple types of ion species with multiple regions of piecewise constant permanent charge. The article starts with a description of a three-dimensional PNP system as the model for ion flows through an ion channel and discusses a one-dimensional reduction. Special structures of this particular problem are revealed, which together with the general framework allow one to reduce the existence and multiplicity of singular orbits to a system of nonlinear algebraic equations. Near each singular orbit, an application of the exchange lemma from the geometric singular perturbation theory gives rise to the existence and (local) uniqueness of a solution of the singular boundary value problem. A new phenomenon on multiplicity and spatial behavior of steady-state involving three or more types of ion species is discovered in an example.