Diffusion in a Disk with a Circular Inclusion

We consider diffusion in a disk, representing a cell with a circular interior compartment. Using bipolar coordinates, we perform exact calculations, not restricted by the size or location of the intracellular compartment. We find Green functions, hitting densities and mean times to move from the compartment to the cellular surface and vice versa. For molecules with diffusivity $D$, mean times are proportional to $R^2/D$, where $R$ is the radius of the cell. We find explicit expressions for the dependence on $a^2$ (the fraction of the cell occupied by the intracellular compartment) and on the displacement of the compartment from the center of the cell. We consider distributions of initial conditions that are (i) uniform on the nuclear surface, (ii) uniform on the cellular surface, or (iii) given by the hitting density of particles diffusing from the nuclear to the cellular surface.