In this note we present some examples of diffusions in random environment whose asymptotic behavior is rather surprising. We construct a family of diffusions that are small perturbations of Brownian motion with non-vanishing expected local drift under the static measure of the environment but where the ballistic behavior is lost. As slight modifications of this collection of diffusions we also provide examples with ballistic behavior where the non-vanishing limiting velocity points to a direction opposite to the expected local drift under the static measure.
This article is accepted for publication in the "Annals I.H.P. Prob. & Stat.". We investigate the ballistic behavior of diffusions in random environment. We introduce conditions in the spirit of (T) and (T') of the discrete setting, cf. Sznitman \cite{szn01}, \cite{szn02}, that imply in higher dimensions a strong law of large numbers with non-vanishing limiting velocity (which we refer to as 'ballistic behavior') and a functional central limit theorem with non-degenerate covariance matrix. As an application of our results, we consider the class of diffusions where the diffusion matrix is the i…
In this paper we investigate jump-diffusion processes in random environments which are given as the weak solutions to SDE's. We formulate conditions ensuring existence and uniqueness in law of solutions. We investigate Markov property. To prove uniqueness we solve a general martingale problem for \cadlag processes. This result is of independent interest. In the last section we present application of our results considering generalized exponential Levy model.
According to a theorem of S. Schumacher, for a diffusion X in an environment determined by a stable process that belongs to an appropriate class and has index a, it holds that X_t/(log t)^a converges in distribution, as t goes to infinity, to a random variable having an explicit description in terms of the environment. We compute the density of this random variable in the case the stable process is spectrally one-sided. This computation extends a result of H. Kesten and quantifies the bias that the asymmetry of the environment causes to the behavior of the diffusion.
Supercritical branching processes in constant environment conditioned on eventual extinction are known to be subcritical branching processes. The case of random environment is more subtle. A supercritical branching diffusion in random environment (BDRE) conditioned on eventual extinction of the population is not a BDRE. However the quenched law of the population size of a supercritical BDRE conditioned on eventual extinction is equal to the quenched law of the population size of a subcritical BDRE. As a consequence, supercritical BDREs have a phase transition which is similar to a well-known p…
With the help of the methods developed in our previous article [Schmitz, to appear in "Annales de l'I.H.P. Prob. & Stat.], we highlight condition (T) as a source of new examples of 'ballistic' diffusions in a random environment when d>1 ('ballistic' means that a strong law of large numbers with non-vanishing limiting velocity holds). In particular we are able to treat the case of non-constant diffusion coefficients, a feature that causes problems. Further we recover the ballistic character of two important classes of diffusions in a random environment by simply checking condition (T). This not…
For a diffusion X_t in a one-dimensional Wiener medium W, it is known that there is a certain process b_x(W) that depends only on the environment W, so that X_t-b_{logt}(W) converges in distribution as t goes to infinity. We prove that, modulo a relatively small time change, the process {b_x(W):x>0}is followed closely by the process {F_X(e^x): x>0}, with F_X(t) denoting the point with the most local time for the diffusion at time t.
We study a symmetric diffusion process on $\mathbb{R}^d$, $d\geq 2$, in divergence form in a stationary and ergodic random environment. The coefficients are assumed to be degenerate and unbounded but satisfy a moment condition. We derive upper off-diagonal estimates on the heat kernel of this process for general speed measure. Lower off-diagonal estimates are also shown for a natural choice of speed measure, under an additional mixing assumption on the environment. Using these estimates, a scaling limit for the Green's function is proven.
We consider a family of one-dimensional diffusions, in dynamical Wiener mediums, which are random perturbations of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck diffusion process. We prove quenched and annealed convergences in distribution and under weighted total variation norms. We find two kind of stationary probability measures, which are either the standard normal distribution or a quasi-invariant measure, depending on the environment, and which is naturally connected to a random dynamical system. We apply these results to the study of a model of time-inhomogeneous Brox's diffusions, which generalizes the diffu…
We study the convergence in distribution of the supremum of the local time and of the favorite site for a transient diffusion in a spectrally negative Lévy potential. To do so, we study the h-valleys of a spectrally negative Lévy process, and we prove in partiular that the renormalized sequence of the h-minima converges to the jumping times sequence of a standard Poisson process.
In this article we investigate the asymptotic behavior of a new class of multi-dimensional diffusions in random environment. We introduce cut times in the spirit of the work done by Bolthausen, Sznitman and Zeitouni, see [4], in the discrete setting providing a decoupling effect in the process. This allows us to take advantage of an ergodic structure to derive a strong law of large numbers with possibly vanishing limiting velocity and a central limit theorem under the quenched measure.
We consider multiple time scales systems of stochastic differential equations with small noise in random environments. We prove a quenched large deviations principle with explicit characterization of the action functional. The random medium is assumed to be stationary and ergodic. In the course of the proof we also prove related quenched ergodic theorems for controlled diffusion processes in random environments that are of independent interest. The proof relies entirely on probabilistic arguments, allowing to obtain detailed information on how the rare event occurs. We derive a control, equiva…
We consider a one-dimensional diffusion in a stable Lévy environment. We show that the normalized local time process refocused at the bottom of the standard valley with height $\log t$, $(L_X(t,\mathfrak m_{\log t}+x)/t,x\in \R)$, converges in law to a functional of two independent Lévy processes conditioned to stay positive. To prove this result, we show that the law of the standard valley is close to a two-sided Lévy process conditioned to stay positive. We also obtain the limit law of the supremum of the normalized local time. This result has been obtained by Andreoletti and Diel in the cas…
We prove the emergence of stable fluctuations for reaction-diffusion in random environment with Weibull tails. This completes our work around the quenched to annealed transition phenomenon in this context of reaction diffusion. In [9], we had already considered the model treated here and had studied fully the regimes where the law of large numbers is satisfied and where the fluctuations are Gaussian, but we had left open the regime of stable fluctuations. Our work is based on a spectral approach centered on the classical theory of rank-one perturbations. It illustrates the gradual emergence of…
We study the fractional diffusion in a Gaussian noisy environment as described by the fractional order stochastic partial equations of the following form: $D_t^αu(t, x)=\textit{B}u+u\cdot W^H$, where $D_t^α$ is the fractional derivative of order $α$ with respect to the time variable $t$, $\textit{B}$ is a second order elliptic operator with respect to the space variable $x\in\mathbb{R}^d$, and $W^H$ a fractional Gaussian noise of Hurst parameter $H=(H_1, \cdots, H_d)$. We obtain conditions satisfied by $α$ and $H$ so that the square integrable solution $u$ exists uniquely .
We consider reversible diffusions in random environment and prove the Einstein relation for this model. It says that the derivative of the effective velocity under an additional local drift equals the diffusivity of the model without drift. The Einstein relation is conjectured to hold for a variety of models but is proved insofar only in particular cases. Our proof makes use of homogenization arguments, the Girsanov transform, and a refinement of the regeneration times introduced by Lian Shen in [20].
We prove that multidimensional diffusions in random environment have a limiting velocity which takes at most two different values. Further, in the two-dimensional case we show that for any direction, the probability to escape to infinity in this direction equals either zero or one. Combined with our results on the limiting velocity, this implies a strong law of large numbers in two dimensions.
According to a theorem of S. Schumacher and T. Brox, for a diffusion $X$ in a Brownian environment it holds that $(X_t-b_{\log t})/\log^2t\to 0 $ in probability, as $t\to\infty$, where $b_{\cdot}$ is a stochastic process having an explicit description and depending only on the environment. We compute the distribution of the number of sign changes for $b$ on an interval $[1,x]$ and study some of the consequences of the computation; in particular we get the probability of $b$ keeping the same sign on that interval. These results have been announced in 1999 in a non-rigorous paper by P. Le Doussa…
Let $V$ be a two sided random walk and let $X$ denote a real valued diffusion process with generator ${1/2}e^{V([x])}\frac{d}{dx}(e^{-V([x])}\frac{d}{dx})$. This process is known to be the continuous equivalent of the one dimensional random walk in random environment with potential $V$. Hu and Shi (1997) described the Lévy classes of $X$ in the case where $V$ behaves approximately like a Brownian motion. In this paper, based on some fine results on the fluctuations of random walks and stable processes, we obtain an accurate image of the almost sure limiting behavior of $X$ when $V$ behaves asy…
We consider a transient diffusion in a $(-κ/2)$-drifted Brownian potential $W\_κ$ with $0\textless{}κ\textless{}1$. We prove its localization at time $t$ in the neighborhood of some random points depending only on the environment, which are the positive $h\_t$-minima of the environment, for $h\_t$ a bit smaller than $\log t$. We also prove an Aging phenomenon for the diffusion, a renewal theorem for the hitting time of the farthest visited valley, and provide a central limit theorem for the number of valleys visited up to time $t$. The proof relies on a decomposition of the trajectory of $W\_κ…
We propose a model for diffusion of two opposite opinions. Here, the decision to be taken by each individual is a random variable which depends on the tendency of the population, as well on its own trend characteristic. The influence of the population trend can be positive, negative or non-existent in a random form. We prove a phase transition in the behaviour of the proportion of each opinion. Namely, the mean square proportions are linear functions of time in the diffusive case, but are given by a power law in the superdiffusive regime.
Prolongating our previous paper on the Einstein relation, we study the motion of a particle diffusing in a random reversible environment when subject to a small external forcing. In order to describe the long time behavior of the particle, we introduce the notions of steady state and weak steady state. We establish the continuity of weak steady states for an ergodic and uniformly elliptic environment. When the environment has finite range of dependence, we prove the existence of the steady state and weak steady state and compute its derivative at a vanishing force. Thus we obtain a complete "F…
We consider the diffusion approximation of branching processes in random environment (BPREs). This diffusion approximation is similar to and mathematically more tractable than BPREs. We obtain the exact asymptotic behavior of the survival probability. As in the case of BPREs, there is a phase transition in the subcritical regime due to different survival opportunities. In addition, we characterize the process conditioned to never go extinct and establish a backbone construction. In the strongly subcritical regime, mean offspring numbers are increased but still subcritical in the process condit…
The goal of the paper is to describe the large time behaviour of a Markov process associated with a symmetric diffusion in a high-contrast random environment and to characterize the limit semigroup and the limit process under the diffusive scaling.
We study infinite server queues driven by Cox processes in a fast oscillatory random environment. While exact performance analysis is difficult, we establish diffusion approximations to the (re-scaled) number-in-system process by proving functional central limit theorems (FCLTs) using a stochastic homogenization framework. This framework permits the establishment of quenched and annealed limits in a unified manner. At the quantitative level, we identity two parameter regimes, termed subcritical and supercritical indicating the relative dominance between the two underlying stochasticities drivi…
This paper studies the linear stochastic partial differential equation of fractional orders both in time and space variables $\left(\partial^β+ \fracν{2} (-Δ)^{α/2} \right) u(t,x)= λu(t,x) \dot{W}(t,x)$, where $\dot W$ is a general Gaussian noise and $β\in (1/2, 2)$, $α\in (0, 2]$. The existence and uniqueness of the solution, the moment bounds of the solution are obtained by using the fundamental solutions of the corresponding deterministic counterpart represented by the Fox H-functions. Along the way, we obtain some new properties of the fundamental solutions.
We study the almost sure asymptotic behavior of the supremum of the local time for a transient diffusion in a spectrally negative Lévy environment. More precisely, we provide the proper renormalizations for the extremely large and the extremely small values of the supremum of the local time. In particular, in the sub-ballistic regime, we link the almost sure behavior of the supremum of the local time with the left asymptotic tail of the exponential functional of the environment conditioned to stay positive, which allows to use the properties of such exponential functionals to characterize the …
We study a one-dimensional diffusion $X$ in a drifted Brownian potential $W\_κ$, with $ 0\textless{}κ\textless{}1$, and focus on the behavior of the local times $(\mathcal{L}(t,x),x)$ of $X$ before time $t\textgreater{}0$.In particular we characterize the limit law of the supremum of the local time, as well as the position of the favorite sites. These limits can be written explicitly from a two dimensional stable L{é}vy process. Our analysis is based on the study of an extension of the renewal structure which is deeply involved in the asymptotic behavior of $X$.
A large deviation principle is established for a two-scale stochastic system in which the slow component is a continuous process given by a small noise finite dimensional Itô stochastic differential equation, and the fast component is a finite state pure jump process. Previous works have considered settings where the coupling between the components is weak in a certain sense. In the current work we study a fully coupled system in which the drift and diffusion coefficient of the slow component and the jump intensity function and jump distribution of the fast process depend on the states of both…
We study a symmetric diffusion $X$ on $\mathbb{R}^d$ in divergence form in a stationary and ergodic environment, with measurable unbounded and degenerate coefficients $a^ω$. The diffusion is formally associated with $L^ωu = \nabla\cdot(a^ω\nabla u)$, and we make sense of it through Dirichlet forms theory. We prove for $X$ a quenched invariance principle, under some moment conditions on the environment; the key tool is the sublinearity of the corrector obtained by Moser's iteration scheme.
Wright-Fisher diffusions describe the evolution of the type composition of an infinite haploid population with two types (say type $0$ and type $1$) subject to neutral reproductions, and possibly selection and mutations. In the present paper we study a Wright-Fisher diffusion in a Lévy environment that gives a selective advantage to sometimes one type, sometimes the other. Classical methods using the Ancestral Selection Graph (ASG) fail in the study of this model because of the complexity, resulting from the two-sided selection, of the structure of the information contained in the ASG. We prop…
This paper studies, in dimensions greater than two, stationary diffusion processes in random environment which are small, isotropic perturbations of Brownian motion satisfying a finite range dependence. Such processes were first considered in the continuous setting by Sznitman and Zeitouni [20]. Building upon their work, it is shown by analyzing the associated elliptic boundary-value problem that, almost surely, the smoothed (in the sense that the boundary data is continuous) exit law of the diffusion from large domains converges, as the domain's scale approaches infinity, to that of a Brownia…
We obtain a Liouville property for stationary diffusions in random environment which are small, isotropic perturbations of Brownian motion in spacial dimension greater than two. Precisely, we prove that, on a subset of full probability, the constant functions are the only strictly sub-linear maps which are invariant with respect to the evolution of the diffusion. And, we prove that the constant functions are the only bounded, ancient maps which are invariant under the evolution. These results depend upon the previous work of Fehrman [3] and Sznitman and Zeitouni [7] and, in the first case, our…
In this paper, we derive a stability result for $L_1$ and $L_{\infty}$ perturbations of diffusions under weak regularity conditions on the coefficients. In particular, the drift terms we consider can be unbounded with at most linear growth, and we do not require uniform convergence of perturbed diffusions. Instead, we require a weaker convergence condition in a special metric introduced in this paper, related to the Holder norm of the diffusion matrix differences. Our approach is based on a special version of the McKean-Singer parametrix expansion.
We consider a one-dimensional Brownian motion with diffusion coefficient $D$ in the presence of $n$ partially absorbing traps with intensity $β$, separated by a distance $L$ and evenly spaced around the initial position of the particle. We study the transport properties of the process conditioned to survive up to time $t$. We find that the surviving particle first diffuses normally, before it encounters the traps, then undergoes a period of transient anomalous diffusion, after which it reaches a final diffusive regime. The asymptotic regime is governed by an effective diffusion coefficient $D_…
We study a symmetric diffusion $X$ on $\mathbb{R}^d$ in divergence form in a stationary and ergodic environment, with measurable unbounded and degenerate coefficients. We prove a quenched local central limit theorem for $X$, under some moment conditions on the environment; the key tool is a local parabolic Harnack inequality obtained with Moser iteration technique.
We consider systems of stochastic differential equations with multiple scales and small noise and assume that the coefficients of the equations are ergodic and stationary random fields. Our goal is to construct provably-efficient importance sampling Monte Carlo methods that allow efficient computation of rare event probabilities or expectations of functionals that can be associated with rare events. Standard Monte Carlo algorithms perform poorly in the small noise limit and hence fast simulations algorithms become relevant. The presence of multiple scales complicates the design and the analysi…
We consider an energy conserving linear dynamics that we perturb by a Glauber dynamics with random site dependent intensity. We prove hydrodynamic limits for this non-reversible system in random media. The diffusion coefficient turns out to depend on the random field only by its statistics. The diffusion coefficient defined through the Green-Kubo formula is also studied and its convergence to some homogenized diffusion coefficient is proved.
Clustering algorithms partition a dataset into groups of similar points. The clustering problem is very general, and different partitions of the same dataset could be considered correct and useful. To fully understand such data, it must be considered at a variety of scales, ranging from coarse to fine. We introduce the Multiscale Environment for Learning by Diffusion (MELD) data model, which is a family of clusterings parameterized by nonlinear diffusion on the dataset. We show that the MELD data model precisely captures latent multiscale structure in data and facilitates its analysis. To effi…
The aim of the paper is to establish a large deviation principle (LDP) for the empirical measure of mean-field interacting diffusions in a random environment. The point is to derive such a result once the environment has been frozen (quenched model). The main theorem states that a LDP holds for every realization of the environment, with a rate function that does not depend on the disorder and is different from the rate function in the averaged model. Similar results concerning the empirical flow and local empirical measures are provided.
