On diffusions in media with pockets of large diffusivity

Abstract

We consider diffusion processes in media with pockets of large diffusivity. The asymptotic behavior of such processes is described when the diffusion coefficients in the pockets tend to infinity. The limiting process is identified as a diffusion on the space where each of the pockets is treated as a single point, and certain conditions on the behavior of the process on the boundary of the pockets are imposed. Calculation of various probabilities and expectations related to the limiting process leads to new initial-boundary (and boundary) problems for the corresponding parabolic (and elliptic) PDEs.