Mass transport in Fokker-Planck equations with tilted periodic potential

Abstract

We consider Fokker-Planck equations with tilted periodic potential in the subcritical regime and characterize the spatio-temporal dynamics of the partial masses in the limit of vanishing diffusion. Our convergence proof relies on suitably defined substitute masses and bounds the approximation error using the energy-dissipation relation of the underlying Wasserstein gradient structure. In the appendix we also discuss the case of an asymmetric double-well potential and derive the corresponding limit dynamics in an elementary way.