Homogenization and hypocoercivity for Fokker-Planck equations driven by weakly compressible shear flows

Abstract

We study the long-time dynamics of two-dimensional linear Fokker-Planck equations driven by a drift that can be decomposed in the sum of a large shear component and the gradient of a regular potential depending on one spatial variable. The problem can be interpreted as that of a passive scalar advected by a slightly compressible shear flow, and undergoing small diffusion. For the corresponding stochastic differential equation, we give explicit homogenization rates in terms of a family of time-scales depending on the parameter measuring the strength of the incompressible perturbation. This is achieved by exploiting an auxiliary Poisson problem, and by computing the related effective diffusion coefficients. Regarding the long-time behaviour of the solution of the Fokker-Planck equation, we provide explicit decay rates to the unique invariant measure by employing a quantitative version of the classical hypocoercivity scheme. From a fluid mechanics perspective, this turns out to be equivalent to quantifying the phenomenon of enhanced diffusion for slightly compressible shear flows.