The parabolic Anderson model with acceleration and deceleration

Abstract

We describe the large-time moment asymptotics for the parabolic Anderson model where the speed of the diffusion is coupled with time, inducing an acceleration or deceleration. We find a lower critical scale, below which the mass flow gets stuck. On this scale, a new interesting variational problem arises in the description of the asymptotics. Furthermore, we find an upper critical scale above which the potential enters the asymptotics only via some average, but not via its extreme values. We make out altogether five phases, three of which can be described by results that are qualitatively similar to those from the constant-speed parabolic Anderson model in earlier work by various authors. Our proofs consist of adaptations and refinements of their methods, as well as a variational convergence method borrowed from finite elements theory.