Large deviation principle for a stochastic Allen–Cahn equation

Abstract

The Allen–Cahn equation is a prototype model for phase separation processes, a fundamental example of a nonlinear spatial dynamic and an important approximation of a geometric evolution equation by a reaction–diffusion equation. Stochastic perturbations, especially in the case of additive noise, to the Allen–Cahn equation have attracted considerable attention. We consider here an alternative random perturbation determined by a Brownian flow of spatial diffeomorphism that was introduced by Roger and Weber (Stoch Partial Differ Equ Anal Comput 1(1):175–203, 2013). We first provide a large deviation principle for stochastic flows in spaces of functions that are Holder continuous in time, which extends results by Budhiraja et al. (Ann Probab 36(4):1390–1420, 2008). From this result and a continuity argument we deduce a large deviation principle for the Allen–Cahn equation perturbed by a Brownian flow in the limit of small noise. Finally, we present two asymptotic reductions of the large deviation functional.