Moderate deviations for systems of slow–fast stochastic reaction–diffusion equations

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to study the moderate deviation principle for a system of stochastic reaction–diffusion equations with a time-scale separation in slow and fast components and small noise in the slow component. Based on weak convergence methods in infinite dimensions and related stochastic control arguments, we obtain an exact form for the moderate deviations rate function in different regimes as the small noise and time-scale separation parameters vanish. Many issues that appear due to the infinite dimensionality of the problem are completely absent in their finite-dimensional counterpart. In comparison to corresponding large deviation principles, the moderate deviation scaling necessitates a more delicate approach to establishing tightness and properly identifying the limiting behavior of the underlying controlled problem. The latter involves regularity properties of a solution of an associated elliptic Kolmogorov equation on Hilbert space along with a finite-dimensional approximation argument.