Small-time annealed large deviations principle for one-dimensional diffusions in a random environment

Abstract

In this paper, we establish a small-time annealed path large deviation principle for one-dimensional diffusions in a random environment associated with the generator ${\mathcal L}_W f(x)=e^{-\rho(x,W)}(e^{a(x,W)}f'(x))'$. The coefficients $\{\rho(x,\cdot):x\in\mathbb R\}$ and $\{a(x,\cdot):x\in\mathbb R\}$ are random. We assume that for each fixed realization of the environment, $\rho$ and $a$ are continuous and locally exponentially integrable, and that the support of the associated intrinsic coordinates is compact and non-collapsing. This framework includes the extensively studied Brox diffusion $dX_t=dB_t-\frac12\dot W(X_t)\,dt$, where $B$ is a standard Brownian motion and $W$ is an independent two-sided Brownian motion representing the environment. The It\^o--McKean representation of the diffusions and the estimates of the first exit probabilities derived via Moser iteration play a crucial role.