Short-time large deviation of constrained random acceleration process

Abstract

By optimal fluctuation method, we study short-time distribution $P(\mathcal{A}=A)$ of the functionals, $\mathcal{A}=\int_{0}^{t_f} x^n(t) dt$, along constrained trajectories of random acceleration process for a given time duration $t_f$, where $n$ is a positive integer. We consider two types of constraints: one is called the total constraint, where the initial position and velocity and the final position and velocity are both fixed, and the other is called the partial constraint, where the initial position and velocity, the final position are fixed, and letting the final velocity be free. Via the variation of constrained action functionals, the resulting Euler-Lagrange equations are analytically solved for $n=1$ and 2, and the optimal path, i.e., the most probable realization of the random acceleration process $x(t)$, conditioned on specified $A$ and $n$, are correspondingly obtained. For $n \geq 3$, a numerical scheme is proposed to find the optimal path. We show that, for $n=1$, $P(A)$ is a Gaussian distribution with the variance proportional to $Dt_f^5$ ($D$ is the particle velocity diffusion constant). For $n \geq 2$, $P(A)$ exhibits the non-Gaussian feature. In the small-$A$ limit, $P(A)$ show a essential singularity, $-\ln P(A) \sim A^{-3}$, and the optimal path localizes around the initial state over a long-time window, and then escapes to the final position sharply at a late time. For $A$ much larger than its typical value, there are multiple optimal paths with the same $A$ but with different actions (or probability densities). Among these degenerate paths, one with the minimum action is dominant, and the others are exponentially unlikely. All the theoretical results are validated by simulating the effective Langevin equations governing the constrained random acceleration process.