Large Deviations in Switching Diffusion: From Free Cumulants to Dynamical Transitions
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 067102 – Published 4 August, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/rqsn-bzr6
Abstract
We study the diffusion of a particle with a time-dependent diffusion coefficient that switches between random values drawn from a distribution at a fixed rate . Using a renewal approach, we compute exactly the moments of the position of the particle at any finite time , and for any with finite moments . For , we demonstrate that the cumulants grow linearly with and are proportional to the free cumulants of a random variable distributed according to . For specific forms of , we compute the large deviations of the position of the particle, uncovering rich behaviors and dynamical transitions of the rate function . Our analytical predictions are validated numerically with high precision, achieving accuracy up to .