Spiking and collapsing in large noise limits of SDEs

We analyze the strong noise limit of one-dimensional stochastic differential equations (SDEs). Our initial motivation comes from continuous measurements of open quantum systems. In this context, Bauer, Bernard and Tilloy pointed out an intriguing behavior. As the noise grows larger, the solutions exhibit locally a collapsing, that is to say, converge to pure jump processes very reminiscent of a metastability phenomenon. But surprisingly the limiting jump process is decorated by a spike process. We give a precise meaning to the convergence and completely prove these statements for a large class of one-dimensional diffusions, thanks to a robust strategy of proof.