English

The inertial It\^o drift and its applications to particle collision

Probability 2026-05-14 v1

Abstract

The small mass μ\mu limit of an inertial system driven by an Ornstein Uhlenbeck fluid force, with correlation time ϵ\epsilon going to zero, leads to a first order system with an additional drift, which we call inertial-It\^{o}-drift, depending on the limit α\alpha of the ratio μ/ϵ\mu/\epsilon; the drift being zero when α=0\alpha=0, corresponding to the Stratonovich integral in the limit equation, as in the Wong-Zakai theory, when applied directly to the first-order system with Ornstein-Uhlenbeck driver. We discuss the application of this result to particles driven by Stokes force;\ we identify inertial centrifugal effects and the so-called turbophoretic effect, as examples of the inertial-It\^{o}-drift. We also analyze concentration effects and their link with the theory of particle collision in turbulent fluids.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.13518,
  title  = {The inertial It\^o drift and its applications to particle collision},
  author = {Sandra Cerrai and Franco Flandoli and Mengzi Xie},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.13518},
  year   = {2026}
}