Regularity of random elliptic operators with degenerate coefficients and applications to stochastic homogenization

We consider degenerate elliptic equations of second order in divergence form with a symmetric random coefficient field $a$. Extending the work of the first author, Fehrman, and Otto [Ann. Appl. Probab. 28 (2018), no. 3, 1379-1422], who established the large-scale $C^{1,\alpha}$ regularity of $a$-harmonic functions in a degenerate situation, we provide stretched exponential moments for the minimal radius $r_*$ describing the minimal scale for this $C^{1,\alpha}$ regularity. As an application to stochastic homogenization, we partially generalize results by Gloria, Neukamm, and Otto [Anal. PDE 14 (2021), no. 8, 2497-2537] on the growth of the corrector, the decay of its gradient, and a quantitative two-scale expansion to the degenerate setting. On a technical level, we demand the ensemble of coefficient fields to be stationary and subject to a spectral gap inequality, and we impose moment bounds on $a$ and $a^{-1}$. We also introduce the ellipticity radius $r_e$ which encodes the minimal scale where these moments are close to their positive expectation value

Moment bounds on the corrector of stochastic homogenization of non-symmetric elliptic finite difference equations

We consider the corrector equation from the stochastic homogenization of uniformly elliptic finite-difference equations with random, possibly non-symmetric coefficients. Under the assumption that the coefficients are stationary and ergodic in the quantitative form of a Logarithmic Sobolev inequality (LSI), we obtain optimal bounds on the corrector and its gradient in dimensions $d \geq 2$. Similar estimates have recently been obtained in the special case of diagonal coefficients making extensive use of the maximum principle and scalar techniques. Our new method only invokes arguments that are also available for elliptic systems and does not use the maximum principle. In particular, our proof relies on the LSI to quantify ergodicity and on regularity estimates on the derivative of the discrete Green's function in weighted spaces.Comment: added applications, e.g. two-scale expansion, variance estimate of RV

Lipschitz regularity for elliptic equations with random coefficients

We develop a higher regularity theory for general quasilinear elliptic equations and systems in divergence form with random coefficients. The main result is a large-scale $L^\infty$-type estimate for the gradient of a solution. The estimate is proved with optimal stochastic integrability under a one-parameter family of mixing assumptions, allowing for very weak mixing with non-integrable correlations to very strong mixing (e.g., finite range of dependence). We also prove a quenched $L^2$ estimate for the error in homogenization of Dirichlet problems. The approach is based on subadditive arguments which rely on a variational formulation of general quasilinear divergence-form equations.Comment: 85 pages, minor revisio

The corrector in stochastic homogenization: optimal rates, stochastic integrability, and fluctuations

We consider uniformly elliptic coefficient fields that are randomly distributed according to a stationary ensemble of a finite range of dependence. We show that the gradient and flux $(\nabla\phi,a(\nabla \phi+e))$ of the corrector $\phi$, when spatially averaged over a scale $R\gg 1$ decay like the CLT scaling $R^{-\frac{d}{2}}$. We establish this optimal rate on the level of sub-Gaussian bounds in terms of the stochastic integrability, and also establish a suboptimal rate on the level of optimal Gaussian bounds in terms of the stochastic integrability. The proof unravels and exploits the self-averaging property of the associated semi-group, which provides a natural and convenient disintegration of scales, and culminates in a propagator estimate with strong stochastic integrability. As an application, we characterize the fluctuations of the homogenization commutator, and prove sharp bounds on the spatial growth of the corrector, a quantitative two-scale expansion, and several other estimates of interest in homogenization.Comment: 114 pages. Revised version with some new results: optimal scaling with nearly-optimal stochastic integrability on top of nearly-optimal scaling with optimal stochastic integrability, CLT for the homogenization commutator, and several estimates on growth of the extended corrector, semi-group estimates, and systematic error