Laplace approximation for stochastic line integrals

Abstract

We prove a precision of large deviation principle for current-valued processes such as shown in Bolthausen et al. (Ann Probab 23(1):236-267, 1995) for mean empirical measures. The class of processes we consider is determined by the martingale part of stochastic line integrals of 1-forms on a compact Riemannian manifold. For the pair of the current-valued process and mean empirical measures, we give an asymptotic evaluation of a nonlinear Laplace transform under a nondegeneracy assumption on the Hessian of the exponent at equilibrium states. As a direct consequence, our result implies the Laplace approximation for stochastic line integrals or periodic diffusions. In particular, we recover a result in Bolthausen et al. (Ann Probab 23(1):236-267, 1995) in our framework. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.