Department of Mathematics

We consider 6 types of scaling limits for the Wigner-Moyal equation of the parabolic waves in random media, the limiting cases of which include the radiative transfer limit, the diffusion limit and the white-noise limit. We show under fairly general assumptions on the random refractive index field that sufficient amount of medium diversity (thus excluding the white-noise limit) leads to statistical stability or self-averaging in the sense that the limiting law is deterministic and is governed by various transport equations depending on the specific scaling involved. We obtain 6 different radiative transfer equations as limits.