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Absorption properties of stochastic equations with Hölder diffusion coefficients

In this article, we address the absorption properties of a class of stochastic differ- ential equations around singular points where both the drift and diffusion functions vanish. According to the Hölder coefficient alpha of the diffusion function around the singular point, we identify different regimes. Stability of the absorbing state, large deviations for the absorption time, existence of stationary or quasi-stationary distributions are discussed. In particular, we show that quasi-stationary distributions only exist for alpha < 3/4, and for alpha in the interval (3/4, 1), no quasi-stationary distribution is found and numerical simulations tend to show that the process conditioned on not being absorbed initiates an almost sure exponential convergence towards the absorbing state (as is demonstrated to be true for alpha = 1). Applications of these results to stochastic bifurcations are discussed.