The Swapping Mechanism for Interacting Diffusions: Framework, Comparison with Switching, and an Exactly Solvable Example

Abstract

We develop a rigorous framework for the swapping mechanism for two interacting jump-diffusion processes: each particle evolves independently but their positions are exchanged at random times, providing a continuous-time description of the replica-exchange Monte Carlo. Under mild hypotheses we establish strong existence, pathwise uniqueness, and a forward Kolmogorov equation for the transition density. A symmetrisation identity links swapping to the more standard regime-switching: swapping densities are relabelled sums of switching sectors, so permutation-invariant observables of these processes coincide, while antisymmetric ones differ. We prove that under detailed balance and reversibility the swapping process never degrades the spectral gap, and that, under label invariance, the antisymmetric gap improves compared to the decoupled process. We also show that, for $N$ particles, swapping remains Markov on $\mathbb{R}^N$ with polynomial moment closures, whereas switching requires tracking the full symmetric group, highlighting a fundamental complexity difference. We conclude the work presenting an exactly solvable benchmark of two Brownian motions with constant drifts and swap rate. For this model we obtain closed-form transition densities in terms of modified Bessel functions, exact moments, and two-time correlations. The asymptotic analysis reveals persistent asymmetries, an effective diffusivity correction, and a convergence rate of order $s^{-1/2}$ in the fast-swap limit (where $s>0$ is the constant swap rate).