Department of Mathematics

Starting with the Wigner distribution formulation for beam wave propagation in H\"{o}lder continuous non-Gaussian random refractive index fields we show that the wave beam regime naturally leads to the white-noise scaling limit and converges to a Gaussian white-noise model which is characterized by the martingale problem associated to a stochastic differential-integral equation of the It\^o type. In the simultaneous geometrical optics the convergence to the Gaussian white-noise model for the Liouville equation is also established if the ultraviolet cutoff or the Fresnel number vanishes sufficiently slowly. The advantage of the Gaussian white-noise model is that its $n$-point correlation functions are governed by closed form equations.