Gradient Flow from a Random Walk in Hilbert Space
  Consider a probability measure on a Hilbert space defined via its density with respect to a Gaussian. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that an appropriately defined Markov chain, which is reversible with respect to the measure in question, exhibits a diffusion limit to a noisy gradient flow, also reversible with respect to the same measure. The Markov chain is defined by applying a Metropolis-Hastings accept-reject mechanism to an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck proposal which is itself reversible with respect to the underlying Gaussian measure. The resulting noisy gradient flow is a stochastic partial differential equation driven by a Wiener process with spatial correlation given by the underlying Gaussian structure. 
Natesh S. Pillai, Andrew M. Stuart, Alexandre H. Thiery
math.ST math.PR stat.CO stat.TH