Analysis of the gradient of the solution to a stochastic heat equation via fractional Brownian motion

Consider the stochastic partial differential equation $\partial_t u = Lu+\sigma(u)\xi$, where $\xi$ denotes space-time white noise and $L:=-(-\Delta)^{\alpha/2}$ denotes the fractional Laplace operator of index $\alpha/2\in(\nicefrac12\,,1]$. We study the detailed behavior of the approximate spatial gradient $u_t(x)-u_t(x-\varepsilon)$ at fixed times $t>0$, as $\varepsilon\downarrow0$. We discuss a few applications of this work to the study of the sample functions of the solution to the KPZ equation as well.