For a mapping of the torus T2 we propose a definition of the diffusion
coefficient D suggested by the solution of the diffusion equation on
T2. The definition of D, based on the limit of moments of the invarian
t measure, depends on the set OMEGA where an initial uniform distribut
ion is assigned. For the algebraic automorphism of the torus the limit
is proved to exist and to have the same value for almost all initial
sets OMEGA in the subfamily of parallelograms. Numerical results show
that it has the same value for arbitrary polygons Q and for arbitrary
moments.