Martingale problem under nonlinear expectations

We formulate and solve the martingale problem in a nonlinear expectation space. Unlike the classical work of Stroock and Varadhan (Commun Pure Appl Math 22:345–400, 479–530, 1969) where the linear operator in the associated PDE is naturally defined from the corresponding diffusion process, the main difficulty in the nonlinear setting is to identify an appropriate class of nonlinear operators for the associated fully nonlinear PDEs. Based on the analysis of the martingale problem, we introduce the notion of weak solution for stochastic differential equations under nonlinear expectations and obtain an existence theorem under the Lipschitz continuity condition of the coefficients. The approach to establish the existence of weak solutions generalizes the classical Girsanov transformation method in that it no longer requires the two (probability) measures to be absolutely continuous.     

Immediate regularization of measure-type population densities in a two-dimensional chemotaxis system with signal consumption

This paper deals with the Neumann initial-boundary value problem for a classical chemotaxis system with signal consumption in a disk.In contrast to previous studies which have established a comprehensive theory of global classical solutions for suitably regular nonnegative initial data,the focus in the present work is on the question to which extent initially prescribed singularities can be regularized despite the presence of the nonlinear cross-diffusive interaction.The main result in this paper asserts that at least in the framework of radial solutions immediate regularization occurs under an essentially optimal condition on the initial distribution of the population density.More precisely,it will turn out that for any radially symmetric initial data belonging to the space of regular signed Borel measures for the population density and to L² for the signal density,there exists a classical solution to the Neumann initial-boundary value problem,which is smooth and approaches the given initial data in an appropriate trace sense.     

Nonlinear martingale problems involving singular integrals

We study a class of nonlinear martingale problems in one dimension, that involve a singular integral of the density in the drift term, and are related to systems of particles with singular interactions. First, we prove existence and uniqueness of regular solutions of the associated nonlinear evolution equation. Then, we establish a suitable framework and conditions where the martingale problem is well posed. This extends the results of Bonami et al. (J. Funct. Anal. 165 (1999) 390) to a wide class of coefficients and initial conditions. Finally, we obtain our solution of the martingale problem as the chaotic limit of some systems of particles interacting through regular approximating kernels.     

Life-span of Classical Solutions of Nonlinear Hyperbolic Systems

In this paper, we give a lower bound for the life-span of classical solutions to the Cauchy problem for first order nonlinear hyperbolic systems with small initial data, which is sharp, and give its application to the system of one-dimensional gas dynamics; for the Cauchy problem of the system of one-dimensional gas dynamics with a kind of small oscillatory initial data, we obtain a precise estimate for the life-span of classical solutions.     

A certain class of diffusion processes associated with nonlinear parabolic equations

Summary We introduce a martingale problem to associate diffusion processes with a kind of nonlinear parabolic equation. Then we show the existence and uniqueness theorems for solutions to the martingale problem.Research partially supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Contract No. F4962082C0009     

Relatively optimal filtering on a Hilbert space for measure driven stochastic systems

In this paper we consider linear filtering for discontinuous processes determined by stochastic differential equations on a Hilbert space driven by signed measures in addition to Brownian motion. The dynamics of the observed data is governed by a differential equation driven by a square integrable martingale (not necessarily continuous) while perturbed by a signed measure. We formulate the filtering problem as an optimization problem on the space of bounded linear operator valued functions and present necessary and sufficient conditions for optimality. Further, we prove, under the assumption of finite dimensionality of the output space, that a Kalman-like filter exists and it is explicitly determined by a Riccati type evolution equation.     

An explicit solution to the Skorokhod embedding problem for functionals of excursions of Markov processes

We develop an explicit non-randomized solution to the Skorokhod embedding problem in an abstract setup of signed functionals of excursions of Markov processes. Our setting allows us to solve the Skorokhod embedding problem, in particular, for the age process of excursions of a Markov process, for diffusions and their signed age processes, for Azéma’s martingale and for Bessel processes of dimension smaller than 2.This work is a continuation and an important generalization of Obłój and Yor [J. Obłój, M. Yor, An explicit Skorokhod embedding for the age of Brownian excursions and Azéma martingale, Stochastic Process. Appl. 110 (1) (2004) 83–110]. Our methodology is based on excursion theory and the solution to the Skorokhod embedding problem is described in terms of the Itô measure of the functional. We also derive an embedding for positive functionals and we correct a mistake in the formula of Obłój and Yor [J. Obłój, M. Yor, An explicit Skorokhod embedding for the age of Brownian excursions and Azéma martingale, Stochastic Process. Appl. 110 (1) (2004) 83–110] for measures with atoms.     

Convex duality in optimal investment under illiquidity

We study the problem of optimal investment by embedding it in the general conjugate duality framework of convex analysis. This allows for various extensions to classical models of liquid markets. In particular, we obtain a dual representation for the optimum value function in the presence of portfolio constraints and nonlinear trading costs that are encountered e.g. in modern limit order markets. The optimization problem is parameterized by a sequence of financial claims. Such a parameterization is essential in markets without a numeraire asset when pricing swap contracts and other financial products with multiple payout dates. In the special case of perfectly liquid markets or markets with proportional transaction costs, we recover well-known dual expressions in terms of martingale measures.     

Probabilistic gradient approximation for a viscous scalar conservation law in space dimension d≥2

In this paper, we are interested in the solution of a viscous scalar conservation law. We remark that its first order spatial derivatives solve a system of partial differential equations presenting a nonlocal nonlinearity. We associate a nonlinear martingale problem with this system. After proving existence and uniqueness for the martingale problem, we obtain a propagation of chaos result for a system of interacting diffusion processes. We deduce that it is possible to approximate the solution of the viscous scalar conservation law thanks to the interacting diffusions     

Diagnostic checking of multivariate nonlinear time series models with martingale difference errors

In this article, we derive the asymptotic distribution of residual autocovariance and autocorrelation matrices for a general class of multivariate nonlinear time series models by assuming only that the error term is a martingale difference sequence. Two types of applications are developed: global test statistics of the portmanteau type and one-lag test statistics, which describe the residual correlation at individual lags. To illustrate the proposed methodology, simulation results are reported for diagnosing multivariate threshold time series models. The following test statistics are compared: the classical test statistics presuming independent errors and the proposed methodology which supposes only martingale difference errors.     

Weak martingale Hardy spaces and weak atomic decompositions

In this paper we define some weak martingale Hardy spaces and three kinds of weak atoms. They are the counterparts of martingale Hardy spaces and atoms in the classical martingale Hp-theory. And then three atomic decomposition theorems for martingales in weak martingale Hardy spaces are proved. With the help of the weak atomic decompositions of martingale, a sufficient condition for a sublinear operator defined on the weak martingale Hardy spaces to be bounded is given. Using the sufficient condition, we obtain a series of martingale inequalities with respect to the weak Lp-norm, the inequalities of weak (p ,p)-type and some continuous imbedding relationships between various weak martingale Hardy spaces. These inequalities are the weak versions of the basic inequalities in the classical martingale Hp-theory.     

On measure solutions of backward stochastic differential equations

We consider backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs) with nonlinear generators typically of quadratic growth in the control variable. A measure solution of such a BSDE will be understood as a probability measure under which the generator is seen as vanishing, so that the classical solution can be reconstructed by a combination of the operations of conditioning and using martingale representations. For the case where the terminal condition is bounded and the generator fulfills the usual continuity and boundedness conditions, we show that measure solutions with equivalent measures just reinterpret classical ones. For the case of terminal conditions that have only exponentially bounded moments, we discuss a series of examples which show that in the case of non-uniqueness, classical solutions that fail to be measure solutions can coexist with different measure solutions.     

Brownian Representations of Cylindrical Local Martingales,Martingale Problem and Strong Markov Property of Weak Solutions of SPDEs in Banach Spaces

The paper deals with three issues. First we show a sufficient condition for a cylindrical local martingale to be a stochastic integral with respect to a cylindrical Wiener process. Secondly, we state an infinite dimensional version of the martingale problem of Stroock and Varadhan, and finally we apply the results to show that a weak existence plus uniqueness in law for deterministic initial conditions for an abstract stochastic evolution equation in a Banach space implies the strong Markov property.     

An approach for solving nonlinear programming problems

In this paper we use measure theory to solve a wide range of the nonlinear programming problems. First, we transform a nonlinear programming problem to a classical optimal control problem with no restriction on states and controls. The new problem is modified into one consisting of the minimization of a special linear functional over a set of Radon measures; then we obtain an optimal measure corresponding to functional problem which is then approximated by a finite combination of atomic measures and the problem converted approximately to a finite-dimensional linear programming. Then by the solution of the linear programming problem we obtain the approximate optimal control and then, by the solution of the latter problem we obtain an approximate solution for the original problem. Furthermore, we obtain the path from the initial point to the admissible solution.     

Itô’s calculus under sublinear expectations via regularity of PDEs and rough paths

In this paper, we first study the martingale problem in a sublinear expectation space. The critical tool is the Evans–Krylov theorem on regularity properties for solutions of fully nonlinear PDEs. Based on the analysis for the martingale problem and inspired by the rough path theory, we then develop stochastic calculus with respect to a general stochastic process, and derive an Itô type formula and the integration-by-parts formula. Our framework is analytic in that it does not rely on the probabilistic concept of “independence” as in the $G$-expectation theory.     

Statistical causality,martingale problems and local uniqueness

The paper considers a statistical concept of causality in continuous time in the filtered probability spaces which is based on the Granger’s definition of causality. The given causality concept is then applied to the solution of the martingale problem (associated with the stochastic differential equation driven with semimartingales). More precisely, we show that the given causality concept is closely connected to the concept of extremality of measures for the solutions of the martingale problem, for the stopped martingale problem and for the local martingale problem. We also show the equivalence between some models of causality and local uniqueness (for the solutions of the martingale problem).     

Initial Value Problem for a Nonlinear Evolution System with Singular Integral Differential Terms

The initial value problem for a nonlinear evolution system with singular integral differential terms is studied. Dy means of a priori estimates of the solutions and Lcray-Schauder's fixed point theorem, we demonstrate the existence and uniqueness theorems of the generalized and classical global solutions to the problem.     

Variance-Optimal Martingale Measures for Diffusion Processes with Stochastic Coefficients

In this paper we present the solution of the optimal variance optimal martingale measure for stochastic volatility models, when the noises are correlated. It is proved that the value function of the dual problem is a classical solution of the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. The method to develop our results is based on a Bernstein’s type of argument. The dual problem of the quadratic hedging problem is studied analyzing the expression obtained after a change of measure, which corresponds to some class of risk-sensitive control problems.     

On semimartingale diffusions and stochastic differential equations

Given a regular diffusion X on the real axis which is a semimartingale we describe the semimartingale decomposition of X. We then give necessary and sufficient conditions in terms of the scale and the speed measure for X being a solution of an Ito type stochastic differential equation driven by a Wiener process and with classical drift or a drift term involving the local time of X. A regular diffusion is also characterized as unique solution of a certain martingale problem. Finally we discuss an example related to skew Brownian motion     

Solvability of nonlinear boundary-value problems arising in modeling plasma diffusion across a magnetic field and its equilibrium configurations

We study the simplest one-dimensional model of plasma density balance in a tokamak type system, which can be reduced to an initial boundary-value problem for a second-order parabolic equation with implicit degeneration containing nonlocal (integral) operators. The problem of stabilizing nonstationary solutions to stationary ones is reduced to studying the solvability of a nonlinear integro-differential boundary-value problem. We obtain sufficient conditions for the parameters of this boundary-value problem to provide the existence and the uniqueness of a classical stationary solution, and for this solution we obtain the attraction domain by a constructive method.