A converse comparison theorem for backward stochastic differential equations with jumps

This paper establishes a converse comparison theorem for real-valued backward stochastic differential equations with jumps.     

Some results on general quadratic reflected BSDEs driven by a continuous martingale

We study the well-posedness of general reflected BSDEs driven by a continuous martingale, when the coefficient f$f$ of the driver has at most quadratic growth in the control variable Z$Z$, with a bounded terminal condition and a lower obstacle which is bounded above. We obtain the basic results in this setting: comparison and uniqueness, existence, stability. For the comparison theorem and the special comparison theorem for reflected BSDEs (which allows one to compare the increasing processes of two solutions), we give intrinsic proofs which do not rely on the comparison theorem for standard BSDEs. This allows to obtain the special comparison theorem under minimal assumptions. We obtain existence by using the fixed point theorem and then a series of perturbations, first in the case where f$f$ is Lipschitz in the primary variable Y$Y$, and then in the case where f$f$ can have slightly-superlinear growth and the case where f$f$ is monotonous in Y$Y$ with arbitrary growth. We also obtain a local Lipschitz estimate in BMO$BMO$ for the martingale part of the solution.     

Existence and comparison results for noncoercive and nonmonotone multivalued elliptic problems

We consider noncoercive quasilinear elliptic inclusions under multivalued flux boundary conditions involving multifunctions of Clarke’s generalized gradient. Our main goal is to provide existence and comparison results which are based on an appropriate generalization of the notions of subsolutions and supersolutions. Furthermore, compactness and extremality results of the solution set enclosed by an ordered pair of sub–supersolutions will be proved.     

General comparison principle for quasilinear elliptic inclusions

The main goal of this paper is to prove existence and comparison results for elliptic differential inclusions governed by a quasilinear elliptic operator and a multivalued function given by Clarke’s generalized gradient of some locally Lipschitz function. These kinds of problems have been treated in the past by various authors including the authors of this paper. However, in all the works we are aware of, additional assumptions on the structure of the elliptic operator and/or the generalized Clarke’s gradient are needed to get comparison results in terms of sub-supersolutions. Comparison principles were obtained recently, e.g., in the case where the elliptic operator is of potential type, or Clarke’s gradient is required to satisfy some one-sided growth condition, or the sub-supersolutions are supposed to satisfy additional properties. The novelty of this paper is that we are able to obtain a comparison principle without assuming any of the above restrictions. To the best of our knowledge this is the first mathematical treatment of the considered elliptic inclusion in its full generality. The obtained results of this paper complement the development of the sub-supersolution method for nonsmooth problems presented in a recent monograph by S. Carl, Vy K. Le and D. Motreanu.     

Generalized reflected BSDEs driven by a Lévy process and an obstacle problem for PDIEs with a nonlinear Neumann boundary condition

In this paper, we derive the existence and uniqueness of the solution for a class of generalized reflected backward stochastic differential equations (GRBSDEs in short) driven by a Lévy process, which involve the integral with respect to a continuous process by means of the Snell envelope, the penalization method and the fixed point theorem. In addition, we obtain the comparison theorem for the solutions of the GRBSDEs. As an application, we give a probabilistic formula for the viscosity solution of an obstacle problem for a class of partial differential-integral equations (PDIEs in short) with a nonlinear Neumann boundary condition.     

Crossing and comparison of regenerative processes

A method for a quantitative comparison of wide sense regenerative processes is discussed. The main idea appears to be to make assumptions on the processes being studied that permit one to construct so-called crossing times which are simultaneous regeneration times for another pair of regenerative processes (called crossing), each element of the pair coinciding in distribution with one of the initial processes. Provided that intercrossing times have proper moments (higher, than of the first order), the problem of uniform-in-time comparison is reduced (using renewal-type arguments) to obtaining comparison estimates over finite horizons only. Respective estimates are formulated in terms of probability metrics. Possible applications include continuity of queues, approximation of Markov chains, etc.     

Stochastic equations of non-negative processes with jumps

We study stochastic equations of non-negative processes with jumps. The existence and uniqueness of strong solutions are established under Lipschitz and non-Lipschitz conditions. Under suitable conditions, the comparison properties of solutions are proved. Those results are applied to construct continuous state branching processes with immigration as strong solutions of stochastic equations.     

Backward stochastic Volterra integral equations and some related problems

Backward stochastic Volterra integral equations (BSVIEs, for short) are introduced. The existence and uniqueness of adapted solutions are established. A duality principle between linear BSVIEs and (forward) stochastic Volterra integral equations is obtained. As applications of the duality principle, a comparison theorem is proved for the adapted solutions of BSVIEs, and a Pontryagin type maximum principle is established for an optimal control of stochastic integral equations.     

On quasi-linear stochastic partial differential equations

Summary We prove existence and uniqueness of the solution of a parabolic SPDE in one space dimension driven by space-time white noise, in the case of a measurable drift and a constant diffusion coefficient, as well as a comparison theorem.and INRIAPartially supported by DRET under contract 901636/A000/DRET/DS/SR     

Absolute continuity of the law of the solution to the 3-dimensional stochastic wave equation

We present new results regarding the existence of density of the real-valued solution to a 3-dimensional stochastic wave equation. The noise is white in time and with a spatially homogeneous correlation whose spectral measure μ satisfies that , for some . Our approach is based on the mild formulation of the equation given by means of Dalang's extended version of Walsh's stochastic integration; we use the tools of Malliavin calculus. Let S₃ be the fundamental solution to the 3-dimensional wave equation. The assumption on the noise yields upper and lower bounds for the integral and upper bounds for in terms of powers of t. These estimates are crucial in the analysis of the Malliavin variance, which can be done by a comparison procedure with respect to smooth approximations of the distribution-valued function S₃(t) obtained by convolution with an approximation of the identity.     

Systems of stochastic partial differential equations with reflection: Existence and uniqueness

In this paper, we establish the existence and uniqueness of solutions of systems of stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs) with reflection in a convex domain. The lack of comparison theorems for systems of SPDEs makes things delicate.     

Quadratic BSDEs with convex generators and unbounded terminal conditions

In Briand and Hu (Probab Theory Relat Fields 136(4):604–618, 2006), the authors proved an existence result for BSDEs with quadratic generators with respect to the variable z and with unbounded terminal conditions. However, no uniqueness result was stated in that work. The main goal of this paper is to fill this gap. In order to obtain a comparison theorem for this kind of BSDEs, we assume that the generator is convex with respect to the variable z. Under this assumption of convexity, we are also able to prove a stability result in the spirit of the a priori estimates stated in Karoui et al. (Math Finance 7(1):1–71, 1997). With these tools in hands, we can derive the nonlinear Feynman–Kac formula in this context.     

Comparison inequalities on Wiener space

We define a covariance-type operator on Wiener space: for F$F$ and G$G$ two random variables in the Gross–Sobolev space D^1,2${\mathbb{D}}^{1,2}$ of random variables with a square-integrable Malliavin derivative, we let _ΓF,G?〈DF,−DL⁻¹G〉${\Gamma }_{F,G}?〈{DF,-DL}^{-1}G〉$, where D$D$ is the Malliavin derivative operator and L⁻¹$L^{-1}$ is the pseudo-inverse of the generator of the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck semigroup. We use Γ$\Gamma$ to extend the notion of covariance and canonical metric for vectors and random fields on Wiener space, and prove corresponding non-Gaussian comparison inequalities on Wiener space, which extend the Sudakov–Fernique result on comparison of expected suprema of Gaussian fields, and the Slepian inequality for functionals of Gaussian vectors. These results are proved using a so-called smart-path method on Wiener space, and are illustrated via various examples. We also illustrate the use of the same method by proving a Sherrington–Kirkpatrick universality result for spin systems in correlated and non-stationary non-Gaussian random media.     

Mean-square stability analysis of numerical schemes for stochastic differential systems

For ordinary differential systems, the study of A-stability for a numerical method reduces to the scalar case by means of a transformation that uncouples the linear test system as well as the difference system provided by the method. For stochastic differential equations (SDEs), mean-square stability (MS-stability) has been successfully proposed as the generalization of A-stability, and numerical MS-stability has been analyzed for one-dimensional equations. However, unlike the deterministic case, the extension of this analysis to multi-dimensional systems is not straightforward. In this paper we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the MS-stability of multi-dimensional systems with one Wiener noise. The criterion presented does not depend on any norm. Based on the Routh–Hurwitz theorem, we offer a particular criterion of MS-stability for two-dimensional systems in terms of their coefficients. In addition, a counterpart criterion of MS-stability is given for numerical schemes applied to multi-dimensional systems. The MS-stability behavior of a stochastic numerical method is determined by the comparison of its stability region with the stability region of the system. As an application, the numerical MS-stability of θ$\theta$-methods applied to bi-dimensional systems is investigated.     

One-dimensional BSDEs with finite and infinite time horizons

This paper is devoted to solving one-dimensional backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs), where the time horizon may be finite or infinite and the assumptions on the generator g are not necessary to be uniform on t. We first show the existence of the minimal solution for this kind of BSDEs with linear growth generators. Then, we establish a general comparison theorem for solutions of this kind of BSDEs with weakly monotonic and uniformly continuous generators. Finally, we give an existence and uniqueness result for solutions of this kind of BSDEs with uniformly continuous generators.     

A two-sample test for comparison of long memory parameters

We construct a two-sample test for comparison of long memory parameters based on ratios of two rescaled variance (V/S) statistics studied in Giraitis et al. [L. Giraitis, R. Leipus, A. Philippe, A test for stationarity versus trends and unit roots for a wide class of dependent errors, Econometric Theory 21 (2006) 989-1029]. The two samples have the same length and can be mutually independent or dependent. In the latter case, the test statistic is modified to make it asymptotically free of the long-run correlation coefficient between the samples. To diminish the sensitivity of the test on the choice of the bandwidth parameter, an adaptive formula for the bandwidth parameter is derived using the asymptotic expansion in Abadir et al. [K. Abadir, W. Distaso, L. Giraitis, Two estimators of the long-run variance: beyond short memory, Journal of Econometrics 150 (2009) 56-70]. A simulation study shows that the above choice of bandwidth leads to a good size of our comparison test for most values of fractional and ARMA parameters of the simulated series.     

Mean-field backward stochastic differential equations and related partial differential equations

In [R. Buckdahn, B. Djehiche, J. Li, S. Peng, Mean-field backward stochastic differential equations. A limit approach. Ann. Probab. (2007) (in press). Available online: http://www.imstat.org/aop/future_papers.htm] the authors obtained mean-field Backward Stochastic Differential Equations (BSDE) associated with a mean-field Stochastic Differential Equation (SDE) in a natural way as a limit of a high dimensional system of forward and backward SDEs, corresponding to a large number of “particles” (or “agents”). The objective of the present paper is to deepen the investigation of such mean-field BSDEs by studying them in a more general framework, with general coefficient, and to discuss comparison results for them. In a second step we are interested in Partial Differential Equations (PDE) whose solutions can be stochastically interpreted in terms of mean-field BSDEs. For this we study a mean-field BSDE in a Markovian framework, associated with a McKean–Vlasov forward equation. By combining classical BSDE methods, in particular that of “backward semigroups” introduced by Peng [S. Peng, J. Yan, S. Peng, S. Fang, L. Wu (Eds.), in: BSDE and Stochastic Optimizations; Topics in Stochastic Analysis, Science Press, Beijing (1997) (Chapter 2) (in Chinese)], with specific arguments for mean-field BSDEs, we prove that this mean-field BSDE gives the viscosity solution of a nonlocal PDE. The uniqueness of this viscosity solution is obtained for the space of continuous functions with polynomial growth. With the help of an example it is shown that for the nonlocal PDEs associated with mean-field BSDEs one cannot expect to have uniqueness in a larger space of continuous functions.     

A multivariate dispersion ordering based on quantiles more widely separated

A multivariate dispersion ordering based on quantiles more widely separated is defined. This new multivariate dispersion ordering is a generalization of the classic univariate version. If we vary the ordering of the components in the multivariate random variable then the comparison could not be possible. We provide a characterization using a multivariate expansion function. The relationship among various multivariate orderings is also considered. Finally, several examples illustrate the method of this paper.     

On the transitivity of the comonotonic and countermonotonic comparison of random variables

A recently proposed method for the pairwise comparison of arbitrary independent random variables results in a probabilistic relation. When restricted to discrete random variables uniformly distributed on finite multisets of numbers, this probabilistic relation expresses the winning probabilities between pairs of hypothetical dice that carry these numbers and exhibits a particular type of transitivity called dice-transitivity. In case these multisets have equal cardinality, two alternative methods for statistically comparing the ordered lists of the numbers on the faces of the dice have been studied recently: the comonotonic method based upon the comparison of the numbers of the same rank when the lists are in increasing order, and the countermonotonic method, also based upon the comparison of only numbers of the same rank but with the lists in opposite order. In terms of the discrete random variables associated to these lists, these methods each turn out to be related to a particular copula that joins the marginal cumulative distribution functions into a bivariate cumulative distribution function. The transitivity of the generated probabilistic relation has been completely characterized. In this paper, the list comparison methods are generalized for the purpose of comparing arbitrary random variables. The transitivity properties derived in the case of discrete uniform random variables are shown to be generic. Additionally, it is shown that for a collection of normal random variables, both comparison methods lead to a probabilistic relation that is at least moderately stochastic transitive.