Approximation via regularization of the local time of semimartingales and Brownian motion

Through a regularization procedure, a few schemes for approximation of the local time of a large class of continuous semimartingales and reversible diffusions are given. The convergence holds in the ucp sense. In the case of standard Brownian motion, we have been able to bound the rate of convergence in L²$L^2$, and to establish the a.s. convergence of some of our schemes.     

The law of the Euler scheme for stochastic differential equations

Summary We study the approximation problem ofE f(X _T ) byE f(X _T ⁿ ), where (X _t ) is the solution of a stochastic differential equation, (X _T ⁿ ) is defined by the Euler discretization scheme with stepT/n, andf is a given function. For smoothf's, Talay and Tubaro have shown that the errorE f(X _T ) –f(X _T ⁿ ) can be expanded in powers of 1/n, which permits to construct Romberg extrapolation precedures to accelerate the convergence rate. Here, we prove that the expansion exists also whenf is only supposed measurable and bounded, under an additional nondegeneracy condition of Hörmander type for the infinitesimal generator of (X _t ): to obtain this result, we use the stochastic variations calculus. In the second part of this work, we will consider the density of the law ofX _T ⁿ and compare it to the density of the law ofX _T .     

General change of variable formulas for semimartingales in one and finite dimensions

Summary A general one dimensional change of variables formula is established for continuous semimartingales which extends the famous Meyer-Tanaka formula. The inspiration comes from an application arising in stochastic finance theory. For functions mapping ⁿ to , a general change of variables formula is established for arbitrary semimartingales, where the usualC ² hypothesis is relaxed.Supported in part by NSF grant No. DMS-9103454Supported in part by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation award for US-Chile Scientific CooperationSupported in part by FONDECYT, grant 92-0881     

Using FFT-based techniques in polynomial and matrix computations: recent advances and applicatons

Computations with univariate polynomials, like the evaluation of product, quotient, remainder, greatest common divisor, etc, are closely related to linear algebra computations performed with structured matrices having the Toeplitz-like or the Hankel-like structures.

The discrete Fourier transform, and the FFT algorithms for its computation, constitute a powerful tool for the design and analysis of fast algorithms for solving problems involving polynomials and structured matrices.

We recall the main correlations between polynomial and matrix computations and present two recent results in this field: in particular, we show how Fourier methods can speed up the solution of a wide class of problems arising in queueing theory where certain Markov chains, defined by infinite block Toeplitz matrices in generalized Hessenberg form, must be solved. Moreover, we present a new method for the numerical factorization of polynomials based on a matrix generalization of Koenig's theorem. This method, that relies on the evaluation/interpolation technique at the Fourier points, reduces the problem of polynomial factorization to the computation of the LU decomposition of a banded Toeplitz matrix with its rows and columns suitably permuted. Numerical experiments that show the effectiveness of our algorithms are presented     

Local times of ranked continuous semimartingales

Given a finite collection of continuous semimartingales, we derive a semimartingale decomposition of the corresponding ranked (order-statistics) processes. We apply the decomposition to extend the theory of equity portfolios generated by ranked market weights to the case where the stock values admit triple points.     

Forward and reverse representations for Markov chains

In this paper we carry over the concept of reverse probabilistic representations developed in Milstein, Schoenmakers, Spokoiny [G.N. Milstein, J.G.M. Schoenmakers, V. Spokoiny, Transition density estimation for stochastic differential equations via forward–reverse representations, Bernoulli 10 (2) (2004) 281–312] for diffusion processes, to discrete time Markov chains. We outline the construction of reverse chains in several situations and apply this to processes which are connected with jump–diffusion models and finite state Markov chains. By combining forward and reverse representations we then construct transition density estimators for chains which have root-N$N$ accuracy in any dimension and consider some applications.     

Brownian charges around loops

Summary Let (X _t ⁿ ) be a Poisson sequence of independent Brownian motions in ^d ,d3; Let be a compact oriented submanifold of d, of dimensiond–2 and volume ; let t be the sum of the windings of (X _s ⁿ , 0st) around ; then t/t converges in law towards a Cauchy variable of parameter /2. A similar result is valid when the winding is replaced by the integral of a harmonic 1-form in ^d .     

The composite Milstein methods for the numerical solution of Ito stochastic differential equations

In this paper, we present the composite Milstein methods for the strong solution of Ito stochastic differential equations. These methods are a combination of semi-implicit and implicit Milstein methods. We give a criterion for choosing either the implicit or the semi-implicit scheme at each step of our numerical solution. The stability and convergence properties are investigated and discussed for the linear test equation. The convergence properties for the nonlinear case are shown numerically to be the same as the linear case. The stability properties of the composite Milstein methods are found to be more superior compared to those of the Milstein, the Euler and even better than the composite Euler method. This superiority in stability makes the methods a better candidate for the solution of stiff SDEs.     

Brownian processes in infinite dimension

LetE be a locally convex space endowed with a centered gaussian measure . We construct a continuousE-valued brownian motionW _t with covariance . The main goal is to solve the SDE of Langevin type dX _t= dW _t–AX _t wherea andA are unbounded operators of the Cameron-Martin space of (E, ). It appears as the unique linear measurable extension of the solution of the classical Cauchy problemv(t)= u–Av(t).     

An inverse first-passage problem for one-dimensional diffusions with random starting point

We consider an inverse first-passage time (FPT) problem for a homogeneous one-dimensional diffusion X(t), starting from a random position η. Let S(t) be an assigned boundary, such that P(η≥S(0))=1, and F an assigned distribution function. The problem consists of finding the distribution of η such that the FPT of X(t) below S(t) has distribution F. We obtain some generalizations of the results of Jackson et al., 2009, which refer to the case when X(t) is Brownian motion and S(t) is a straight line across the origin.     

Characterization of a regular family of semimartingales by line integrals

A characterization of a regular family of semimatingales as a maximal fasmily of processes with respect of which one can define a stochastic line integral with natural continuity properties is given.     

Strong predictor–corrector Euler–Maruyama methods for stochastic differential equations with Markovian switching

In this paper numerical methods for solving stochastic differential equations with Markovian switching (SDEwMSs) are developed by pathwise approximation. The proposed family of strong predictor–corrector Euler–Maruyama methods is designed to overcome the propagation of errors during the simulation of an approximate path. This paper not only shows the strong convergence of the numerical solution to the exact solution but also reveals the order of the error under some conditions on the coefficient functions. A natural analogue of the p$p$-stability criterion is studied. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the computational efficiency of the new predictor–corrector Euler–Maruyama approximation.     

Large deviation principle for stochastic integrals and stochastic differential equations driven by infinite-dimensional semimartingales

The paper concerns itself with establishing large deviation principles for a sequence of stochastic integrals and stochastic differential equations driven by general semimartingales in infinite-dimensional settings. The class of semimartingales considered is broad enough to cover Banach space-valued semimartingales and the martingale random measures. Simple usable expressions for the associated rate functions are given in this abstract setup. As illustrated through several concrete examples, the results presented here provide a new systematic approach to the study of large deviation principles for a sequence of Markov processes.     

Stochastic optimization theory of backward stochastic differential equations with jumps and viscosity solutions of Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equations

In this paper we study stochastic optimal control problems with jumps with the help of the theory of Backward Stochastic Differential Equations (BSDEs) with jumps. We generalize the results of Peng [S. Peng, BSDE and stochastic optimizations, in: J. Yan, S. Peng, S. Fang, L. Wu, Topics in Stochastic Analysis, Science Press, Beijing, 1997 (Chapter 2) (in Chinese)] by considering cost functionals defined by controlled BSDEs with jumps. The application of BSDE methods, in particular, the use of the notion of stochastic backward semigroups introduced by Peng in the above-mentioned work allows a straightforward proof of a dynamic programming principle for value functions associated with stochastic optimal control problems with jumps. We prove that the value functions are the viscosity solutions of the associated generalized Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equations with integral-differential operators. For this proof, we adapt Peng’s BSDE approach, given in the above-mentioned reference, developed in the framework of stochastic control problems driven by Brownian motion to that of stochastic control problems driven by Brownian motion and Poisson random measure.     

Convergence of the variants of the Chebyshev–Halley iteration family under the Hölder condition of the first derivative

The present paper is concerned with the convergence problem of the variants of the Chebyshev–Halley iteration family with parameters for solving nonlinear operator equations in Banach spaces. Under the assumption that the first derivative of the operator satisfies the Hölder condition of order p$p$, a convergence criterion of order 1+p$1+p$ for the iteration family is established. An application to a nonlinear Hammerstein integral equation of the second kind is provided.     

Forward,backward and symmetric stochastic integration

Summary We define three types of non causal stochastic integrals: forward, backward and symmetric. Our approach consists in approximating the integrator. Two optics are considered: the first one is based on traditional usual stochastic calculus and the second one on Wiener distributions.     

A mixed-step algorithm for the approximation of the stationary regime of a diffusion

In some recent papers, some procedures based on some weighted empirical measures related to decreasing-step Euler schemes have been investigated to approximate the stationary regime of a diffusion (possibly with jumps) for a class of functionals of the process. This method is efficient but needs the computation of the function at each step. To reduce the complexity of the procedure (especially for functionals), we propose in this paper to study a new scheme, called the mixed-step scheme, where we only keep some regularly time-spaced values of the Euler scheme. Our main result is that, when the coefficients of the diffusion are smooth enough, this alternative does not change the order of the rate of convergence of the procedure. We also investigate a Richardson–Romberg method to speed up the convergence and show that the variance of the original algorithm can be preserved under a uniqueness assumption for the invariant distribution of the “duplicated” diffusion, condition which is extensively discussed in the paper. Finally, we conclude by giving sufficient “asymptotic confluence” conditions for the existence of a smooth solution to a discrete version of the associated Poisson equation, condition which is required to ensure the rate of convergence results.     

Entrywise perturbation theory and error analysis for Markov chains

Summary Grassmann, Taksar, and Heyman introduced a variant of Gaussian climination for computing the steady-state vector of a Markov chain. In this paper we prove that their algorithm is stable, and that the problem itself is well-conditioned, in the sense of entrywise relative error. Thus the algorithm computes each entry of the steady-state vector with low relative error. Even the small steady-state probabilities are computed accurately. The key to our analysis is to focus on entrywise relative error in both the data and the computed solution, rather than making the standard assessments of error based on norms. Our conclusions do not depend on any Condition numbers for the problem.This work was supported by NSF under grants DMS-9106207 and DDM-9203134     

Local time–space stochastic calculus for Lévy processes

We develop a stochastic calculus on the plane with respect to the local times of a large class of Lévy processes. We can then extend to these Lévy processes an Itô formula that was established previously for Brownian motion. Our method provides also a multidimensional version of the formula. We show that this formula generates many “Itô formulas” that fit various problems. In the special case of a linear Brownian motion, we recover a recently established Itô formula that involves local times on curves. This formula is already used in financial mathematics.     

Exponential stability of numerical solutions for a class of stochastic age-dependent capital system with Poisson jumps

Recently, numerical solutions of stochastic differential equations have received a great deal of attention. Numerical approximation schemes are invaluable tools for exploring their properties. In this paper, we introduce a class of stochastic age-dependent (vintage) capital system with Poisson jumps. We also give the discrete approximate solution with an implicit Euler scheme in time discretization. Using Gronwall’s lemma and Barkholder-Davis-Gundy’s inequality, some criteria are obtained for the exponential stability of numerical solutions to the stochastic age-dependent capital system with Poisson jumps. It is proved that the numerical approximation solutions converge to the analytic solutions of the equations under the given conditions, where information on the order of approximation is provided. These error bounds imply strong convergence as the timestep tends to zero. A numerical example is used to illustrate the theoretical results.