Weak second order S-ROCK methods for Stratonovich stochastic differential equations

It is well known that the numerical solution of stiff stochastic ordinary differential equations leads to a step size reduction when explicit methods are used. This has led to a plethora of implicit or semi-implicit methods with a wide variety of stability properties. However, for stiff stochastic problems in which the eigenvalues of a drift term lie near the negative real axis, such as those arising from stochastic partial differential equations, explicit methods with extended stability regions can be very effective. In the present paper our aim is to derive explicit Runge–Kutta schemes for non-commutative Stratonovich stochastic differential equations, which are of weak order two and which have large stability regions. This will be achieved by the use of a technique in Chebyshev methods for ordinary differential equations.     

Supplement: Efficient weak second order stochastic Runge-Kutta methods for non-commutative Stratonovich stochastic differential equations

This paper gives a modification of a class of stochastic Runge-Kutta methods proposed in a paper by Komori (2007). The slight modification can reduce the computational costs of the methods significantly.     

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 .     

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.     

Discretization and simulation of stochastic differential equations

We discuss both pathwise and mean-square convergence of several approximation schemes to stochastic differential equations. We then estimate the corresponding speeds of convergence, the error being either the mean square error or the error induced by the approximation on the value of the expectation of a functional of the solution. We finally give and comment on a few comparative simulation results.     

Split-step forward methods for stochastic differential equations

In this paper we discuss split-step forward methods for solving Itô stochastic differential equations (SDEs). Eight fully explicit methods, the drifting split-step Euler (DRSSE) method, the diffused split-step Euler (DISSE) method and the three-stage Milstein (TSM 1a-TSM 1f) methods, are constructed based on Euler-Maruyama method and Milstein method, respectively, in this paper. Their order of strong convergence is proved. The analysis of stability shows that the mean-square stability properties of the methods derived in this paper are improved on the original methods. The numerical results show the effectiveness of these methods in the pathwise approximation of Itô SDEs.     

Error expansion for the discretization of backward stochastic differential equations

We study the error induced by the time discretization of decoupled forward–backward stochastic differential equations (X,Y,Z)$(X,Y,Z)$. The forward component X$X$ is the solution of a Brownian stochastic differential equation and is approximated by a Euler scheme X^N$X^N$ with N$N$ time steps. The backward component is approximated by a backward scheme. Firstly, we prove that the errors (Y^N−Y,Z^N−Z)$(Y^N-Y,Z^N-Z)$ measured in the strong _Lp$L_p$-sense (p≥1$p\ge 1$) are of order N^−1/2$N^{-1/2}$ (this generalizes the results by Zhang [J. Zhang, A numerical scheme for BSDEs, The Annals of Applied Probability 14 (1) (2004) 459–488]). Secondly, an error expansion is derived: surprisingly, the first term is proportional to X^N−X$X^N-X$ while residual terms are of order N⁻¹$N^{-1}$.     

Runge-Kutta methods for jump-diffusion differential equations

In this paper we consider Runge-Kutta methods for jump-diffusion differential equations. We present a study of their mean-square convergence properties for problems with multiplicative noise. We are concerned with two classes of Runge-Kutta methods. First, we analyse schemes where the drift is approximated by a Runge-Kutta ansatz and the diffusion and jump part by a Maruyama term and second we discuss improved methods where mixed stochastic integrals are incorporated in the approximation of the next time step as well as the stage values of the Runge-Kutta ansatz for the drift. The second class of methods are specifically developed to improve the accuracy behaviour of problems with small noise. We present results showing when the implicit stochastic equations defining the stage values of the Runge-Kutta methods are uniquely solvable. Finally, simulation results illustrate the theoretical findings.     

A bound on the maximum strong order of stochastic Runge-Kutta methods for stochastic ordinary differential equations

In Burrage and Burrage [1] it was shown that by introducing a very general formulation for stochastic Runge-Kutta methods, the previous strong order barrier of order one could be broken without having to use higher derivative terms. In particular, methods of strong order 1.5 were developed in which a Stratonovich integral of order one and one of order two were present in the formulation. In this present paper, general order results are proven about the maximum attainable strong order of these stochastic Runge-Kutta methods (SRKs) in terms of the order of the Stratonovich integrals appearing in the Runge-Kutta formulation. In particular, it will be shown that if ans-stage SRK contains Stratonovich integrals up to orderp then the strong order of the SRK cannot exceed min{(p+1)/2, (s−1)/2},p≥2,s≥3 or 1 ifp=1.     

Wong-Zakai approximations for stochastic differential equations

The aim of this paper is to give a wide introduction to approximation concepts in the theory of stochastic differential equations. The paper is principally concerned with Zong-Zakai approximations. Our aim is to fill a gap in the literature caused by the complete lack of monographs on such approximation methods for stochastic differential equations; this will be the objective of the author's forthcoming book. First, we briefly review the currently-known approximation results for finite- and infinite-dimensional equations. Then the author's results are preceded by the introduction of two new forms of correction terms in infinite dimensions appearing in the Wong-Zakai approximations. Finally, these results are divided into four parts: for stochastic delay equations, for semilinear and nonlinear stochastic equations in abstract spaces, and for the Navier-Stokes equations. We emphasize in this paper results rather than proofs. Some applications are indicated.The author's research was partially supported by KBN grant No. 2 P301 052 03.     

Strong approximations of stochastic differential equations with jumps

This paper is a survey of strong discrete time approximations of jump-diffusion processes described by stochastic differential equations (SDEs). It also presents new results on strong discrete time approximations for the specific case of pure jump SDEs.     

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 Lax equivalence theorem for stochastic differential equations

In this paper, a stochastic mean square version of Lax’s equivalence theorem for Hilbert space valued stochastic differential equations with additive and multiplicative noise is proved. Definitions for consistency, stability, and convergence in mean square of an approximation of a stochastic differential equation are given and it is shown that these notions imply similar results as those known for approximations of deterministic partial differential equations. Examples show that the assumptions made are met by standard approximations.     

Numerical approach to differential equations of fractional order

In this paper, the variational iteration method and the Adomian decomposition method are implemented to give approximate solutions for linear and nonlinear systems of differential equations of fractional order. The two methods in applied mathematics can be used as alternative methods for obtaining analytic and approximate solutions for different types of differential equations. In these schemes, the solution takes the form of a convergent series with easily computable components. This paper presents a numerical comparison between the two methods for solving systems of fractional differential equations. Numerical results show that the two approaches are easy to implement and accurate when applied to differential equations of fractional order.     

Preserving exponential mean-square stability in the simulation of hybrid stochastic differential equations

Positive results are derived concerning the long time dynamics of fixed step size numerical simulations of stochastic differential equation systems with Markovian switching. Euler–Maruyama and implicit theta-method discretisations are shown to capture exponential mean-square stability for all sufficiently small time-steps under appropriate conditions. Moreover, the decay rate, as measured by the second moment Lyapunov exponent, can be reproduced arbitrarily accurately. New finite-time convergence results are derived as an intermediate step in this analysis. We also show, however, that the mean-square A-stability of the theta method does not carry through to this switching scenario. The proof techniques are quite general and hence have the potential to be applied to other numerical methods.     

Second order backward stochastic differential equations with quadratic growth

We extend the well posedness results for second order backward stochastic differential equations introduced by Soner, Touzi and Zhang (2012)  [31] to the case of a bounded terminal condition and a generator with quadratic growth in the z$z$ variable. More precisely, we obtain uniqueness through a representation of the solution inspired by stochastic control theory, and we obtain two existence results using two different methods. In particular, we obtain the existence of the simplest purely quadratic 2BSDEs through the classical exponential change, which allows us to introduce a quasi-sure version of the entropic risk measure. As an application, we also study robust risk-sensitive control problems. Finally, we prove a Feynman–Kac formula and a probabilistic representation for fully non-linear PDEs in this setting.     

Second order backward stochastic differential equations under a monotonicity condition

In a recent paper, Soner, Touzi and Zhang (2012) [19] have introduced a notion of second order backward stochastic differential equations (2BSDEs), which are naturally linked to a class of fully non-linear PDEs. They proved existence and uniqueness for a generator which is uniformly Lipschitz in the variables y$y$ and z$z$. The aim of this paper is to extend these results to the case of a generator satisfying a monotonicity condition in y$y$. More precisely, we prove existence and uniqueness for 2BSDEs with a generator which is Lipschitz in z$z$ and uniformly continuous with linear growth in y$y$. Moreover, we emphasize throughout the paper the major difficulties and differences due to the 2BSDE framework.     

The exponential integrator scheme for stochastic partial differential equations: Pathwise error bounds

We present an error analysis for the pathwise approximation of a general semilinear stochastic evolution equation in d dimensions. We discretise in space by a Galerkin method and in time by using a stochastic exponential integrator. We show that for spatially regular (smooth) noise the number of nodes needed for the noise can be reduced and that the rate of convergence degrades as the regularity of the noise reduces (and the noise becomes rougher).