A Maximum Principle for Stochastic Control with Partial Information

Abstract

We study the problem of optimal control of a jump diffusion, that is, a process which is the solution of a stochastic differential equation driven by Lévy processes. It is required that the control process is adapted to a given subfiltration of the filtration generated by the underlying Lévy processes. We prove two maximum principles (one sufficient and one necessary) for this type of partial information control. The results are applied to a partial information mean-variance portfolio selection problem in finance.     

Optimal Approximation of the Second Iterated Integral of Brownian Motion

Abstract

In this article, a theorem is proved that describes the optimal approximation (in the L ²(?)-sense) of the second iterated integral of a standard two-dimensional Wiener process, W, by a function of finitely many elements of the Gaussian Hilbert space generated by W. This theorem has some interesting corollaries: First of all, it implies that Euler's method has the optimal rate of strong convergence among all algorithms that depend solely on linear functionals of the Wiener process, W; second, it shows that the approximation of the second iterated integral based on Karhunen–Loève expansion of the Brownian bridge is asymptotically optimal.     

Parabolic Ito Equations with Mixed in Time Conditions

Abstract

We study linear stochastic partial differential equations of parabolic type with special boundary conditions in time. The standard Cauchy condition at the initial time is replaced by a condition that mixes the values of the solution at different times, including the terminal time and continuously distributed times. Uniqueness, solvability and regularity results for the solutions are obtained.     

How Fast Is the Bandit?

Abstract

In this article we investigate the rate of convergence of the so-called two-armed bandit algorithm. The behavior of the algorithm turns out to be highly non standard: no central limit theorem, possible occurrence of two different rates of convergence with positive probability.     

Brownian Motion Indexed by a Time Scale

In this article, we generalize Wiener's existence result for one-dimensional Brownian motion by constructing a suitable continuous stochastic process where the index set is a time scale. We construct a countable dense subset of a time scale and use it to prove a generalized version of the Kolmogorov–?entsov theorem. As a corollary, we obtain a local Hölder-continuity result for the sample paths of generalized Brownian motion indexed by a time scale.     

The Milstein Scheme for Stochastic Delay Differential Equations Without Using Anticipative Calculus

The Milstein scheme is the simplest nontrivial numerical scheme for stochastic differential equations with a strong order of convergence one. The scheme has been extended to the stochastic delay differential equations but the analysis of the convergence is technically complicated due to anticipative integrals in the remainder terms. This article employs an elementary method to derive the Milstein scheme and its first order strong rate of convergence for stochastic delay differential equations.     

Parabolic Schemes for Quasi-Linear Parabolic and Hyperbolic PDEs via Stochastic Calculus

We consider two quasi-linear initial-value Cauchy problems on ? ^d : a parabolic system and an hyperbolic one. They both have a first order non-linearity of the form φ(t, x, u)·?u, a forcing term h(t, x, u) and an initial condition u ₀ ∈ L ^∞(? ^d ) ∩ C ^∞(? ^d ), where φ (resp. h) is smooth and locally (resp. globally) Lipschitz in u uniformly in (t, x). We prove the existence of a unique global strong solution for the parabolic system. We show the existence of a unique local strong solution for the hyperbolic one and we give a lower bound regarding its blow up time. In both cases, we do not use weak solution theory but a direct construction based on parabolic schemes studied via a stochastic approach and a regularity result for sequences of parabolic operators. The result on the hyperbolic problem is performed by means of a non-classical vanishing viscosity method.