Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/iii/paper-27/5/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 27 5 a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write and . Since and , the characteristic function expansion at zero is . Indeed, for real , and . The dominated convergence theorem, with dominating variable , proves the expansion after taking expectations. Initially omit the endpoint interpolation terms. The integer-time increments involve disjoint sets of independent steps, so their joint characteristic function isHere . Taking the logarithm near givesThis proves the claimed limit for the integer-time approximation.
At a fixed time , the omitted endpoint term is , and . A fixed linear combination of the errors in the increments therefore tends to zero in , by the triangle inequality and Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, even when two endpoint terms share a step. Since , restoring interpolation changes the joint characteristic function by a quantity tending to zero. HenceThe limit is the joint characteristic function of independent centered normal increments with the indicated variances. By Lévy continuity theorem, the increment vectors converge in distribution to Brownian increment vectors. The value vector is obtained by the fixed invertible triangular map of cumulative sums; thus the continuous mapping theorem gives convergence of to . This proves every required finite-dimensional distribution limit. The finite fourth moment is not needed for this part; it will give tightness in part (b).
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