Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2004/iii/paper-30/6/c/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 30 6 c Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Under Wiener measure, the endpoint has normal distribution . For and , the Gaussian integral isComplete the square:Evaluating the centered Gaussian gives . With the preceding prefactor, the critical quadratic potential for the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck generator solution isThe initial value is one. As a direct PDE check, write , whereSince and , these identities give precisely the required time derivative and spatial operator.
For , this is finite for every ; at it reduces to . If the parameter is allowed to be negative, the expectation is finite only for . At and beyond that time the quadratic coefficient in the endpoint Gaussian integral is nonnegative, so the integral diverges. A nonnegative classical solution on the entire half-line cannot then exist: stopping the Feynman-Kac martingale in balls and discarding its nonnegative boundary term bounds any such solution below by the truncated path expectations; their limit is infinite. Thus the printed global positive-solution premise implicitly requires the nonnegative parameter convention.
New to topics? Read the docs here!