Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2011/ii/paper-3/28k/solution

The stage cost is . The finite-horizon Bellman equation is
Inductively write . Completing the square in gives the unique optimal first control
and
For , the recurrence map satisfies and
Thus increases and is bounded above by two. Its limit solves , or ; nonnegativity forces . In particular , and indeed this recurrence already identifies the limit.
For the proposed policy, induction on the state equation gives and . The stage cost is , so the infinite geometric series gives
This supplies an admissible policy attaining the lower bound:
The last formula is the requested closed-loop control: it uses the observed current state rather than an initial-state schedule.

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