Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/iii/paper-24/3/b/solution

Write and . Path continuity gives . Stop the martingale at the bounded stopping time and apply the optional stopping theorem:
By the monotone convergence theorem, , so almost surely. Path continuity then gives . The dominated convergence theorem for the bounded variables shows
Next stop the quartic Hermite polynomial martingale from part (a), again only at . Its expectation is zero, so
Monotone convergence proves , establishing the needed second-moment integrability before the final passage to the limit. Since and , dominated convergence gives
Consequently the Brownian symmetric interval-exit moments are
To obtain the Laplace transform of symmetric Brownian interval-exit time, put . The Exponential martingale for Brownian motion shows that
is a martingale with . Bounded-time stopping gives . Its stopped values are bounded by , so dominated convergence applies as . Since , it yields
Every use of stopping at has thus been justified through bounded stopping and an explicit integrability or domination argument.

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