Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/iii/paper-201/2/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 201 2 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For , the increments have exponential momentThus is an exponential martingale of a random walk relative to the natural filtration. We justify its stopping limit. From any surviving state in , a block of successive increments all equal to forces an exit. The block has probability , independently of the preceding increments. The geometric tail bound from a uniform escape probability givesso is finite almost surely and has finite expectation.
At the lower exit exactly; at the upper exit is either or . Before exit the same overall bound holds. Hence is bounded by , uniformly in . The bounded optional stopping theorem gives , and the dominated convergence theorem now yieldsAllowing the upper overshoot by one is essential; the terminal state need not equal on upper exit.
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