Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-stochastic-differential-equations-and-brownian-motion-in-complex-analysis-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2007/b/6/solution
Past exam of the stochastic differential equations and Brownian motion in complex analysis course of the University of Oxford 2007 B 6 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
For a continuous local martingale starting at zero, Burkholder-Davis-Gundy inequalities compare its maximal size with its quadratic-variation clock:They remain valid with infinite values, by stopping and passage to the limit. Their significance here is that the horizontal and vertical martingales share the same stopping-time clock, so one coordinate's maximum can determine moments of the other and of the clock. For a process started away from zero, first subtract its initial value.
Starting at , the vertical coordinate starts at one and is stopped on first hitting zero. For , it reaches level before zero with probability , by optional stopping theorem of one-dimensional Brownian motion on . ThusThe tail integral formula givesand it diverges for .
The stopped martingale has quadratic variation . Its maximum in absolute value is , between and , so it has precisely the same finite positive moments as . BDG therefore gives exactly for . Applying BDG to , which starts at zero and has the same clock, yieldsTaking the displayed or powers does not change finiteness. In particular the exit time is almost surely finite while its mean is infinite.
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