Deterministic summable drift correction 2026-10-14
When the drift bound is a deterministic summable sequence , the displayed correction is a nonnegative supermartingale. Its added tail tends to zero, so the almost sure supermartingale convergence theorem directly implies finite almost sure convergence of . This simpler tail correction requires deterministic bounds; an arbitrary future random drift tail is not generally measurable at the current time.
Suppose is an integrable adapted process, is finite and adapted, and . The displayed correction is a nonnegative supermartingale: its next denominator is measurable at time , and its reciprocal is at most one. If almost surely, the denominators converge to a finite positive limit since . The almost sure supermartingale convergence theorem then gives finite almost sure convergence of . No integrability of the infinite product or of is needed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 29 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A convenient precise version is the almost sure submartingale convergence theorem: if is a real submartingale and , then converges almost surely to a finite integrable random variable. In particular the martingale convergence theorem applies to any martingale with . It asserts neither convergence in L1 nor preservation of the initial expected value without additional uniform integrability.
Here is a proof including the crossing estimate. Fix real , and let count completed upcrossings by time . Use a predictable indicator which holds one unit during each crossing attempt: enter when , exit when . Witheach completed trade gains at least , while the possible unfinished trade loses no more than . Hence . The submartingale property and give : the complementary predictable gains have nonnegative expected value. ThereforeThe right side is uniformly bounded, since . By the monotone convergence theorem, every rational interval has finitely many upcrossings almost surely. A real sequence whose lower and upper limits differ crosses some rational interval infinitely often, so the countable intersection of these events gives an extended-real limit. Furthermoreso . The Fatou lemma makes the limit finite and integrable, completing the proof. Applying this theorem to gives the almost sure supermartingale convergence theorem for nonnegative supermartingales.
For the given adapted multiplicative drift, putThe next denominator is -measurable, and makes integrable. ThusThe nonnegative supermartingale has a finite almost sure convergence limit . On the probability-one event where the specified series is finite,Consequently and the multiplicative correction for summable adapted drift givesThe argument does not require a finite expected value for the infinite product or for the total drift.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 28 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the natural filtration . Define the deterministic tail and put . This is nonnegative and integrable. Since ,Thus the deterministic summable drift correction produces a nonnegative supermartingale. The almost sure supermartingale convergence theorem gives a finite limit almost surely. Its finiteness is also reflected in the bound and Fatou's lemma, which gives . The convergence theorem follows from the upcrossing argument: bounded expected negative parts of rule out infinitely many crossings of rational intervals, and the expectation bound excludes an infinite limit.
Since , the required conclusion is . The original sequence need not itself be a supermartingale; subtracting the vanishing deterministic tail recovers it from one that is.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 28 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Work from time one; a finite initial prefix does not affect convergence. Fix a positive integer , and use the stopping time and budget from part (b). DefineIt is nonnegative. For each finite , the stopped variable is integrable: it is bounded by the finite sum , and the budget is bounded by .
The stopped increment of isTaking conditional expectations, the assumed drift bound givesThe last term is bounded by ; no integrability assumption on the unlocalized has been used. Its contribution is exactly cancelled by the budget decrement from part (b), givingThus is an integrable nonnegative supermartingale. By the almost sure supermartingale convergence theorem it has a finite almost-sure limit. The bounded decreasing budget has a finite pathwise limit as well, so converges to a finite limit almost surely.
Take the intersection of these probability-one convergence events over all positive integers . On the further probability-one event , choose an integer strictly larger than that total. Then , so the stopped sequence is the original one. ConsequentlyThis proves supermartingale convergence with summable adapted drift under almost-sure summability alone; it does not require .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 32 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The almost sure supermartingale convergence theorem applies to the -bounded supermartingale . Hence almost surely, and the Fatou lemma gives . Take the version of obtained from the sequence, so it is measurable for . SetThe tower property of conditional expectation makes a martingale, and the uniform integrability of conditional expectations makes it uniformly integrable. Explicitly, with , , and , we have , soFirst choose large, then large. This proves uniform integrability uniformly in .
The uniformly integrable martingale convergence theorem gives a limit both almost surely and in . For and , . Passing to the limit and then extending from the algebra to identifies almost surely. Finally,Thus with uniformly integrable and a supermartingale tending almost surely to zero. The terminal decomposition of an L1-bounded supermartingale does not require or in . Indeed, for equal to the negative of the fair-coin doubling martingale, , , and is negative and has constant absolute mean one.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 201 2 b Solution 2026-09-28
For every rational , part a implies almost surely. The intersection of these probability-one events over the countable collection of rational pairs still has probability one. On this event, ifsome rational interval lies strictly between them, forcing infinitely many upcrossings, a contradiction. Thus has an extended limit almost surely.
The limit cannot be on a set of positive probability: Fatou lemma and the supermartingale property giveNonnegativity excludes . Therefore converges almost surely to a finite random variable, proving the almost sure supermartingale convergence theorem in this case.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 201 1 c Solution 2026-09-28
Set . Since , the tower property of conditional expectation givesso is a nonnegative supermartingale. The almost sure supermartingale convergence theorem gives almost surely, and Fatou lemma yields . Hence almost surely; because , convergence also holds in .
Finally,The second term tends to zero almost surely and in by part b. The first does so by the preceding argument, proving the moving-variable conditional-expectation convergence.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 201 2 b Solution 2026-09-28
Let . By the Markov property,The events decrease to the event that the walk visits zero infinitely often, which has probability zero by the stated transience assumption. HencePart a and the almost sure supermartingale convergence theorem give an almost-sure limit . By Fatou lemma, , so almost surely.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 201 2 Solution 2026-09-28
The almost sure supermartingale convergence theorem says that a supermartingale whose negative parts have uniformly bounded expectations converges almost surely to a finite integrable limit. In particular, every nonnegative supermartingale converges almost surely.
Here the process is uniformly bounded, say . Let , whose existence follows from the theorem. The dominated convergence theorem then givesThe limit on the right also exists directly because the expectations of a supermartingale form a decreasing sequence.