Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 29 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The gradient bound makes a Lipschitz function, with , so its value at a Gaussian random variable is integrable and square integrable. The future Brownian increment is independent of and has distribution . Conditioning on the current location therefore givesThis is the Markov property expressed through the Brownian transition semigroup. In particular and .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 39 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Solving the geometric Brownian motion equation over givesThe Brownian increment is independent of and has a normal distribution with variance . Its exponential moment-generating function therefore givesThe required deterministic price function isThis includes , and . For and , it is continuous and strictly decreasing in , with range .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 25 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
If , then is -measurable. Independence and centring of the future Brownian increment make the desired left side zero; the time multiplier on the right is zero as well.
Suppose . Conditional on , write and . The pair is jointly normal and independent of , withApply the supplied Gaussian integration by parts formula to , treating the known as its parameter. This givesMultiply by the bounded -measurable and use the defining property of conditional expectation. Thus the required expectation identity holds for every , including intervals crossing or lying after .
The diffusion generator is . By the Feynman-Kac formula, the required conditional characteristic function solvesUse separation of variables in the form . Since and , the temporal factor satisfies the ordinary differential equationThus , andThis is bounded in absolute value by one, so it lies in the uniqueness class of the Feynman-Kac formula. As an independent check, integrating the stochastic differential equation gives . The independent Brownian increments have the normal distribution with mean zero and variance , yielding exactly the same characteristic function. For , the conditional distribution is a point mass at , and the same boxed expression still applies.
For , set . The candidate invariant probability law of a Markov process isTo prove invariance rather than merely guess a limiting probability distribution, initialize independently of future Brownian increments. Integrating the conditional characteristic function from part (i) against this centered normal distribution givesbecause . The uniqueness theorem for characteristic functions implies for every . This proves , as required. The time-homogeneous Markov property then also makes the process with this Ornstein-Uhlenbeck stationary initialization a strictly stationary process.