Reflecting a Brownian motion after a stopping time by for , and leaving it unchanged for , preserves its path probability distribution. For finite , the Strong Markov property and symmetry of the future Brownian motion prove this. When , the path is left unchanged.
If is the first exit time of planar Brownian motion from , then
It follows by applying the optional sampling theorem for a supermartingale to the harmonic function .
Brownian scaling Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
For every , the process is again Brownian motion.
For standard three-dimensional Brownian motion started at with ,
The harmonic function gives a bounded stopped martingale in the annulus, so the optional stopping theorem gives the formula. Taking yields for . This limit uses path continuity on the finite interval before a hit, rather than assuming transience to prove transience.
For standard Brownian motion started at zero, let be its first exit from , with . Bounded-time stopping of first proves integrability of the exit time and then gives its mean . Stopping the quartic Hermite polynomial martingale gives a uniform bound on , proving second-moment integrability before passing to the limit. The resulting second moment is and the variance is .
For standard Brownian motion and deterministic , the process , , is standard Brownian motion on that interval in its own natural filtration. Disjoint reversed time intervals give independent centered normal increments with the correct variances. This is different from an arbitrary random-time shift, which can depend on future data. It is also different from the time inversion of Brownian motion transformation .
For standard Brownian motion, the Brownian reflection principle bounds the probability that its maximum up to exceeds by . This is summable for every and . The Borel-Cantelli first lemma controls these geometric times, monotonicity of the normalizing function controls the intervening times, and countable choices , give the bound. Equality requires a separate lower-bound proof.
An unpinned uniform height driven by Gaussian white noise is Brownian motion. Its variance grows as and it has no stationary distribution on the real height axis for . Indeed, a stationary characteristic function would obey , incompatible with continuity at zero. Quotienting out the uniform height can still leave stationary shape fluctuations.
Brownian zero set Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The zero set of one-dimensional Brownian motion is almost surely closed, uncountable, and has zero Lebesgue measure. The last fact follows from Tonelli theorem because for every .
Cameron-Martin theorem for a linear drift Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
For the Cameron-Martin space of Wiener measure path , the Cameron-Martin theorem says that translation of Brownian motion by this linear function changes its law through time by the density
Cauchy process Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
The standard symmetric Cauchy process is the Lévy process with Lévy characteristic exponent . Its time- distribution for is the Cauchy distribution of location zero and scale . It can be constructed by subordination of a Lévy process: evaluate an independent standard Brownian motion at the Brownian first-passage subordinator, whose Laplace exponent is .
Suppose is a continuous local martingale starting at zero, with conditionally symmetric increments, and terminal conditional expectations have continuous martingale versions. Then
To prove this, set . Symmetry makes a martingale, and the Itô product rule gives . Consequently is a bounded local martingale, hence a martingale. Evaluating at the endpoints proves the formula. If also for all , the values of the bracket Laplace transform at and force almost surely. Continuity and the Lévy characterization of Brownian motion then identify as Brownian motion.
The circle-average process of a zero-boundary Gaussian free field in the unit disc has the law of a constant multiple of Brownian motion. It is a continuous centered Gaussian process with stationary increments and independent increments and starts at zero.
Complex exponential of two orthogonal Brownian motions Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
For orthogonal continuous local martingales that are standard Brownian motions, the real part and imaginary part are continuous local martingales. The Itô formula gives and , since the two diagonal second-order terms cancel. Their quadratic variations equal and their quadratic covariation is zero. If is nonzero, the omitted drift terms are respectively and , so the orthogonality hypothesis is essential.
For an adapted continuous process starting at zero, the displayed conditional characteristic function identifies every increment as and makes it independent of the preceding sigma-field. Multiply by the indicator of an event in that sigma-field, then use the uniqueness theorem for characteristic functions for finite measures. Thus the process is a Brownian motion in the given filtration.
If the entire integrand path is independent of the integrating Brownian motion, conditioning on that path gives a deterministic square-integrable integrand. The Itô isometry and Gaussian approximation by simple integrands show that its stochastic integral is conditionally centered normal with the stated variance. A strictly positive finite conditional variance implies that the unconditional distribution has no atoms.
Conformal invariance of planar Brownian motion Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-05
If is planar Brownian motion in a domain and is a nonconstant holomorphic function, then , run with the clock , is planar Brownian motion in until the relevant exit time. In particular, conformal maps transport harmonic measure between planar domains.