Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 202 4 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Under the corrected hypothesis, is a continuous local martingale with , , and almost surely. The Dambis-Dubins-Schwarz theorem states that, for such a process,defines a standard Brownian motion relative to the filtration , and . The divergence of the quadratic variation ensures every is finite, so no extension of the probability space is needed. Here is continuous and strictly increasing because its derivative is , so the inverse is particularly straightforward. Consequently,The constructed Brownian motion need not be independent of its random clock. Under the literal PDF assumptions need not be a local martingale, as the counterexample in part (a) shows, so this Dambis-Dubins-Schwarz theorem conclusion cannot be asserted without the correction.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 202 5 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Integrating the stopped stochastic differential equation for and then taking a common full-probability event for a localizing sequence gives, simultaneously for every ,The integral is finite on each compact time interval before : the continuous positive path has a positive minimum there. Its integrand is nonnegative, soThis is a pathwise comparison using the same Brownian motion, not a comparison of independent distributions. Continuity lets the identities established initially at rational stopped times hold on the entire stochastic interval.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 203 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Put on . This is a harmonic function, tends to zero at infinity, and is bounded. To justify the boundary behavior without requiring a locally connected space as its boundary, let . Its expansion at infinity implies that bounded cannot have . If approaches a finite point of and had a subsequential limit inside , continuity of would force that point to lie inside , a contradiction. Thus boundary degeneration under a mapping-out function gives . Consequently extends continuously to the finite boundary with value .
Let be planar Brownian motion started at , and its Brownian exit time from . This time is finite almost surely: it is at most the first time the imaginary coordinate, a one-dimensional Brownian motion, hits zero. By the Itô formula, is a bounded martingale. The optional stopping theorem and dominated convergence theorem therefore giveBoundedness is important here: directly stopping the unbounded imaginary-coordinate martingale would require an unjustified uniform integrability assertion.
At , the Laurent series gives . HenceThe sign follows because the exit point lies on . This proves the Brownian representation of half-plane capacity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 203 4 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Before the Loewner swallowing time , put and . The Itô formula applied to the holomorphic logarithm in the complex upper half-plane givesTaking imaginary parts yields the SLE angle processFor the drift vanishes, sois a continuous local martingale. Since , every localized stopped version is a bounded true martingale. After resolving the lifetime issue below, the dominated convergence theorem applied to conditional expectations removes localization and gives a true bounded martingale.
For completeness, there is no finite lifetime ambiguity for a fixed interior in this parameter range. The preceding Bessel process and Conformal Markov property of SLE argument gives a simple trace staying in the interior, so no point is swallowed in a disconnected pocket. If were finite, the trace would have to reach , forcing the Loewner conformal radius to tend to zero by the Koebe quarter theorem. ButThe Dambis-Dubins-Schwarz theorem says that a bounded continuous local martingale cannot have infinite quadratic variation before a finite terminal time: that would require a Brownian motion to stay in a bounded interval for all clock times. Therefore cannot tend to zero at a finite , a contradiction. Thus almost surely for each fixed . This proves the SLE4 angle martingale assertion: the angle is a bounded continuous martingale. In particular . The upper-half-plane branch of the argument is used throughout.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 316 4 vi Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Write for the comet's inverse semi-major axis. Its specific orbital energy is , so escape corresponds to . The printed quantityhas dimensions of inverse length. It cannot, literally, be a standard variance-per-time diffusion coefficient. Interpret it as the characteristic root mean square step in per periapsis passage, as in a discrete comet energy diffusion model.
If successive kicks are unbiased and uncorrelated, after passages the root mean square displacement is . Starting at gives , hence . Taking the characteristic interval to be the initial orbital period givesHere . In particular, for this is . Without specifying the initial semi-major axis and the time per statistically independent encounter, the PDF cannot determine a unique time.
With the convention , the actual diffusion coefficient would be . The estimate requires , orbit crossing, and sufficient phase decorrelation. Near escape the orbital period grows, and resonant or secular correlations invalidate the simple constant-step clock. This is a characteristic diffusion scale, not an exact mean first-passage time: even an unbiased Brownian motion on an unbounded half-line has an infinite mean time to reach its absorbing endpoint.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 27J a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
A standard Brownian motion is a real process with almost surely, continuous paths, independent increments, and for . If a filtration is specified, require adaptedness and independence of each increment from the past sigma-algebra. Thus the increments are centered Gaussian with variance equal to elapsed time.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 201 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
A standard one-dimensional Brownian motion is a real-valued stochastic process satisfying almost surely, having continuous paths almost surely, and having independent increments withHere is the normal distribution with zero expected value and variance . Thus the increments are also stationary increments.
If Brownian motion is defined relative to a specified filtration , additionally require that it is an adapted process and that is independent of . For its natural filtration, this follows from independent increments. These are the defining properties of standard Brownian motion.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 201 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For any finite list , the random vector has a multivariate normal distribution, since it is a linear image of a vector of Brownian motion coordinates. The Brownian covariance kernel and linearity of covariance giveThe independence of uncorrelated jointly normal variables implies that is independent of . Extending from finite-coordinate cylinder events by independence extended from generating pi-systems provesThus the Brownian bridge is independent of its endpoint. Its covariance kernel is , confirming that is the standard Brownian bridge. This is the Brownian bridge independence from its endpoint property.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 201 4 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Put . By independence of the two Brownian motions, is a standard Brownian motion: its independent increments have the normal distribution with variance equal to elapsed time. The stopping time is the first time hits or .
To justify finiteness without presupposing the desired hitting probability, each unit-time increment of has the normal distribution . An increment of absolute value greater than forces exit from if the path was inside at its start. These independent increments give , where . Hence almost surely.
The stopped martingale lies in . The optional stopping theorem at gives , and the bounded convergence theorem gives . Writing , path continuity gives . Therefore, as in Brownian exit from an interval,
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 201 4 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Fix an integer and consider the independent incrementsFor fixed these are independent and identically distributed random variables with the normal distribution , so . The second Borel-Cantelli lemma gives for infinitely many , almost surely. Intersecting these probability-one events over the countably many preserves probability one.
On any path in this intersection, uniform continuity on would give some such that whenever . Choosing with contradicts the existence of an increment . Therefore Brownian paths are not uniformly continuous on the half-line:The event is measurable: for continuous paths, uniform continuity can be tested by countably many pairs of nonnegative rational numbers and tolerances . Brownian motion has uniform continuity on every compact time interval, but almost surely fails it on the whole half-line.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 201 5 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For a stopping time of a Brownian filtration, define the reflected stochastic processThe Brownian reflection at a stopping time form of the Brownian reflection principle states that is again standard Brownian motion. If , leave the path unchanged; the second branch is used only when .
For an almost surely finite , the Strong Markov property says that is a fresh Brownian motion independent of . Its negative has the same probability distribution, so reflecting the future preserves the full path probability distribution. Allowing follows by applying this argument to and restricting to each fixed finite time interval.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 202 1 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For deterministic step functions, define directly from Brownian motion incrementswith the left endpoint of the first interval and outside the listed intervals. The printed endpoint list omits ; the intended convention is , usually .
Given finitely many observation times, refine the deterministic partition of an interval to include all observation times and all . Every is a linear combination of the same finite family of independent centered normal Brownian motion increments. Thus every linear combination of is normal, including possibly a degenerate constant: is a Gaussian process. By independence, only increments in the common interval contribute to the covariance, givingThe same calculation for two step functions proves, rather than assumes, the Itô isometryFor , choose deterministic step functions in the L2 space. This identity makes a Cauchy sequence in the L2 space; the Riesz-Fischer theorem defines by mean-square convergence, independently of the approximation. The covariance formula passes to the limit by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. For finitely many times and coefficients , the characteristic functions converge toso the extension remains a Gaussian process.
For completeness, the construction has a continuous version. Each approximating is a martingale, directly by the centered independent increments of Brownian motion; the Doob L2 maximal inequality givesTo prove the inequality used here without assuming Itô integral properties, a continuous martingale satisfies , by conditioning at the first crossing on finite deterministic grids and then using continuity; integrating in and using the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality yields . A sufficiently fast subsequence therefore converges uniformly almost surely on every compact time interval, giving the continuous version of the stochastic integral.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 202 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The stochastic process starts from zero and has continuous paths. Its increments on disjoint intervals are independent, since the corresponding pairs of Brownian motion increments are independent, andThus is a standard Brownian motion, including . Here the intended filtration is the joint natural filtration, or another filtration relative to which the pair is a two-dimensional Brownian motion; independence of their path laws alone would not justify arbitrary extra information in a larger filtration.