For a centered Gaussian process with covariance function , twice continuous differentiability of and differentiability of at zero imply a differentiable modification of a stochastic process on compact intervals. The even function satisfies , so the mean-square derivative has variance of increments . A normal distribution has fourth absolute moment three times the square of its variance, so Kolmogorov continuity theorem gives a continuous modification of . The mean-square fundamental theorem of calculus identifies its path integral with a modification of a stochastic process of . This argument does not require integrability of or continuity of .
Fractional Brownian motion 2026-10-06
A fractional Brownian motion with Hurst exponent is a centered Gaussian process with the displayed standard covariance function and a continuous modification. Its increment variance is . Some sources omit the factor , multiplying the process by ; the corresponding increment variance is then . Its canonical pseudometric of a Gaussian process is proportional to , which gives finite expected value of its absolute supremum on compact intervals through the Dudley entropy integral.
Mean-square fundamental theorem of calculus 2026-10-06
If an L2 space-valued map has a continuous mean-square derivative , then its increments equal the Bochner integral of . To see this, for each partition interval , continuous linear observations and the scalar mean-value bound give . Sum these errors. Uniform continuity of makes the total error tend to zero as the mesh tends to zero, while the Riemann sums converge to the Bochner integral. This proves the fundamental theorem of calculus in L2 space. If a Gaussian process derivative also has a continuous modification, its anchored path integral therefore produces a differentiable modification of a stochastic process of the original Gaussian process.
Write as an element of L2 space. Parts (iii) and (iv) show that is a centered Gaussian process with covariance functionIn particular . The fourth moment of a centered normal random variable of variance is , soThe Kolmogorov continuity theorem, with moment exponent and time exponent , provides a continuous modification . At each finite set of times this modification of a stochastic process has the same joint law as .
For , the successive increments are Jointly Gaussian. The covariance of two increments on disjoint intervals equals the inner product of their disjoint interval indicators and is zero. Zero cross-covariances of Jointly Gaussian variables imply independence, and each increment has variance . Finally in L2 space, so almost surely. ThereforeIndependence from the whole past in its natural Brownian filtration follows by extending finite-dimensional independence to the generated sigma-algebra.
For any real orthonormal basis , the argument of (b)(ii) gives almost sure convergence and convergence in L2 of . Finite linear combinations have normal distributions, and the Parseval identity for a Hilbertian basis givesThus and are centered Gaussian processes with the same covariance function. More explicitly, their finite-dimensional characteristic functions are bothThis proves the basis invariance of an isonormal Gaussian process: equality of all finite-dimensional distributions, and hence equality in law of the indexed collections.
For the specified cosine orthonormal basis, put . Its coefficient against an interval indicator isConsequently the Brownian half-integer sine expansion, a Karhunen–Loève expansion, isFor every fixed , the sum converges almost surely and in L2 space because the coefficient squares sum to . Its continuous modification is a standard Brownian motion by (b)(v). The expansion also holds in : the expectation of the squared tail is the integral of the coefficient-square tail, which tends to zero by the dominated convergence theorem, with bound .
To realize this expansion for the original , choose . These are Jointly Gaussian with covariance matrix equal to the identity, hence are independent standard normal random variables. The finite orthogonal projections of onto converge in , and the identity transfers that convergence to the displayed expansion for . With an independently chosen sequence the resulting Brownian motion has the same law; a pathwise identification uses the coupling just given.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 201 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Fix an exponent in the range from (a), and work on the single probability-one event where and all dyadic values are finite. We give the dyadic increment chaining argument. For dyadic , put and choose with . Let and . The level- approximations are at most two grid steps apart, so their difference is bounded by . At each subsequent level an approximation either stays fixed or moves by one adjacent level increment. Because are dyadic, these approximations eventually equal . ThusThe dyadic rationals are dense in , so this uniform bound gives a unique continuous extension to the entire interval, withAll these equalities hold on that one event, not merely one event per dyadic time. Define to be the zero path on its null complement. Each is measurable as the limit of the random variables at deterministic left dyadic approximations. Alternatively, their measurable linear interpolations converge uniformly to , which also shows measurability as a random element of . This is the continuous extension version of a continuous modification.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 217 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Construct a mean-square derivative of a Gaussian process on the original probability space before choosing its continuous modification. The real covariance function satisfies , because covariance is symmetric. Three-times differentiability implies that is continuous everywhere and differentiable at zero. Since is an even function,This uses differentiability of at zero, not a bound on throughout a neighborhood.
Let for . Twice applying the fundamental theorem of calculus to the covariance function givesOriented integrals make this identity valid for negative as well as positive . For a fixed , the right side tends to as . In particular,By completeness of L2 space, the mean-square derivative of a Gaussian processexists. Finite vectors consisting of values of and have a centered multivariate normal distribution: approximate the coordinates by difference quotients and use mean-square convergence and characteristic functions. Thus is a centered Gaussian process jointly constructed with , withIn particular , and is a positive-semidefinite kernel because it is an actual covariance function. Merely constructing an unrelated Gaussian process with that covariance function would not yet construct a modification of a stochastic process of .
The increment variance of isFor small , differentiability of at zero bounds this by . For the remaining distances in , continuity of enlarges to give the same bound. The fourth moment of a centered normal distribution is three times its variance squared, soThe one-dimensional Kolmogorov continuity theorem states that with gives a continuous modification, with sample-path Hölder continuity of every order less than . Apply it here with . We obtain a continuous modification on . On its null exceptional event, set the entire path equal to zero.
Define, on this same probability space,The path integral exists because its integrand is a continuous function. It agrees in L2 space with the integral of : Riemann sums converge in L2 space because is mean-square continuous; sums of have the same values almost surely at each finite collection of mesh points and converge pathwise to the integral. These two limits therefore agree almost surely for each fixed . Equivalently, the integral is the Bochner integral of the L2 space-valued map .
To verify the modification of a stochastic process property directly, put and . The preceding covariance identities and the fundamental theorem of calculus giveTherefore and almost surely for every fixed . This is also the mean-square fundamental theorem of calculus in this stationary setting. If a version on all of is desired, retain the original outside ; equality at every fixed parameter still holds.
The ordinary fundamental theorem of calculus now gives the simultaneous pathwise conclusionThus the requested differentiable modification of a stationary Gaussian process exists. Integrability of is compatible with the hypotheses but is unnecessary for this direct argument. It also avoids any assumption that a third absolute moment of a spectral density follows from three-times differentiability.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 217 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The equal-variance form of Slepian's lemma is the following. If are centered vectors with multivariate normal distributions, for every , and whenever , thenfor every threshold vector . In particular . No nonsingularity of the covariance matrices is required.
Here the pointwise variances and differ. To make the comparison rigorous, use the increment form, namely the Sudakov-Fernique inequality: if centered multivariate normal distributions satisfy for every pair, then . Unlike the preceding form of Slepian's lemma, this statement has no equal-pointwise-variance hypothesis.
For completeness, the increment form follows by Gaussian integration by parts. Make independent, define for , and letThe are softmax function weights, with and . Direct differentiation gives and . The Gaussian integration by parts identity therefore yieldsThe last summands are nonnegative because . Sinceintegration in and the limit prove the Sudakov-Fernique inequality. All derivatives needed here are bounded for a fixed . Singular covariance matrices can be handled by adding small independent centered normal noise with the same variance to both vectors, proving the identity for the nonsingular vectors, and letting the noise variance decrease to zero.
Use the printed normalization of fractional Brownian motion, which omits the conventional factor . Its increment variance isFor and , . Enumerate by increasing finite subsets whose union is , with . The Sudakov-Fernique inequality givesBoth Gaussian processes vanish at zero almost surely. Thus these maxima are nonnegative and increase with ; monotone convergence theorem givesTheir continuous modifications agree with the original Gaussian processes simultaneously on the countable set , after discarding a single null event. Continuity and density of the rational parameters make each rational supremum equal to the supremum over for these modifications.
The expected suprema are finite. Indeed, the canonical distance of is . A Euclidean grid supplies a closed-ball metric covering number bound for . The Dudley entropy integral bound for an anchored centered separable Gaussian process isThe integral is finite since its integrand grows at most like a constant times near zero. The same argument applies to .
For any real path vanishing at zero,A centered Gaussian process has the same probability law as its negative. Combining this symmetry with the increment comparison gives the stronger boundIn particular the requested comparison isThe common normalization factor affects both sides equally. The comparison is valid for every , including the equality cases or in the increment bounds.