Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 29 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The intended setting is with continuous and adapted. These conditions are needed for the requested continuous-semimartingale conclusion; finite variation alone does not supply them. For example, , satisfies the printed deterministic bound and starts at zero, but has a jump for sufficiently large . We use the continuous adapted interpretation throughout this question.
Define . Then , and . The Itô formula gives the canonical continuous semimartingale decompositionThe initial value is zero. The first term is a continuous martingale, since is bounded and the integrand is bounded. The second is continuous adapted finite variation, hence predictable. This decomposition is unique because a continuous finite-variation local martingale is constant. The phrase Doob-Meyer here must mean this semimartingale decomposition: need not be nondecreasing, and the hypotheses do not make a submartingale as required by the Doob-Meyer decomposition theorem. Indeed , so the bounded deterministic drift makes initially decrease, excluding the submartingale property.
The sign process is predictable because it is a Borel function of the continuous adapted, and therefore predictable, process . Its paths need not themselves be left-continuous. Pointwise, including at ,For a fixed horizon , . The dominated convergence theorem for the finite measure on givesThe Itô isometry, extended from simple predictable integrands by their density, and the Doob L2 maximal inequality now implyHence