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Every square-integrable random variable measurable with respect to a Brownian filtration can be written as its expectation plus an Itô integral against that Brownian motion. Equivalently, every square-integrable martingale in that filtration has the formfor a predictable square-integrable process $H$.

In the completed natural Brownian filtration, a bounded continuously differentiable $\varphi$ with bounded derivative satisfiesThe integrand is unique up to $d\mathbb{P}dt$-almost everywhere equality. Gaussian integration by parts first gives the duality between the payoff and every square-integrable Itô integral. The Brownian martingale representation theorem then identifies the integrand as the projection of ${\varphi }^{\prime }(W_T)1_{\{t\le T\}}$ onto the predictable processes in the product $L^2$ space. This explains the conditional expectation in the formula, rather than a nonadapted terminal derivative.

From a continuously observed Itô diffusion, a local drift estimator divides ${\int }_0^T{1}_{[x-h,x+h]}(X_t)d{X}_t$ by the corresponding diffusion occupation time. Its error separates into a local Hölder continuity bias and an Itô integral divided by occupation time. The Itô isometry gives a pointwise noise scale $(Th{)}^{-1/2}$ when the invariant density is locally positive.

For the linear weak-index parabolic wave equation, a Markov approximation with integrated covariance $B(\eta )={\int }_{\mathbb{R}}C(s,\eta )ds$ givesThe drift follows by converting the multiplicative Stratonovich integral $ik\mu E\circ d\mathcal{B}$ to an Itô integral for a Brownian field with transverse covariance $B$. For a Gaussian beam with one transverse coordinate entering the random region at $x_0$, $m(x,z)=e^{-\gamma (x-x_0)}{E}_{\mathrm{free}}(x,z)$. The coherent field retains transverse beam structure. The white-noise closure needs short longitudinal correlations and the corresponding separation of propagation scales; Gaussian one-point statistics alone are insufficient.

For deterministic square-integrable $h$, approximate by step functions. Their Itô integrals are sums of independent normal Brownian increments. The Itô isometry gives convergence in $L^2$, and the variances converge to $\int h^2$; convergence of characteristic functions proves the normal limit. Each linear combination of finitely many such integrals is another deterministic stochastic integral, so they are jointly Gaussian.

The ordinary time integral of standard Brownian motion is a centered Gaussian process with continuously differentiable paths and derivative $B_t$. For $0\le s\le t$, its covariance is $\mathbb{E}(I_s{I}_t)=s^2(3t-s)/6$, obtained by integrating the Brownian covariance $\min (u,v)$. Consequently $I_t$ has normal distribution $N(0,t^3/3)$. This time integral is distinct from the Itô integral with respect to Brownian motion.

An Itô process is a continuous semimartingale expressible as the displayed sum, with adapted coefficients locally integrable for the time integral and locally square integrable for the Itô integral. The coefficients may depend on the whole past; an Itô diffusion usually specifies them as functions of the current state and time. A continuously differentiable deterministic process is an Itô process with zero Brownian coefficient. The Itô formula and Itô product rule apply to these processes.

Lévy area is the antisymmetric second-level integral of multidimensional Brownian motion. For distinct independent components the integrals are also Itô integrals. Combined with the symmetric tensor $\frac{1}{2}{B}_{s,t}^{\otimes 2}$, it gives the second level of enhanced Brownian motion. It is not continuously determined by the uniform norm of the Brownian path.

A parabolic wave equation driven by longitudinal Gaussian white noise with transverse covariance kernel $C$ has the displayed closed mutual coherence equation. The noise is the derivative of a longitudinal Brownian field with transverse covariance; the physical smooth-noise limit uses the Stratonovich integral. Conversion to the Itô integral supplies the attenuation drift and the cross variation supplies the $C({\mathbf{s}}_1-{\mathbf{s}}_2)$ term. For unit plane-wave incidence and transverse statistical homogeneity, $\Gamma =\exp [-k^2{\mu }^{2}x(C(0)-C({\mathbf{s}}_1-{\mathbf{s}}_2))]$. General Gaussian colored media do not have this local closure.

For Brownian motion started at zero, let $f_n$ equal $|x|$ outside $(-1/n,1/n)$ and $n{x}^2/2+1/(2n)$ inside. Its derivative is the clipped sign function $g_n(x)=\max \{-1,\min \{1,nx\}\}$. The Itô integral $M_t^{(n)}={\int }_0^t{g}_n(B_s)d{B}_s$ converges uniformly on bounded time intervals in $L^2$ to a continuous martingale $M$, by the Itô isometry and Doob L2 maximal inequality: the squared maximal error is at most $8\sqrt{2T/\pi }/n$. The Itô formula gives $\frac{n}{2}{\int }_0^t{1}_{\{|B_s|<1/n\}}ds=f_n(B_t)-f_n(0)-M_t^{(n)}$. Along $n=k^2$, the maximal errors are summable, so First Borel-Cantelli lemma gives uniform almost-sure convergence. The ratio-one interpolation for shrinking-window occupation integrals extends it to every integer $n$. The limit is $|B_t|-M_t=L_t^0$, the local time of a semimartingale in the Tanaka formula convention. The unnormalized factor $n$ gives twice this limit.

For an Itô process $d{X}_t=a_{t}dt+b_{t}d{W}_t$ and $F\in C^{1,2}$, the differential Itô formula iswhere the derivatives are evaluated at $(t,X_t)$. A multidimensional version replaces $b_t^2{F}_{xx}$ by the contraction of the Itô diffusion covariance matrix with the spatial Hessian.

For a heuristic derivation, partition time and use the Euler increment $\Delta X=a\Delta t+b\sqrt{\Delta t}Z$, where $Z$ is standard normal. A second-order Taylor expansion givesThe term $b^2(\Delta W{)}^2$ has order $\Delta t$, so it survives summation; ordinary first-order calculus would incorrectly discard it. For independent Brownian motion increments,This gives the quadratic variation $[W{]}_t=t$. The summed mixed $dtdW$ terms and $d{t}^2$ terms vanish, while the linear random increments converge to an Itô integral. After localizing bounded coefficients and derivatives, Taylor remainders are negligible and the surviving terms give the formula. Thus $(dW{)}^2=dt$ is shorthand for a statement about summed quadratic variation, not an equality of individual random increments.

A simple predictable process can be writtenwhere each ${\xi }_j$ is bounded and ${\mathcal{F}}_{t_j}$-measurable. Define its integral to start at zero:Refining the partition leaves this sum unchanged. Every summand is a martingale, by conditioning its future increment on the information at $t_j$. Bounded coefficients and the $L^2$ bound on $M$ make the integral an L2-bounded continuous martingale. Its terminal value is the same sum with $M_{\infty }$ substituted at any infinite endpoint; $L^2$ martingale convergence supplies this limit.

We need the conditional square identity, rather than assuming independent increments. The Doob L2 maximal inequality gives $\mathbb{E}{\sup }_t|M_t{|}^2<\infty$. Localize the square identity for $M^2-[M]$ at level and bracket stopping times. The stopped identity and this maximal bound give $\mathbb{E}[M{]}_{\infty }<\infty$ by monotone convergence. Nowis integrable, so localization passes to conditional expectations and $M^2-[M]$ is a uniformly integrable martingale. Expanding a squared increment and using $\mathbb{E}(M_t\mid {\mathcal{F}}_s)=M_s$ provesThe infinite endpoint follows from $L^2$ convergence and integrability of the bracket. The initial value $M_0$ need not be zero: the integral itself is zero-starting.

In the square of the terminal integral, all cross terms vanish. For $j<k$, the $j$th increment and both coefficients in its cross term are measurable at $t_k$, whereas the conditional mean of the $k$th increment there is zero. For the diagonal terms, the preceding conditional identity can be multiplied by the bounded ${\xi }_j^2$. ThereforeThis proves the Itô isometry for these simple integrands. Ordered stopping-time intervals also work, replacing the conditional identity by optional stopping theorem, but deterministic intervals suffice for the approximation requested here.

For that approximation, put $\mu (A)=\mathbb{E}{\int }_0^1{1}_A(\omega ,s)ds$ on the predictable sigma-algebra. This is a finite measure. That sigma-algebra is generated, apart from the zero-time slice of measure zero, by rectangles $A\times (s,t]$ with $A\in {\mathcal{F}}_s$. The indicator of every such rectangle is a bounded simple predictable process.

Here is a density proof. Let $V$ be the closed linear span of these indicators in $L^2(\mu )$, and let $\mathcal{D}$ contain the predictable sets whose indicators belong to $V$. The whole space belongs to $\mathcal{D}$; complements stay in $\mathcal{D}$; and disjoint countable unions do also, because their finite partial indicator sums converge in $L^2$ under the finite measure. Thus $\mathcal{D}$ is a Dynkin system containing the generating rectangle pi-system. The Pi-lambda theorem makes it the entire predictable sigma-algebra. Bounded predictable simple functions therefore belong to $V$. Truncating any $L^2(\mu )$ function and then approximating its truncated range by finitely many levels shows that every such function belongs to $V$. A finite sum of rectangle indicators can be rewritten on one common deterministic time partition, with the coefficient on each interval measurable at its left endpoint; it is exactly an allowed simple process.

Consequently choose $H^n$ of this form with $\Vert H^n-H{\Vert }_{L^2(\mu )}<1/n$. This provesIt is density of simple predictable processes for finite measures, with a proof of the actual approximation step.

Finally apply the preceding isometry to $M_t=B_{t\wedge 1}$, whose bracket is $t\wedge 1$. The elementary integrals $I_n={\int }_0^1{H}_s^{n}d{B}_s$ satisfyDefine the Itô integral as the $L^2$ limit of these elementary integrals. The same identity shows independence of the approximating sequence, linearity, mean zero, and $\mathbb{E}({\int }_0^1{H}_{s}d{B}_s{)}^2=\mathbb{E}{\int }_0^1{H}_s^{2}ds$. Applying the Doob inequality to the difference processes also gives uniform-in-time $L^2$ convergence on $[0,1]$, with a continuous martingale version of the integral.

The multidimensional Itô formula for continuous semimartingales states that a $C^2$ transformation has first-order stochastic and finite-variation integrals plus one-half its Hessian contracted with the quadratic covariations. A continuous finite-variation process has zero quadratic variation and zero quadratic covariation with a continuous local martingale. Thus in the present caseThe first integrand is continuous adapted, hence predictable, and locally bounded by stopping the two coordinate paths on exiting compact sets. The standard construction of the Itô integral then makes this integral a zero-starting continuous local martingale. The remaining integrals are pathwise Lebesgue-Stieltjes integrals. On each compact time interval their integrands are bounded along the continuous paths, so their total variations are bounded by a constant times $V_t(A)+[M{]}_t$, which is finite. Therefore the normalized terms areThe process $A^f$ is continuous adapted of finite variation and $A_0^f=0$. When $f(M_0,A_0)$ is integrable, $M^f$ is a local martingale in the definition of part (a). Uniqueness follows from part (a): the difference of two normalized decompositions is both a continuous local martingale and a continuous finite-variation process starting at zero, hence vanishes.

An initial-value qualification is necessary under that definition. The printed assumptions do not themselves guarantee $\mathbb{E}|f(M_0,A_0)|<\infty$. Take $M=0$, $A_t=G$ with $G$ a standard normal random variable known at time zero, and $f(x,a)=e^{a^2}$. All path assumptions hold, but $\mathbb{E}{e}^{G^2}=\infty$. Any decomposition with $A_0^f=0$ would force the nonintegrable value $M_0^f=e^{G^2}$, contradicting the local-martingale definition. Without an integrability hypothesis, the always-valid continuous semimartingale decomposition is $X=X_0+N+A^f$, with $N$ the zero-starting integral above. Alternatively one may use the convention that a local martingale permits an arbitrary finite initial value and localizes its centered increments. With deterministic initial data, as in part (c), there is no issue. This is initial-value integrability in normalized semimartingale decompositions.

Apply Q5(b) in each independent coordinate, with $\mu =\lambda$, to change from the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck path law to d-dimensional Wiener measure ${\mathbb{Q}}^x$. Its density isMultiplication by the positive potential factor cancels the second term exactly. ThereforeThe integral in its exponent is an Itô integral under Wiener measure, not an ordinary pathwise line integral. The Itô formula for $|\omega {|}^2$ givesHence an equivalent endpoint-only Wiener integral is

For a discrete-time martingale relative to the filtration $({\mathcal{F}}_n)$, each $M_n$ is ${\mathcal{F}}_n$-measurable, $\mathbb{E}|M_n|<\infty$, and $\mathbb{E}[M_n\mid {\mathcal{F}}_{n-1}]=M_{n-1}$ for $n\ge 1$. The tower property then gives the corresponding identity conditional on any earlier time.

A bounded previsible process has ${\varphi }_i$ measurable at time $i-1$ and $|{\varphi }_i|\le C$. Its martingale transform $V$ is adapted and integrable, since each increment has absolute expectation at most $C(\mathbb{E}|M_i|+\mathbb{E}|M_{i-1}|)$. Moreover,Thus $V$ is a martingale, with $V_0=0$.

For the Itô integral, begin with a bounded adapted step integrand $H_s=H_i$ on $(t_i,t_{i+1}]$. Its integral is $I={\sum }_i{H}_i(W_{t_{i+1}}-W_{t_i})$. Each summand has zero conditional mean. For $i<j$, conditioning the cross product on ${\mathcal{F}}_{t_j}$ makes its expectation zero. The conditional second moment of a Brownian increment is $t_{i+1}-t_i$, henceApproximate the predictable integrand $g(s,W_s)$ in $L^2(dsd\mathbb{P})$ by such step processes. The same identity makes their integrals Cauchy in $L^2$ and defines the limit; both its first and second moments converge. This gives the requested mean-zero result and the Itô isometry:

For the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, the deterministic integrating factor has no quadratic covariation with $X$. The Itô formula therefore gives $d(e^{\kappa t}{X}_t)=\kappa \theta e^{\kappa t}dt+\sigma e^{\kappa t}d{W}_t$. Integrating and dividing by $e^{\kappa t}$ yieldsThe mean-zero integral and Itô isometry giveAt $\kappa =0$ these formulas are read by continuity: $X_t=x+\sigma W_t$, with mean $x$ and variance ${\sigma }^{2}t$.

For the CIR model, let $C_0=c_0\ge 0$ and use the usual positive parameters. Before a possible visit to zero, the derivatives of $\sqrt{c}$ are $1/(2\sqrt{c})$ and $-1/(4c^{3/2})$. Applying the Itô formula gives the Square root of a CIR diffusion:The PDF's claim under $2ab={\sigma }^2$ is false: that choice leaves the nonzero drift ${\sigma }^2/(8Z_t)-a{Z}_t/2$, which is not affine in $Z_t$. The actual interior cancellation condition is $4ab={\sigma }^2$. Even then the principal square root is nonnegative and cannot be an unrestricted Gaussian OU process.

To give the intended corrected construction, let a signed process solve $d{Y}_t=-a{Y}_{t}dt/2+(\sigma /2)d{B}_t$, with $Y_0=\sqrt{c_0}$. The Itô formula givesWriting ${\tilde{W}}_t={\int }_0^t\mathrm{sgn}(Y_s)d{B}_s$, with either sign chosen at zero, produces a Brownian motion; the diffusion term is $\sigma |Y_t|d{\tilde{W}}_t$. Thus $Y^2$ is a CIR model with $ab={\sigma }^2/4$, while $Z=|Y|$ is reflected at zero. The reflection contributes local time of a semimartingale, so the interior SDE alone is not a global unrestricted OU equation. Its second moment is $c_0{e}^{-at}+{\sigma }^2(1-e^{-at})/(4a)$, agreeing with the CIR mean for that corrected parameter choice.

The requested mean under the parameters actually printed is still available without the false OU assertion. Taking expectation in the original CIR equation gives $m^{\prime }=a(b-m)$; the stochastic integral has zero mean after the usual moment/localization justification. Consequently, for the printed choice as well as general admissible parameters,

Fix $T<\infty$ and a standard $d$-dimensional Brownian motion $B$ starting at zero. Let $D_n$ be deterministic nested finite partitions of $[0,T]$ with mesh tending to zero; dyadic partitions are the basic example. Let $B^n$ be the polygonal interpolation through the partition values and put ${\mathbf{B}}^n=S_2(B^n)$. The limit is enhanced Brownian motion, with incrementsHere the integral is a Stratonovich integral. In terms of Itô integrals,Its symmetric part is $\frac{1}{2}{B}_{s,t}^{\otimes 2}$, while its antisymmetric part is Lévy area,These identities and splitting the integral at an intermediate time give the Chen identity, so $\mathbf{B}$ has values in $G^2({\mathbb{R}}^d)$.

A precise nested polygonal approximation of Brownian rough paths statement is: for every $0<\alpha <1/2$,where the rough path metric used here isIn particular, for each $2<p<3$, choosing $1/p<\alpha <1/2$ gives convergence in the inhomogeneous $p$-variation rough path metric. The limiting signed area is the Lévy area, and the limiting full second level is Stratonovich, not Itô. This distinction is necessary: a polygonal lift has the prescribed symmetric second level, whereas an Itô lift would lack half the quadratic-variation correction.

Here is a proof sketch emphasizing the nested martingale structure. SetA Brownian bridge between two prescribed endpoints has the affine interpolation as conditional mean. ConsequentlyFor $i\ne j$ the coordinate processes remain independent when their respective partition values are conditioned on. Approximating the Itô integral by its left sums, conditioning each product, and then taking its $L^2$ limit givesIndeed each conditioned factor is its polygonal interpolation, and their sums converge to the ordinary integral of those piecewise linear functions. For a fixed pair $s,t$, the right side is therefore a martingale in the refinement index $n$. It is not being asserted to be a martingale in physical time; polygonal interpolation uses the right endpoint of its current cell.

The union of the partitions is dense. Continuity of $B$ implies that ${\mathcal{G}}_{\infty }=\sigma ({\bigcup }_n{\mathcal{G}}_n)$ contains the full Brownian path and its stochastic integrals, up to completion. The martingale convergence theorem for conditional expectations therefore yields convergence of $B_t^n$ and all off-diagonal ${\mathbb{B}}_{s,t}^{n,ij}$ at every fixed pair, almost surely and in $L^q$ for finite $q$. Simultaneously it holds for a countable dense collection of pairs. The diagonal terms must be handled separately:They are not conditional expectations of the diagonal Brownian second level: the latter would also contain a conditional variance.

Pointwise convergence alone is insufficient for the rough path metric. The Burkholder-Davis-Gundy inequalities, Brownian scaling and Gaussian increment moments give, for arbitrarily large $q$,Equivalently, using the homogeneous norm on $G^2$, the $q$-th moment of the Carnot-Carathéodory distance of an increment is bounded by $C_q|t-s{|}^{q/2}$. The metric form of the Kolmogorov continuity theorem, with $q$ chosen large, gives for every $\beta <1/2$ a random $K_{\beta }$ having all finite moments such thatConditioning these bounds givesThe diagonal bounds follow by squaring the first bound. The two conditional-expectation processes are nonnegative martingales; the Doob Lp maximal inequality makes their suprema over $n$ finite almost surely, with all needed moments. Thus all the polygonal lifts have a common random bound at exponent $\beta$.

These bounds and the Chen identity give joint equicontinuity of the increments as functions of $(s,t)$. Convergence on the dense collection of pairs consequently gives uniform convergence of both levels on the time triangle. Take $\alpha <\beta <1/2$. For either level $k=1,2$, with $M$ a common bound and ${\epsilon }_n$ its uniform difference, interpolation givesThis proves the stated Hölder rough path metric convergence. Finally, for a partition $D$, the $k$-th level difference satisfiesbecause $\alpha p>1$. Taking the appropriate powers and suprema proves $p$-variation convergence too. Nesting is what permits the conditional-expectation martingale proof; without nesting one instead needs direct approximation estimates.

Work on a finite interval $[0,T]$ with a fixed initial point $y_0\in {\mathbb{R}}^m$. To give a clean global statement, assume $V_0,V_1,\dots ,V_d$ are bounded vector fields with bounded continuous derivatives through order three. Consider the Stratonovich integral form of the stochastic differential equationFor a control in the Cameron-Martin space of Wiener measure,let $y^h$ solve the controlled ordinary differential equationThe Stroock-Varadhan support theorem says, in the uniform metric on continuous paths,Thus a path is in the support of a measure of the diffusion precisely when it can be approximated by these deterministic controlled trajectories. There is no ellipticity assumption: the allowed controls and vector fields already encode any restrictions on reachability.

The central point of the rough-path proof is that ordinary uniform approximation of the driver does not make the solution map continuous. Small planar loops can have small amplitude but accumulated area of fixed size, and vector fields with a nonzero Lie bracket detect that area. The correct driver is enhanced Brownian motion $\mathbf{B}$, including Lévy area. Fix $2<p<3$. The universal limit theorem gives a continuous mapfrom the geometric $p$-variation rough-path space to solution paths. It agrees with the controlled ordinary differential equation when $\mathbf{X}=S_2(h)$. Adding the time coordinate, with its mixed integrals defined by integration against $dt$ and integration by parts, incorporates $V_0$ without changing the continuity argument. This is the role of the universal limit theorem: it turns a support problem for all these nonlinear diffusions into a support problem for one enhanced driving process.

For $\mathbf{X}=\mathbf{B}$, the rough differential equation is the stated Stratonovich equation. Its second-order increment includesReplacing the Stratonovich integral in the second level by its Itô integral expression contributes $\frac{1}{2}{\sum }_{i}D{V}_i{V}_{i}dt$, which is exactly the Stratonovich-to-Itô correction. Polygonal convergence from Question 3 and the universal limit theorem therefore give the Wong-Zakai approximation: the ordinary equations driven by $B^n$ converge to this Stratonovich diffusion.

It remains to establish the support of enhanced Brownian motion:One inclusion follows immediately from Question 3. Every polygonal $B^n$ belongs to $H$, and $S_2(B^n)\to \mathbf{B}$ almost surely in the rough path metric. Since $K$ is closed, $\mathbf{B}\in K$ almost surely, whence its support is contained in $K$. This alone does not prove the reverse inclusion: convergence of random approximations does not automatically give positive mass near every control.

For that inclusion, take dyadic mesh ${\delta }_n=T{2}^{-n}$ and writeOn each grid interval $R^n$ is a pinned Brownian bridge. The bridges are mutually independent and independent of the grid values defining $B^n$, by the Gaussian projection formula. Their canonical Stratonovich enhancement ${\mathbf{R}}^n$ is therefore independent of $B^n$. It is important to enhance the bridge residual itself, including its area, rather than infer area smallness from its uniform size.

The bridge enhancement tends to the zero rough path in probability. Here are the estimates behind this assertion. A bridge on an interval of length ${\delta }_n$ scales as $\sqrt{{\delta }_n}$ times a unit bridge; its full antisymmetric area has mean zero, moments of order ${\delta }_n$, and second moment of order ${\delta }_n^2$. Since its endpoint displacement is zero, at grid points the cumulative second level is just the sum of the independent bridge areas. The Doob L2 maximal inequality givesPartial intervals at the two ends contribute bridge increments and at most two local areas. Bridge scaling, Gaussian moment bounds and the corresponding iterated-integral estimates yield, uniformly in $n$ and for arbitrarily large $q$,For an interval crossing several grid cells, the full-cell second levels are independent centered areas, whose sum has moments bounded by $C_q((t-s){\delta }_n{)}^{q/2}$; the two boundary pieces and their cross product satisfy the displayed bound as well. For an interval inside one cell these are the usual scaled bridge increment and area bounds. At each fixed pair $(s,t)$ both levels converge to zero in probability: the first-level variance is $O({\delta }_n)$, and the second-level second moment is $O((t-s){\delta }_n+{\delta }_n^2)$ for sufficiently fine grids. The Kolmogorov continuity theorem gives uniformly bounded moments of a Hölder rough-path norm at any exponent $\beta <1/2$. Tightness, convergence on a dense set of pairs and interpolation to $\alpha <\beta$ now give ${\rho }_{\alpha }({\mathbf{R}}^n,e)\to 0$ in probability. Taking $1/p<\alpha <1/2$ gives $d_p({\mathbf{R}}^n,e)\to 0$ in probability.

Fix $h\in H$. Its polygonal interpolations $h^n$ converge to $h$ in the total-variation norm: their derivatives are the cell averages of $\dot{h}$, which converge in $L^2$, hence in $L^1$. Moreover $|h^n{|}_{1\text{-var}}\le |h{|}_{1\text{-var}}$. Thus $S_2(h^n)\to S_2(h)$ in the rough path metric.

The rough path translation operation satisfiesFor a bounded variation path $b$, translation adds $b$ at level one and, at level two, the mixed termsThe second mixed term is defined by integration by parts. Their variation bounds show that translation is continuous, uniformly when $|b{|}_{1\text{-var}}$ is bounded, near the zero rough path. More explicitly the mixed second-level norms are bounded by a constant times $\Vert R{\Vert }_{p\text{-var}}|b{|}_{1\text{-var}}$; the other new second-level term is the path signature of $b$.

Given a ball of radius $\epsilon$ around $S_2(h)$, choose a sufficiently large $n$ so that $S_2(h^n)$ is close andfor the small $\eta$ supplied by translation continuity. The relevant variation bounds can be chosen uniformly in $n$, since the variations of the $h^n$ are uniformly bounded. For this fixed $n$, the event $|B^n-h^n{|}_{1\text{-var}}<\eta$ has positive probability: the finite vector of Brownian increments has an everywhere positive Gaussian density, and sufficiently small deviations of its vertices imply this variation bound. These two events are independent. On their intersection, translation continuity gives $d_p(\mathbf{B},S_2(h))<\epsilon$. Every ball around $S_2(h)$ therefore has positive probability. This proves $S_2(h)$ lies in the support, and taking closures gives $K$.

Finally, a continuous map between the separable path spaces in use satisfiesFor one direction the measure is concentrated on its support. For the other, an open neighborhood of $\Phi (x)$ pulls back to an open neighborhood of a support point $x$, which has positive measure. Using continuity of $\Phi$ and the identity $\Phi (S_2(h))=y^h$ proves the boxed Stroock-Varadhan support theorem. This separates the two ingredients: the probabilistic support calculation for Brownian motion and area, and the deterministic continuity supplied by the universal limit theorem.

If the diffusion is instead presented as an Itô integral equation with drift $b$, the controlled equation must useUsing $b$ unchanged in the controlled equation would generally give the wrong support description. The result above states explicit sufficient smoothness and nonexplosion assumptions; extensions to more general coefficients require the usual localization, not an unqualified assertion for arbitrary vector fields.

For an elementary previsible process $H={\sum }_{j=0}^{r-1}{H}_j{1}_{(t_j,t_{j+1}]}$, with bounded ${\mathcal{F}}_{t_j}$-measurable coefficients, defineThe Itô isometry isMore generally the squared $L^2$ distance between the integrals of $H$ and $K$ is the integral of $(H-K{)}^2$ on the right. The integral is a zero-starting continuous square-integrable martingale.

Elementary predictable processes are dense in $L^2(M)$. Given $H$ in this space, choose elementary $H_n$ converging in its norm and define the Itô integral by the $L^2$ limit of $H_n\cdot M$. The isometry proves that this is independent of the approximating sequence and remains valid for the limit. The Doob L2 maximal inequality bounds the expected squared path supremum of the difference by four times its terminal second moment; hence the convergence also gives a continuous martingale version, with uniform convergence on compacts in probability.

For a continuous local martingale $M$ and locally bounded process $H$ that is previsible, choose increasing stopping times ${\tau }_n\uparrow \infty$ such that $M^{{\tau }_n}$ is L2-bounded, $|H|\le K_n$ up to ${\tau }_n$, and ${\tau }_n\le n$. This can be done by combining localizers with first exits of $M$ from bounded intervals and the local bounds of $H$. Then $H{1}_{[0,{\tau }_n]}$ is in the integrand space for $M^{{\tau }_n}$. Define the integral on each stopped interval by the preceding construction. The stopping property of elementary integrals, extended by the isometry, makes these definitions agree on overlaps. Pasting givesThis is a localization construction; global square integrability of the resulting process is not asserted.

Each marginal is a Bessel process of dimension $\delta =1+2a\in (1,2)$, but finite lifetime can also be proved directly. Apply the Itô formula before $X$ reaches zero:With clock $u(t)={\int }_0^t{X}_s^{-2}ds$, the Itô integral is a Brownian motion $W_u$. The inverse clock satisfiesThe clock runs through all $u\ge 0$ up to the maximal lifetime: a finite terminal clock would leave $X$ at a finite positive limit, allowing continuation, or, at an infinite physical lifetime, would make its clock grow at a positive rate, a contradiction. There is no finite-time explosion to infinity; for example $d{X}_t^2=2X_{t}d{B}_t+(1+2a)dt$ and localization bounds the probability of reaching arbitrarily large levels on a fixed time interval. Since $W_u/u\to 0$ almost surely and $1-2a>0$, the last exponential integral has finite limit, while $X_{t(u)}\to 0$. ThereforeThe same argument applies to $Y$, whose noise $-B$ is also Brownian motion, so its lifetime is finite too. No independence between the two lifetimes is being claimed.