Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 24 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Write and . Path continuity gives . Stop the martingale at the bounded stopping time and apply the optional stopping theorem:By the monotone convergence theorem, , so almost surely. Path continuity then gives . The dominated convergence theorem for the bounded variables shows
Next stop the quartic Hermite polynomial martingale from part (a), again only at . Its expectation is zero, soMonotone convergence proves , establishing the needed second-moment integrability before the final passage to the limit. Since and , dominated convergence givesConsequently the Brownian symmetric interval-exit moments are
To obtain the Laplace transform of symmetric Brownian interval-exit time, put . The Exponential martingale for Brownian motion shows thatis a martingale with . Bounded-time stopping gives . Its stopped values are bounded by , so dominated convergence applies as . Since , it yieldsEvery use of stopping at has thus been justified through bounded stopping and an explicit integrability or domination argument.