Jointly time-change the radial and area martingales by the inverse of . The bracket matrix becomes , so the Lévy characterization of multidimensional Brownian motion gives two independent Brownian coordinates. The clock is strictly increasing; if it were finite at infinity, the radial martingale would converge and would force its integral to diverge. Thus and with independent.
Orthogonal continuous local martingales 2026-10-05
Two continuous local martingales are orthogonal when their quadratic covariation is zero. With zero initial values, the martingale product identity says that their product is a local martingale. For two Brownian motions in a common filtration, orthogonality and the Lévy characterization of multidimensional Brownian motion make the pair a two-dimensional Brownian motion and imply independence. Merely having the two marginal Brownian motion laws on the same space does not imply orthogonality.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 27 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let , and first suppose almost surely in addition to strict increase. The Dambis-Dubins-Schwarz theorem says thatdefine a Brownian motion in the time-changed filtration and giveEach is a stopping time and is finite. Continuity and strict increase of make continuous, and .
Here are the martingale details behind this inverse-clock proof of the Dambis-Dubins-Schwarz theorem. Stopping a continuous local martingale when its bracket reaches makes it an L2-bounded continuous martingale. This follows from the stopped Itô isometry or from the estimate proved in Question 1(a), applied after localization. In particular it is uniformly integrable, and optional sampling is valid even at an unbounded stopping time by taking limits. Applying this to stopped at shows that is a martingale. Thus is a continuous local martingale. Time-changing in the same way shows is a local martingale, so .
For completeness, the Lévy characterization of Brownian motion follows directly from the Itô formula. If a continuous local martingale , starting at zero, has bracket , thenis a complex local martingale. Its modulus is bounded on each deterministic finite horizon, so it is a true martingale there. ConsequentlyConditional characteristic functions give Gaussian increments independent of the past. Iterating this identity gives independent increments, and continuity completes the Brownian characterization. The identical vector argument proves the Lévy characterization of multidimensional Brownian motion when the bracket matrix is .
The printed strict-increase hypothesis does not imply . For example, has strictly increasing bracket . To state the theorem under exactly the printed hypothesis, allow an independent enlargement of the probability space if the terminal clock can be finite.
On the martingale has a finite terminal limit. Indeed, stopping at each bracket level gives an L2-bounded continuous martingale which converges; on the stopped process is the original one. This proves the finite-bracket convergence lemma. Set when and continue by that terminal limit. The optional-sampling argument just given makes a continuous local martingale with bracket . Moreover is a stopping time in .
On a product extension add an independent Brownian motion in clock time, and putThe two summands have zero quadratic covariation, and their brackets are and . Thus ; the proved characterization makes Brownian. Since at every finite when is finite, still holds. This is the finite-lifetime extension of the Dambis-Dubins-Schwarz theorem. An infinite clock gives Brownian motion on the original space; a finite clock may require the independent extension.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 202 5 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Interpret as a conformal bijection onto . If it is merely an injective map into a larger target, the correct exit domain is instead. Let be the exit time from , write , and identify planar Brownian motion with . The Cauchy-Riemann equations give , , and both are harmonic functions. The Itô formula, localized on compact subsets of , yieldsThus both coordinates are continuous local martingales, withSince never vanishes, is strictly increasing before . Let , defined for . The optional time-change theorem gives continuous local martingale coordinates for , with bracket matrix . The Lévy characterization of multidimensional Brownian motion makes a standard planar Brownian motion started at , up to its lifetime. Therefore conformal invariance of planar Brownian motion takes the formTo identify the lifetime, exhaust by relatively compact open sets with nested closures. The images exhaust because is a homeomorphism onto . Each stopped transformed path exits at precisely the clock value of its exit from . Increasing these exit times gives the exit lifetime of Brownian motion from , including a possibly infinite lifetime. This identifies with that lifetime and needs no global extension of to the boundary.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 203 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Take the convention that the coordinates of planar Brownian motion are independent standard real Brownian motions, so its infinitesimal generator is . Define the forward conformal Brownian clockSince a conformal bijection has nonzero derivative, is a strictly increasing continuous map from onto . The time used inside the original path is its inverse:Thus the interval direction for is the inverse-clock direction.
Write . The Cauchy-Riemann equations and the Itô formula make continuous local martingales, withIndeed both components are harmonic functions, and their gradients are orthogonal with the same squared norm. After the time change of a continuous process by , their quadratic variations are and their quadratic covariation is zero. The Lévy characterization of multidimensional Brownian motion therefore identifies as planar Brownian motion started at , up to its lifetime.
It remains to identify that lifetime as the exit time, rather than merely produce a local Brownian path. Boundedness of gives almost surely. For every compact subset , its inverse image under is compactly contained in . As , continuity gives , so eventually leaves . Consequently the transformed path leaves every compact subset of at its lifetime. If , its Brownian extension has a finite limit, and that limit is outside ; if , the path never exits. In both cases its maximal lifetime is precisely the exit time from .