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Use the same Brownian motion for both solutions: this is a synchronous coupling. For $D_t=X_t-Y_t$, the Itô formula givesOn any fixed finite horizon the stochastic integral has mean zero. Indeed, boundedness of $\sigma$ and the assumed second-moment bounds make the expectation of its squared integrand integrable in time. With $h(t)=\mathbb{E}{D}_t^2$, the contraction condition yields, for every $s\le t$,The allowed Gronwall inequality gives the mean-square contraction of synchronously coupled diffusionsThe identical estimate can also be obtained by localizing the nonnegative local supermartingale $e^{kt}{D}_t^2$ and using Fatou's lemma, a formulation useful when the drift has linear growth.

There is a genuine compatibility issue in the printed global assumptions. If $|b|\le B$, then for $d=|x-y|$,It cannot be at most $-k{d}^2$ for all $d>4B/k$. Thus a globally bounded drift cannot satisfy the stated strict contraction on all of the real line. The stochastic estimate above is the requested conditional calculation. For a non-vacuous application, global boundedness of the drift must be relaxed while retaining suitable existence and moment hypotheses; it is not silently changed here.

A synchronous coupling drives two solutions of a stochastic differential equation by the same Brownian motion. Their difference has noise coefficient $\sigma (X)-\sigma (Y)$. A dissipativity inequality for the drift and this coefficient gives the mean-square contraction of synchronously coupled diffusions.