Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2007 / iii / Paper 36 / 1 / b

The Lévy characterization of multidimensional Brownian motion says that a continuous adapted ${\mathbb{R}}^d$-valued process $Z$, with $Z_0=0$, is standard Brownian motion relative to the given filtration if and only if its coordinates are local martingales andFor Brownian motion, independent centered Gaussian increments give the martingale property of each coordinate and of $Z_t^i{Z}_t^j-{\delta }_{ij}t$. The defining uniqueness of quadratic covariation consequently gives the bracket condition.

Conversely, suppose the local martingale and bracket conditions hold. For $\theta \in {\mathbb{R}}^d$, the Itô formula givessince the bracket term cancels the time derivative. On $[0,T]$, $|E_t|\le e^{|\theta {|}^{2}T/2}$, so its real and imaginary parts are bounded local martingales and hence true martingales. Thus, for $s\le t$,This is the characteristic function of $N(0,(t-s)I_d)$ and is independent of ${\mathcal{F}}_s$. Uniqueness of characteristic functions shows that $Z_t-Z_s$ has that Gaussian distribution and is independent of the past. Iterating over ordered times gives independent Gaussian increments; together with continuous paths and $Z_0=0$, these are precisely the defining properties of standard Brownian motion.