Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / iii / Paper 27 / 5 / c / 1 / Solution

Let $S$ denote this maximum and put $\tau =\tau (-b)$. Brownian motion reaches $-b$ almost surely: the Brownian reflection principle gives crossing probability $2\mathbb{P}(W_t<-b)\to 1$. Continuity gives $W_{\tau }=-b$, with the strict-crossing infimum interpreted as in part (b). The processis a continuous nonnegative local martingale starting at one and tending to zero. Its maximum is $1+S/b$. Apply part (b) at $a=1+x/b$, for $x>0$:Differentiating gives the maximum before a lower Brownian barrier densityThe tail tends to one as $x\downarrow 0$, so there is no atom at zero. The density integrates to one.