Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / iii / Paper 202 / 6 / c

The Itô formula for $f(t,x)=e^{x+at}$ gives the stochastic differential equationWrite $N_t={\int }_0^t{Z}_{u}d{B}_u$ for its continuous local martingale part. Its clock is the quadratic variationBecause $Z_t>0$, $A$ is strictly increasing. For $s<A_{\infty }$, its inverse ${\tau }_s$ satisfies $A_{{\tau }_s}=s$ and $d{\tau }_s/ds=Z_{{\tau }_s}^{-2}$. The Dambis-Dubins-Schwarz theorem, or the Lévy characterization of Brownian motion after the optional time-change theorem, makes ${\beta }_s=N_{{\tau }_s}$ a Brownian motion for the time-changed filtration. With $Y_s=Z_{{\tau }_s}$,This is the Bessel process equation with dimension $\boxed{2+2a}$, on the positive stochastic interval. This establishes the Exponential Brownian-to-Bessel time change.

The lifetime convention is important: the inverse is defined only for $s<A_{\infty }$. If $a<0$, the strong law for Brownian motion gives $B_t/t\to 0$, so $Z_t\to 0$ exponentially and $A_{\infty }<\infty$. Then $Y_s\to 0$ as $s\uparrow A_{\infty }$, and this is its first hit of zero after continuous extension. If $a>0$ the clock diverges by the same strong law. If $a=0$ it diverges by infinite occupation time of one-dimensional Brownian motion on a bounded interval, since $e^{2B_t}$ is bounded below there. Thus the lifetime is infinite when $a\ge 0$. Negative dimensions are interpreted by the same positive-state equation killed at zero; no post-zero Bessel process behavior is asserted.