Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / iii / Paper 202 / 6

Set $V(x)=(1+x^2{)}^{-1}$ and $A_t={\int }_0^{t}V(B_s)ds$. On a fixed horizon $T$, the Itô formula and Itô product rule giveThe drift vanishes by the partial differential equation. This makes $M$ a continuous local martingale. Since $0\le A_t\le T$,The right side is a finite deterministic bound under the stated boundedness assumption, so the dominated convergence theorem removes a localizing sequence and $M$ is a true martingale. If the derivatives are also bounded, the Itô isometry alternatively proves the stochastic integral is square-integrable because $\mathbb{E}{\int }_0^T{e}^{2A_s}|u_x(T-s,B_s){|}^{2}ds\le T{e}^{2T}\Vert u_x{\Vert }_{\infty }^2$.

For the bounded parabolic differentiability class, distinguish global bounds from bounds on each finite time slab. Only the latter are needed here; a single global bound on the classical solution $u$ would conflict with its requested long-time growth in part (c).

For the true martingale of part (a), $M_0=u(T,x)$ and $M_T=f(B_T)e^{A_T}$. Taking expectations gives the Feynman-Kac formula with a bounded potential:The right side is finite since its absolute value is at most $e^t\Vert f{\Vert }_{\infty }$. This also proves uniqueness among classical solutions bounded on every finite time slab: applying the formula to their difference with zero initial data gives zero. The positive sign of the potential in the partial differential equation explains the positive exponent; changing it to a negative exponent would solve a different equation.

The infinite occupation time of one-dimensional Brownian motion impliesFor a start $x\ne 0$, first wait until $B$ hits zero, which happens in finite time by recurrence of one-dimensional Brownian motion, and apply the Strong Markov property. The repeated exit-and-return argument in Question 4(c) then proves the infinite occupation integral. Since $f\ge C>0$, the Feynman-Kac formula gives $u(t,x)\ge C{\mathbb{E}}_x{e}^{A_t}$. The random variables $e^{A_t}$ increase to infinity almost surely; the monotone convergence theorem therefore yields the intended positive-potential growth from Brownian recurrence:Under global boundedness, no such solution exists when the initial function is bounded below by a positive constant. The PDF prints $C_b^{1,2}({\mathbb{R}}_{+}\times \mathbb{R})$; if the subscript means bounded over the whole product, its hypotheses with $f\ge C>0$ are incompatible, rather than an example of growth within that class. The precise correction is to require $u$ and its indicated derivatives to be bounded on $[0,T]\times \mathbb{R}$ for every finite $T$. The derivation above then gives the requested limit. Already $f\equiv 1$ satisfies the printed initial-data assumption but cannot have a globally bounded classical solution, by this formula. Also the PDF's $u(x,t)$ in this clause reverses the argument order from $u(t,x)$ used in the equation; the limit above keeps the equation's time-first convention.