Past exam of the stochastic differential equations and Brownian motion in complex analysis course of the University of Oxford / 2010 / A / 1

Write the stochastic differential equation in integral form and replace the unknown integrand by the preceding Picard iterate. With the deterministic initial vector $a$, the recursion isEach iterate is a continuous adapted process. The Itô isometry inductively gives its square integrability on every bounded time interval, so all these Itô integrals are well defined.

Use $s$ for the dummy integration variable in the printed integral. The Itô isometry givesThe assumed second-moment bound also proves the integrability needed to apply the Itô isometry. The extra time integration is the source of the factorial improvement.

Set $K={\sum }_i\Vert A^i{\Vert }_{\mathrm{op}}^2$, where the norms are operator norms, and $D_m=y^{(m+1)}-y^{(m)}$. Independence of the Brownian coordinates and the vector Itô isometry giveInduction, as in part (b), yields the Factorial Picard estimate for a linear stochastic differential equationFor $t\le T$, the triangle inequality in $L^2$ therefore bounds any tail of the iterates by the corresponding tail ofThis numerical series converges by the ratio test: successive terms have ratio $\sqrt{KT/(m+2)}\to 0$. Thus the iterates are Cauchy in $L^2$, uniformly in the deterministic time parameter on each bounded interval. Completeness of Lp spaces gives a limit $y_t$. Once its continuous adapted version is chosen in part (d), the Itô isometry permits passage to the limit in the integral equation: the squared norm of each integral difference is bounded by $K{\int }_0^T\mathbb{E}|y_s^{(m)}-y_s{|}^{2}ds\to 0$. Consequently the Picard limit solves the stochastic differential equation.

For every $m$, $D_m$ is a continuous square-integrable vector martingale. Its norm is a submartingale, so the Doob L2 maximal inequality and the estimate from part (c) giveThe Cauchy-Schwarz inequality now showsBy Tonelli's theorem, the random sum of these suprema is finite almost surely. Therefore the telescoping series $a+{\sum }_m{D}_m(t)$ converges absolutely and uniformly on $[0,T]$ outside one null event. Its limit is continuous and agrees at each fixed time with the $L^2$ limit from part (c). Taking the intersection of the probability-one events for integer $T$ provides a single version on the whole half-line. HenceThis also gives the requested pointwise almost-sure convergence of the full sequence.