Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 31 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For on ,The Itô formula, stopped in a compact annulus, therefore givesThis proves the local martingale property up to a possible hitting of the origin. For the annulus exit time , is bounded between and , so it is a true uniformly integrable martingale.
The exit is finite almost surely. Indeed is a martingale, so stopping at gives . Letting proves . Bounded convergence in the logarithmic martingale now yieldsIf is the probability of reaching radius before radius , continuity givesHitting zero before reaching radius would require reaching every positive radius first. Its probability is bounded by , which tends to zero as . Any finite-time path hitting zero is bounded before that time and hence hits zero before exiting some integer-radius disk. A countable union over those disks proves for every , almost surely. This is planar Brownian motion avoids a fixed point; it also makes a globally defined continuous local martingale.
To decide whether it is a true martingale, compute its expectation directly. Condition on if necessary and use rotation to take and write . Conditional on , the angle of is uniform. The angular average of a logarithmic potential isFor this follows by taking the real part of the convergent power series for : each nonconstant Fourier term integrates to zero. For factor out and apply the same argument to . The equality at one follows by the integrable limiting logarithmic singularity. All interchanges are valid: the shifted Gaussian density is bounded near the origin, where , and its Gaussian tail controls logarithmic growth.
The radius has density . Consequently, for ,Since , is not a martingale, despite integrability at each deterministic time. This is the logarithmic radius of planar Brownian motion example.
The optional hint is consistent with this conclusion. The upper-radius exit is finite and never occurs at zero. After that exit the stopped square is ; before it, a radius in also gives a logarithmic square no larger than , while a radius below contributes precisely the extra indicated term. This proves the hinted inequality without assuming that the unstopped process is a true martingale.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 33 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For the first equation use an integrating factor. The Itô product rule gives , soThe Gaussianity of deterministic Brownian stochastic integrals follows by approximating its deterministic integrand by step functions and using the Itô isometry. HenceThe variance is positive also when , since numerator and denominator then both have negative sign. This is the explicit Ornstein-Uhlenbeck solution with initial value one.
For the second equation, take independent standard Brownian motions and define . The associated planar Brownian motion does not hit the origin. To check this rather than silently differentiate at zero, stop its radius upon hitting or , with . The function is harmonic on that annulus, so the optional stopping theorem givesLet : hitting zero before has probability zero. Taking integer covers every possible finite hitting time, since continuous paths are bounded on compact intervals. Thus planar Brownian motion avoids a fixed point and stays positive.
The radial Itô formula is now legitimate and givesThe sum of the two martingale terms has bracket and starts at zero, so it is a standard Brownian motion by Lévy characterization of Brownian motion. Thus with . The law-determination assumption permitted in the question identifies the law of with that of this dimension-two Bessel process. For independent standard normal random variables ,This is the two-dimensional Bessel transition law and answers the requested distribution without needing a special-function density.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 36 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
First justify that the logarithm is defined at all times from one onward. For planar Brownian motion started at , stop on exiting the annulus , where . This exit time is finite almost surely: the stopped identity gives . The function is harmonic on the annulus, so its stopped process is a bounded martingale. Optional stopping givesHitting zero before the outer circle would require hitting every inner circle first. It therefore has probability zero. Taking a countable sequence of outer radii tending to infinity proves that planar Brownian motion avoids a fixed point. Since has a density and is nonzero almost surely, condition on to apply this result to the future path.
For , and in two dimensions. The Itô formula on annuli therefore givesTo localize explicitly, let . These stopping times increase to infinity almost surely: on each compact time interval the continuous path has a finite maximum and, by point avoidance, a positive minimum radius. Up to , the stochastic integrand has norm at most . Its stopped integral is square-integrable on every finite horizon. The initial value is integrable, as follows from the Rayleigh-density calculation in part d. Hence is a true martingale from time one and is a local martingale. This also gives its quadratic variation from time one as .
Two-dimensional Bessel transition law 2026-10-14
A dimension-two Bessel process starting at has the displayed marginal law, where are independent standard normal random variables. Take the norm of a planar Brownian motion starting at . Planar Brownian motion avoids a fixed point, so the norm stays positive; Itô formula gives drift and a martingale term of bracket . The Lévy characterization of Brownian motion identifies that term as its driving Brownian motion. The squared radius divided by has a noncentral chi-squared distribution with two degrees of freedom and noncentrality .