Measurability 2026-10-06
Measurability is the property that inverse images of measurable target sets are measurable in the source space. For a stochastic process, joint measurability in time and sample is a different condition from the separate adaptedness condition at each fixed time. The predictable sigma-algebra and progressive measurability encode particular joint measurability requirements.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 24 4 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Relative to a filtration , progressive measurability means that, for every , the mapis measurable for the product sigma-algebra and the Borel sigma-algebra on .
Fix and divide into equal subintervals with mesh . DefineSince is adapted, every random variable is -measurable, hence -measurable. Each approximation is consequently -measurable. For , its sampling time lies strictly to the right of , tends to , and never exceeds . Right continuity implies ; at equality is exact. Thus is the pointwise limit of measurable functions on this product space. As was arbitrary, is progressively measurable. This is the theorem that right-continuous adapted processes are progressively measurable.
The right-endpoint approximations need not themselves be adapted at their intermediate times. What the proof requires is their joint measurability with respect to the single terminal sigma-algebra . The proof uses the pathwise càdlàg convention. If path regularity is assumed only almost surely, under a completed filtration setting the stochastic process to zero on its common exceptional null event gives an indistinguishable progressively measurable version. Arbitrary values on that null event need not make the original stochastic process progressively measurable: even with a complete filtration, a null sample point may be assigned a non-Borel time function. This is why almost sure path regularity does not ensure progressive measurability.
For an adapted process with pathwise right continuity, fix and approximate its time argument by the next endpoint of a deterministic partition of . Every approximation is jointly measurable for the terminal product sigma-algebra because all sampled values are -measurable. Right continuity makes them converge pointwise, proving progressive measurability. Sampling from the right need not preserve adaptedness at intermediate times, but that is not required in this proof.
Stopped process 2026-10-07
The stopped stochastic process follows until the stopping time and thereafter keeps the value when is finite. For a pathwise right-continuous adapted process, the stopped process is adapted, by progressive measurability and measurable evaluation at . When is a martingale, further stopping and integrability conditions determine whether its stopped process is a martingale.