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Fix a sequence of deterministic partitions with mesh tending to zero and define the completed-increment sumsFor a continuous semimartingale, these sums converge to $[X{]}_t$ in uniform convergence on compacts in probability, the standard path-increment formula for quadratic variation. The sums use only the path of $X$, and do not mention a filtration. If the same process is a semimartingale for two filtrations, the same sums have both proposed quadratic variations as limits. Uniqueness of limits in probability, followed by continuity, makes these limits indistinguishable.

For the change of measure, let $R=d\mathbb{Q}/d\mathbb{P}$. If $\mathbb{P}(A_n)\to 0$, thentruncate $R$ at a large constant, use $\mathbb{E}[R{1}_{\{R>K\}}]\to 0$, and then let $\mathbb{P}(A_n)\to 0$. Apply this argument to the event ${\sup }_{s\le t}|S_s^{(n)}-[X{]}_s^{\mathbb{P}}|>\epsilon$. The same sums converge to the P-version of the bracket in Q-probability, and the Q-semimartingale formula makes them converge to the Q-version. ThereforeThis is quadratic variation under an absolutely continuous measure change. With only $\mathbb{Q}\ll \mathbb{P}$, the equality is asserted under Q: a Q-version is unconstrained on a Q-null set that might have positive P-probability.

For a continuous semimartingale $X$, its quadratic variation is the continuous increasing zero-starting process obtained as the limit, uniformly on compact time intervals in probability, of sums of squared increments along deterministic partitions whose mesh tends to zero. If $X=X_0+N+V$ is its continuous local-martingale/finite-variation decomposition, then $[X]=[N]$; finite-variation terms and their cross sums vanish.

Write $D=d\mathbb{Q}/d\mathbb{P}$. If $\mathbb{P}(E_n)\to 0$, then for every $R>0$,First send $n$ to infinity and then $R$ to infinity. Thus convergence in probability under $\mathbb{P}$ implies convergence in probability under $\mathbb{Q}$, also for a supremum on a compact time interval. The same squared-increment sums converge under $\mathbb{Q}$ to the $\mathbb{P}$ version of $[X]$. Since $X$ is also a semimartingale under $\mathbb{Q}$, these sums converge to its $\mathbb{Q}$ quadratic variation. Uniqueness of limits in probability gives equality at every fixed time; continuity and countably many rational times giveAbsolute continuity suffices; equivalence is not required. This is quadratic variation under an absolutely continuous measure change.