For the linear weak-index parabolic wave equation, a Markov approximation with integrated covariance givesThe drift follows by converting the multiplicative Stratonovich integral to an Itô integral for a Brownian field with transverse covariance . For a Gaussian beam with one transverse coordinate entering the random region at , . The coherent field retains transverse beam structure. The white-noise closure needs short longitudinal correlations and the corresponding separation of propagation scales; Gaussian one-point statistics alone are insufficient.
Gaussian white-noise magnetic stretching 2026-10-14
For a trace-free isotropic Gaussian white noise velocity gradient with covariance , interpret the multiplicative equation as the Stratonovich integral limit of smooth velocity fluctuations. The causal Furutsu–Novikov formula has endpoint weight one half. It gives for the vector probability density function.
A parabolic wave equation driven by longitudinal Gaussian white noise with transverse covariance kernel has the displayed closed mutual coherence equation. The noise is the derivative of a longitudinal Brownian field with transverse covariance; the physical smooth-noise limit uses the Stratonovich integral. Conversion to the Itô integral supplies the attenuation drift and the cross variation supplies the term. For unit plane-wave incidence and transverse statistical homogeneity, . General Gaussian colored media do not have this local closure.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 75 3 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Interpret the multiplicative Gaussian white noise as the limit of a smooth short-correlation-time velocity field, hence in the Stratonovich integral convention. Put . For a realization, differentiating the field-space Dirac delta gives its field-space continuity equationThe velocity-gradient covariance has zero trace variance: contracting with gives . Thus the gradient is trace free, consistently with the incompressible ideal induction equation.
A noise impulse in component changes by times that impulse. Its instantaneous retarded action on the Dirac delta is thereforeOnly earlier times affect the present field. In the white-noise limit the integral over this causal interval has , corresponding to the symmetric short-time regularization. Applying the Furutsu–Novikov formula and then averaging givesSubstitute into the averaged field-space continuity equation:The differentiated term vanishes because , and the remaining contraction isConsequently the closed vector Fokker-Planck equation for Gaussian white-noise magnetic stretching isThis is a positive diffusion operator: the displayed matrix has eigenvalues on the two transverse directions and along . Replacing the endpoint half-weight by one would double the diffusion and fail to reproduce the later rate.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 32 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Fix and a standard -dimensional Brownian motion starting at zero. Let be deterministic nested finite partitions of with mesh tending to zero; dyadic partitions are the basic example. Let be the polygonal interpolation through the partition values and put . The limit is enhanced Brownian motion, with incrementsHere the integral is a Stratonovich integral. In terms of Itô integrals,Its symmetric part is , while its antisymmetric part is Lévy area,These identities and splitting the integral at an intermediate time give the Chen identity, so has values in .
A precise nested polygonal approximation of Brownian rough paths statement is: for every ,where the rough path metric used here isIn particular, for each , choosing gives convergence in the inhomogeneous -variation rough path metric. The limiting signed area is the Lévy area, and the limiting full second level is Stratonovich, not Itô. This distinction is necessary: a polygonal lift has the prescribed symmetric second level, whereas an Itô lift would lack half the quadratic-variation correction.
Here is a proof sketch emphasizing the nested martingale structure. SetA Brownian bridge between two prescribed endpoints has the affine interpolation as conditional mean. ConsequentlyFor the coordinate processes remain independent when their respective partition values are conditioned on. Approximating the Itô integral by its left sums, conditioning each product, and then taking its limit givesIndeed each conditioned factor is its polygonal interpolation, and their sums converge to the ordinary integral of those piecewise linear functions. For a fixed pair , the right side is therefore a martingale in the refinement index . It is not being asserted to be a martingale in physical time; polygonal interpolation uses the right endpoint of its current cell.
The union of the partitions is dense. Continuity of implies that contains the full Brownian path and its stochastic integrals, up to completion. The martingale convergence theorem for conditional expectations therefore yields convergence of and all off-diagonal at every fixed pair, almost surely and in for finite . Simultaneously it holds for a countable dense collection of pairs. The diagonal terms must be handled separately:They are not conditional expectations of the diagonal Brownian second level: the latter would also contain a conditional variance.
Pointwise convergence alone is insufficient for the rough path metric. The Burkholder-Davis-Gundy inequalities, Brownian scaling and Gaussian increment moments give, for arbitrarily large ,Equivalently, using the homogeneous norm on , the -th moment of the Carnot-Carathéodory distance of an increment is bounded by . The metric form of the Kolmogorov continuity theorem, with chosen large, gives for every a random having all finite moments such thatConditioning these bounds givesThe diagonal bounds follow by squaring the first bound. The two conditional-expectation processes are nonnegative martingales; the Doob Lp maximal inequality makes their suprema over finite almost surely, with all needed moments. Thus all the polygonal lifts have a common random bound at exponent .
These bounds and the Chen identity give joint equicontinuity of the increments as functions of . Convergence on the dense collection of pairs consequently gives uniform convergence of both levels on the time triangle. Take . For either level , with a common bound and its uniform difference, interpolation givesThis proves the stated Hölder rough path metric convergence. Finally, for a partition , the -th level difference satisfiesbecause . Taking the appropriate powers and suprema proves -variation convergence too. Nesting is what permits the conditional-expectation martingale proof; without nesting one instead needs direct approximation estimates.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 32 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Work on a finite interval with a fixed initial point . To give a clean global statement, assume are bounded vector fields with bounded continuous derivatives through order three. Consider the Stratonovich integral form of the stochastic differential equationFor a control in the Cameron-Martin space of Wiener measure,let solve the controlled ordinary differential equationThe Stroock-Varadhan support theorem says, in the uniform metric on continuous paths,Thus a path is in the support of a measure of the diffusion precisely when it can be approximated by these deterministic controlled trajectories. There is no ellipticity assumption: the allowed controls and vector fields already encode any restrictions on reachability.
The central point of the rough-path proof is that ordinary uniform approximation of the driver does not make the solution map continuous. Small planar loops can have small amplitude but accumulated area of fixed size, and vector fields with a nonzero Lie bracket detect that area. The correct driver is enhanced Brownian motion , including Lévy area. Fix . The universal limit theorem gives a continuous mapfrom the geometric -variation rough-path space to solution paths. It agrees with the controlled ordinary differential equation when . Adding the time coordinate, with its mixed integrals defined by integration against and integration by parts, incorporates without changing the continuity argument. This is the role of the universal limit theorem: it turns a support problem for all these nonlinear diffusions into a support problem for one enhanced driving process.
For , the rough differential equation is the stated Stratonovich equation. Its second-order increment includesReplacing the Stratonovich integral in the second level by its Itô integral expression contributes , which is exactly the Stratonovich-to-Itô correction. Polygonal convergence from Question 3 and the universal limit theorem therefore give the Wong-Zakai approximation: the ordinary equations driven by converge to this Stratonovich diffusion.
It remains to establish the support of enhanced Brownian motion:One inclusion follows immediately from Question 3. Every polygonal belongs to , and almost surely in the rough path metric. Since is closed, almost surely, whence its support is contained in . This alone does not prove the reverse inclusion: convergence of random approximations does not automatically give positive mass near every control.
For that inclusion, take dyadic mesh and writeOn each grid interval is a pinned Brownian bridge. The bridges are mutually independent and independent of the grid values defining , by the Gaussian projection formula. Their canonical Stratonovich enhancement is therefore independent of . It is important to enhance the bridge residual itself, including its area, rather than infer area smallness from its uniform size.
The bridge enhancement tends to the zero rough path in probability. Here are the estimates behind this assertion. A bridge on an interval of length scales as times a unit bridge; its full antisymmetric area has mean zero, moments of order , and second moment of order . Since its endpoint displacement is zero, at grid points the cumulative second level is just the sum of the independent bridge areas. The Doob L2 maximal inequality givesPartial intervals at the two ends contribute bridge increments and at most two local areas. Bridge scaling, Gaussian moment bounds and the corresponding iterated-integral estimates yield, uniformly in and for arbitrarily large ,For an interval crossing several grid cells, the full-cell second levels are independent centered areas, whose sum has moments bounded by ; the two boundary pieces and their cross product satisfy the displayed bound as well. For an interval inside one cell these are the usual scaled bridge increment and area bounds. At each fixed pair both levels converge to zero in probability: the first-level variance is , and the second-level second moment is for sufficiently fine grids. The Kolmogorov continuity theorem gives uniformly bounded moments of a Hölder rough-path norm at any exponent . Tightness, convergence on a dense set of pairs and interpolation to now give in probability. Taking gives in probability.
Fix . Its polygonal interpolations converge to in the total-variation norm: their derivatives are the cell averages of , which converge in , hence in . Moreover . Thus in the rough path metric.
The rough path translation operation satisfiesFor a bounded variation path , translation adds at level one and, at level two, the mixed termsThe second mixed term is defined by integration by parts. Their variation bounds show that translation is continuous, uniformly when is bounded, near the zero rough path. More explicitly the mixed second-level norms are bounded by a constant times ; the other new second-level term is the path signature of .
Given a ball of radius around , choose a sufficiently large so that is close andfor the small supplied by translation continuity. The relevant variation bounds can be chosen uniformly in , since the variations of the are uniformly bounded. For this fixed , the event has positive probability: the finite vector of Brownian increments has an everywhere positive Gaussian density, and sufficiently small deviations of its vertices imply this variation bound. These two events are independent. On their intersection, translation continuity gives . Every ball around therefore has positive probability. This proves lies in the support, and taking closures gives .
Finally, a continuous map between the separable path spaces in use satisfiesFor one direction the measure is concentrated on its support. For the other, an open neighborhood of pulls back to an open neighborhood of a support point , which has positive measure. Using continuity of and the identity proves the boxed Stroock-Varadhan support theorem. This separates the two ingredients: the probabilistic support calculation for Brownian motion and area, and the deterministic continuity supplied by the universal limit theorem.
If the diffusion is instead presented as an Itô integral equation with drift , the controlled equation must useUsing unchanged in the controlled equation would generally give the wrong support description. The result above states explicit sufficient smoothness and nonexplosion assumptions; extensions to more general coefficients require the usual localization, not an unqualified assertion for arbitrary vector fields.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 88 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write , . In the weak-contrast approximation , neglecting relative to gives the parabolic wave equationFor the mutual coherence , differentiating gives the exact moment equation within this wave approximation,This is an evolution equation but not a closed one. Even a jointly Gaussian random field does not make independent of , which depends on its history. Transverse statistical homogeneity alone therefore does not close the second moment. A covariance or longitudinal Markov approximation is additional information.
Under the white-in- assumption introduced in the next part, interpret , a longitudinal Brownian field with transverse covariance , and use the Stratonovich integral as the smooth-medium limit. Conversion to the Itô integral yieldsThe product rule with quadratic variation gives the closed mutual coherence in a white-noise parabolic medium equation,The two attenuation drifts contribute and the cross variation contributes . The coefficient is the white-noise covariance intensity; it replaces, rather than literally retains, the original finite pointwise variance of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 76 1 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Write and . Substituting into part (a), without prematurely replacing by its linear part, givesTaking the expectation yields the exact mean equation within the paraxial approximation:The correlation term cannot be discarded just because : the field depends on the same random medium as . Nor can be factored exactly from the given variance alone. The printed statistics do not specify the autocorrelation function of a random field, so they do not determine a unique local closed equation for .
A useful covariance-dependent equation follows to second order in . Defineand letbe the Fresnel propagator kernel for one transverse coordinate. The Duhamel principle applied to the linear fluctuation term giveswhere . Multiply by and average. Also . Since , replacing by in terms already multiplied by preserves second-order accuracy. We obtain the weak-fluctuation memory equation for the coherent fieldThis perturbation statement is for fixed propagation intervals with sufficient covariance regularity and moment bounds. The kernel is understood as an oscillatory integral. If the field is jointly Gaussian, odd perturbative contributions vanish and the remainder can be improved under the corresponding expansion hypotheses. Joint Gaussianity itself still leaves the covariance unspecified. The term is the quadratic refractive-index shift in the coherent field; it comes from the mean of .
For the usual local answer, impose the additional Markov approximation for a random medium. Its longitudinal correlation length must be much shorter than the distance on which the envelope varies, and diffraction across that correlation distance must not resolve substantial transverse covariance variation. Away from the entry layer, replace the slowly varying factors in the memory integral by their local values and extend the longitudinal integral to infinity. Define the integrated covarianceFor an integrable real stationary covariance, is even, and is its zero-longitudinal-frequency spectral density. The conventional leading weak-index model keeps only the linear random potential ; in that model the local first-moment equation isThe factor can be checked independently in the white-noise model. If is a Brownian field with , writeConverting the Stratonovich integral to an Itô integral adds . The remaining stochastic integral has zero mean, giving the boxed equation andIf the finite-correlation model retains consistently through order , the local second-order expansion also has , adding the phase factor . This phase is computed before the white-noise idealization: squaring ideal Gaussian white noise is not the finite-variance operation .
The need for a correlation assumption can be seen without any closure argument. The stationary Gaussian random field , with a single standard normal variable , has all the printed one-point statistics. In the linear weak-index model it givesIts attenuation is quadratic in propagation distance, whereas the Markov model gives linear-distance exponential attenuation. The local attenuation equation requires the additional correlation/Markov assumption; it does not follow from statistical homogeneity and unit variance alone.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 202 2 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For continuous semimartingales, the Stratonovich integral adds half the quadratic covariation to the Itô integral:One can see the factor directly from symmetric endpoint sums. On a partition of an interval, replacing at the left endpoint by the average of its two endpoint values adds ; its limit is . Thus the correction depends only on the continuous local martingale parts of the semimartingales. If either integrator or integrand has finite variation, the quadratic covariation vanishes and these two integrals coincide. Here the printed notation denotes Stratonovich integral integration, equivalently .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 202 2 e Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
By the Itô formula,To compute the Stratonovich integral correction, apply the Itô formula also to , which is twice continuously differentiable because is . The continuous local martingale part of is , where is the continuous local martingale part of . A finite-variation process has zero quadratic covariation with , and the quadratic variation of a stochastic integral together with polarization identity givesAll these statements can be localized to compact ranges of , so unbounded derivatives create no global integrability requirement. Substitute this identity into the Stratonovich integral to obtain the Stratonovich chain rule:This is the integrated meaning of the requested differential identity; there is no extra second-order term after the Stratonovich integral correction has been included.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 202 6 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Take , a standard Brownian motion with . The Itô formula and giveIf this nonnegative stochastic process, which starts from zero, were a local martingale, question 4(i) would make it a supermartingale and force its expectation to be at most zero. But for . Hence a Stratonovich integral is in general not a local martingale.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 202 6 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Interpret the Stratonovich integral in its standard extension to continuous semimartingale integrands:This extension is needed because is generally a semimartingale rather than a local martingale. Also the introductory prose in the PDF reverses integrand and integrator relative to its displayed definition; the displayed definition fixes the convention used here.
Apply the Itô formula to , using :The continuous finite-variation process in the second term has zero quadratic covariation with , while the quadratic covariation rule for an Itô integral givesA second application of the Itô formula, now to , therefore yieldsAll unbounded coefficients are handled by stopping on compact spatial intervals, then removing the localizing sequence.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 335 1 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the time-harmonic wave convention and write , , with a deterministic incident wave envelope. The printed speed ratio is inconsistent with : the refractive index used below is . Substituting in the Helmholtz equation givesThe paraxial approximation discards . The usual weak-fluctuation model also linearizes , givingDropping the quadratic contrast is an additional weak-fluctuation assumption, not a consequence of small propagation angles. Although the linearized random potential generates attenuation of order , it does not retain every effect of that order in the literal finite-correlation index: the discarded quadratic contrast can also produce a mean wave phase shift. This linearization must precede a Gaussian white noise limit: the square of ideal white noise has no ordinary pointwise meaning.
The split-step Fourier method alternates free-space diffraction, , with a random phase screen,For jointly Gaussian random fields, Gaussian phase averaging gives . More generally, a product of fields and conjugate fields picks up , with signs or . Its screen average is determined entirely by the wave phase covariance matrix. The deterministic diffraction step acts on each coordinate, with opposite signs on factors formed by complex conjugation. This is the basis of the field-moment equations.
There is an important closure qualification. A stationary Gaussian random field need not have independent longitudinal increments. For finite-correlation fluctuations, the unlinearized parabolic wave equation instead givesIn the weak-fluctuation model, the exact first-moment equation isThe last term cannot in general be replaced by a constant times . An exact generic solution of the linearized model iswhere denotes time ordering of the propagation operators. For the unlinearized model, add inside the propagation generator. The covariance function of the medium is needed to evaluate this expression; One-point Gaussian distributions alone would not even determine the joint wave phase statistics.
For example, omit diffraction and take a longitudinal autocovariance function . Direct Gaussian phase averaging givesEven here, unit-variance stationary Gaussian random fields with different give different answers. In the general problem the diffraction and multiplication operators do not commute, so this scalar attenuation cannot simply be multiplied by without an additional approximation.
The standard closed answer uses the Markov approximation for a random medium, made explicit in part ii. Let the longitudinally integrated covariance kernel beReplace the medium by longitudinal Gaussian white noise with this strength. A screen of thickness then has and is independent of the incoming field. For the moment , expanding both steps to order givesIn particular, the coherent attenuation in a white-noise random medium and its Fresnel propagator solution areEquivalently, write , where is Brownian motion in with transverse covariance kernel . The Stratonovich integral formulation is . Its Itô integral form isThe mean of the Itô integral vanishes, independently confirming the attenuation drift. For in two transverse dimensions,Thus a unit plane wave has . For a general incident wave envelope, the Fresnel propagator supplies its spreading. The attenuation is redistribution between the coherent and diffuse wave fields, rather than wave absorption: for a field and its conjugate at the same point, the screen contribution in the second-moment equation cancels.
Stratonovich chain rule 2026-10-05
For a continuous semimartingale and a sufficiently smooth , the Stratonovich integral obeys . In general is a semimartingale, so the definition must allow this larger class of integrands.