A random variable is a mathematical formalization of a quantity or object which depends on random events. The term 'random variable' in its mathematical definition refers to neither randomness nor variability but instead is a mathematical function in which
In mathematical analysis and in probability theory, a σ-algebra on a set X is a nonempty collection Σ of subsets of X closed under complement, countable unions, and countable intersections. The ordered pair is called a measurable space.
In probability theory, a martingale is a sequence of random variables for which, at a particular time, the conditional expectation of the next value in the sequence is equal to the present value, regardless of all prior values.
In probability theory and statistics, the term Markov property refers to the memoryless property of a stochastic process, which means that its future evolution is independent of its history. It is named after the Russian mathematician Andrey Markov. The term strong Markov property is similar to the Markov property, except that the meaning of "present" is defined in terms of a random variable known as a stopping time.
In probability theory, the Girsanov theorem tells how stochastic processes change under changes in measure. The theorem is especially important in the theory of financial mathematics as it tells how to convert from the physical measure, which describes the probability that an underlying instrument will take a particular value or values, to the risk-neutral measure which is a very useful tool for evaluating the value of derivatives on the underlying.
In mathematics, a filtration is an indexed family of subobjects of a given algebraic structure , with the index running over some totally ordered index set , subject to the condition that
In probability theory, in particular in the study of stochastic processes, a stopping time is a specific type of “random time”: a random variable whose value is interpreted as the time at which a given stochastic process exhibits a certain behavior of interest. A stopping time is often defined by a stopping rule, a mechanism for deciding whether to continue or stop a process on the basis of the present position and past events, and which will almost always lead to a decision to stop at some finite time.
A stochastic differential equation (SDE) is a differential equation in which one or more of the terms is a stochastic process, resulting in a solution which is also a stochastic process. SDEs have many applications throughout pure mathematics and are used to model various behaviours of stochastic models such as stock prices, random growth models or physical systems that are subjected to thermal fluctuations.
Itô calculus, named after Kiyosi Itô, extends the methods of calculus to stochastic processes such as Brownian motion. It has important applications in mathematical finance and stochastic differential equations.
In probability theory, the martingale representation theorem states that a random variable that is measurable with respect to the filtration generated by a Brownian motion can be written in terms of an Itô integral with respect to this Brownian motion.
In probability theory, random element is a generalization of the concept of random variable to more complicated spaces than the simple real line. The concept was introduced by Maurice Fréchet who commented that the “development of probability theory and expansion of area of its applications have led to necessity to pass from schemes where (random) outcomes of experiments can be described by number or a finite set of numbers, to schemes where outcomes of experiments represent, for example, vectors, functions, processes, fields, series, transformations, and also sets or collections of sets.”
In the study of stochastic processes, a stochastic process is adapted if information about the value of the process at a given time is available at that same time. An informal interpretation is that X is adapted if and only if, for every realisation and every n, Xn is known at time n. The concept of an adapted process is essential, for instance, in the definition of the Itō integral, which only makes sense if the integrand is an adapted process.
In mathematics, progressive measurability is a property in the theory of stochastic processes. A progressively measurable process, while defined quite technically, is important because it implies the stopped process is measurable. Being progressively measurable is a strictly stronger property than the notion of being an adapted process. Progressively measurable processes are important in the theory of Itô integrals.
In mathematics, finite-dimensional distributions are a tool in the study of measures and stochastic processes. A lot of information can be gained by studying the "projection" of a measure onto a finite-dimensional vector space.
In mathematics, the law of a stochastic process is the measure that the process induces on the collection of functions from the index set into the state space. The law encodes a lot of information about the process; in the case of a random walk, for example, the law is the probability distribution of the possible trajectories of the walk.
In mathematics, the Kolmogorov extension theorem is a theorem that guarantees that a suitably "consistent" collection of finite-dimensional distributions will define a stochastic process. It is credited to the English mathematician Percy John Daniell and the Russian mathematician Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov.
In the study of stochastic processes in mathematics, a hitting time is the first time at which a given process "hits" a given subset of the state space. Exit times and return times are also examples of hitting times.
In mathematics – specifically, in stochastic analysis – an Itô diffusion is a solution to a specific type of stochastic differential equation. That equation is similar to the Langevin equation used in physics to describe the Brownian motion of a particle subjected to a potential in a viscous fluid. Itô diffusions are named after the Japanese mathematician Kiyosi Itô.
In probability theory, the Doob–Dynkin lemma, named after Joseph L. Doob and Eugene Dynkin, characterizes the situation when one random variable is a function of another by the inclusion of the -algebras generated by the random variables. The usual statement of the lemma is formulated in terms of one random variable being measurable with respect to the -algebra generated by the other.
In the theory of stochastic processes, a subdiscipline of probability theory, filtrations are totally ordered collections of subsets that are used to model the information that is available at a given point and therefore play an important role in the formalization of random (stochastic) processes.
