In stochastic analysis, a part of the mathematical theory of probability, a predictable process is a stochastic process whose value is knowable at a prior time. The predictable processes form the smallest class that is closed under taking limits of sequences and contains all adapted left-continuous processes.[ clarification needed ]
Given a filtered probability space , then a stochastic process is predictable if is measurable with respect to the σ-algebra for each n. [1]
Given a filtered probability space , then a continuous-time stochastic process is predictable if , considered as a mapping from , is measurable with respect to the σ-algebra generated by all left-continuous adapted processes. [2] This σ-algebra is also called the predictable σ-algebra.
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 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 conditional expectation, conditional expected value, or conditional mean of a random variable is its expected value evaluated with respect to the conditional probability distribution. If the random variable can take on only a finite number of values, the "conditions" are that the variable can only take on a subset of those values. More formally, in the case when the random variable is defined over a discrete probability space, the "conditions" are a partition of this probability space.
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, a Hunt process is a type of Markov process, named for mathematician Gilbert A. Hunt who first defined them in 1957. Hunt processes were important in the study of probabilistic potential theory until they were superseded by right processes in the 1970s.
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 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 probability theory, a real valued stochastic process X is called a semimartingale if it can be decomposed as the sum of a local martingale and a càdlàg adapted finite-variation process. Semimartingales are "good integrators", forming the largest class of processes with respect to which the Itô integral and the Stratonovich integral can be defined.
In probability theory, a random measure is a measure-valued random element. Random measures are for example used in the theory of random processes, where they form many important point processes such as Poisson point processes and Cox processes.
In the theory of stochastic processes in discrete time, a part of the mathematical theory of probability, the Doob decomposition theorem gives a unique decomposition of every adapted and integrable stochastic process as the sum of a martingale and a predictable process starting at zero. The theorem was proved by and is named for Joseph L. Doob.
The Snell envelope, used in stochastics and mathematical finance, is the smallest supermartingale dominating a stochastic process. The Snell envelope is named after James Laurie Snell.
In the mathematical theory of probability, Blumenthal's zero–one law, named after Robert McCallum Blumenthal, is a statement about the nature of the beginnings of right continuous Feller process. Loosely, it states that any right continuous Feller process on starting from deterministic point has also deterministic initial movement.
The Engelbert–Schmidt zero–one law is a theorem that gives a mathematical criterion for an event associated with a continuous, non-decreasing additive functional of Brownian motion to have probability either 0 or 1, without the possibility of an intermediate value. This zero-one law is used in the study of questions of finiteness and asymptotic behavior for stochastic differential equations. This 0-1 law, published in 1981, is named after Hans-Jürgen Engelbert and the probabilist Wolfgang Schmidt.
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.