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Let $B=(B_t)_{t\geq 0}$ be a brownian motion. Show the time inversion formula $\hat{B}=(\hat B_t)_t\geq0$ is a brownian motion, where for $t \geq 0$ we set $\hat{B}_0=0$ and $\hat{B}_t=tB_{1/t}$ for $t>0$.

I cant figure out how to do this question , can someone help me ? Thanks

lindamac
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4 Answers4

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We refer to the following theorem:

Theorem. [1] If $B$ is a process such that all the finite-dimensional distributions are jointly normal, $\mathbb{E}B_s = 0$ for all $s$, $\mathrm{Cov}(B_s,B_t) = s$ when $s \leq t$, and the paths of $B_t$ are continuous, then $B$ is a Brownian motion.

Let $\hat{B}_t = t B_{1/t}$ for $t > 0$ and $\hat{B}_0 = 0$. Then everything is clear except for $\mathrm{Cov}(\hat{B}_s,\hat{B}_t) = s$ when $s \leq t$ and the continuity of sample paths.

First, observe that $0 \leq s \leq t$ implies $1/t \leq 1/s$. Thus

$$ \mathrm{Cov}(\hat{B}_s,\hat{B}_t) = \mathrm{Cov}(s B_{1/s}, t B_{1/t}) = st \, \mathrm{Cov}(B_{1/s}, B_{1/t}) = st (1/t) = s.$$

Next, for the continuity of $\hat{B}$, it suffices to show the continuity at zero, i.e.,

$$\lim_{t\to 0} \hat{B}_t = \lim_{t\to 0} t B_{1/t} = \lim_{t\to\infty} \frac{B_t}{t} = 0 \quad \text{a.s.},$$

or equivalently, for any $\epsilon > 0$,

$$ \mathbb{P} \left( \limsup_{t\to\infty} \frac{\left| B_t \right|}{t} > \epsilon \right) = 0. $$

To prove this, we claim the following inequality: For $\lambda, t > 0$,

$$ \mathbb{P} \left( \sup_{s\leq t} \left| B_s \right| \geq \lambda \right) \leq 2e^{-\lambda^2 / 2t}. $$

Indeed, let $a > 0$. Then $e^{aB_t}$ is a submartingale, thus Doob's martingale inequality shows that

$$ \mathbb{P} \left( \sup_{s\leq t} B_s \geq \lambda \right) = \mathbb{P} \left( \sup_{s\leq t} e^{aB_s} \geq e^{a\lambda} \right) \leq \frac{\mathbb{E}\left[ e^{aB_t} \right]}{e^{a\lambda}} = e^{a^2t/2 - a\lambda}. $$

Putting $a = \lambda / t$ to this inequality yields

$$ \mathbb{P} \left( \sup_{s\leq t} B_s \geq \lambda \right) \leq e^{-\lambda^2/2t}. $$

Then the claim follows by the symmetry of the Brownian motion.

Note that

$$ \begin{align*} \sup_{n \leq s \leq n+1} \frac{\left| B_s \right|}{s} > \epsilon & \quad \Longrightarrow \quad \exists s \in [n, n+1] \text{ such that } \left| B_s \right| > \epsilon s \\ & \quad \Longrightarrow \quad \exists s \in [n, n+1] \text{ such that } \left| B_s \right| > \epsilon n \geq \frac{\epsilon (n+1)}{2} \\ & \quad \Longrightarrow \quad \sup_{s \leq n+1} \left| B_s \right| \geq \frac{\epsilon (n+1)}{2}. \end{align*}$$

Thus we have

$$ \begin{align*} \mathbb{P} \left( \sup_{t \geq N} \frac{\left| B_t \right|}{t} > \epsilon \right) &\leq \sum_{n=N}^{\infty} \mathbb{P} \left( \sup_{n \leq t \leq n+1} \frac{\left| B_t \right|}{t} > \epsilon \right) \leq \sum_{n=N+1}^{\infty} \mathbb{P} \left( \sup_{s \leq n} \left| B_s \right| \geq \frac{\epsilon n}{2} \right) \\ &\leq 2 \sum_{n=N+1}^{\infty} e^{-\epsilon^2 n/8} = O_{\epsilon}\left( e^{-\epsilon^2 N/8} \right). \end{align*}$$

Therefore we have

$$\mathbb{P} \left( \limsup_{t\to\infty} \frac{\left| B_t \right|}{t} > \epsilon \right) = \lim_{N\to\infty} \mathbb{P} \left( \sup_{t \geq N} \frac{\left| B_t \right|}{t} > \epsilon \right) = 0.$$


[1] Richard F. Bass (2011), Stochastic Processes, Cambridge University Press (Theorem 2.4)

Feng
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Sangchul Lee
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There is another way to prove this. That the process is Gaussian and continuous for $t>0$ is clear. Furthermore we have $E[\hat{B}_t]=0$ and $\mathrm{Cov}(\hat{B}_s,\hat{B}_t)=s\wedge t$. We want to use:

Brownian Motion is the unique Gaussian process $X$ with continuous path such that $E[X_t]=0$ and $\mathrm{Cov}(X_t,X_s)=s\wedge t:=\min\{t,s\}$.

So all you have to check is the continuity at $0$, i.e. $$P[\lim_{t\downarrow 0}\hat{B}_t=0]=1.$$

We denote with $Q$ the distribution of $\hat{B}$ on $C(0,1]$. (I prove this for $t\in[0,1]$, but there is no problem to extend it to the general case.) Let $\mu$ denote the Wiener measure on $C[0,1]$. Now we have $\mu = Q$ on $C(0,1]$ since they have the same finite dimensional marginal distributions. Therefore

\begin{align*} P[\lim_{t\downarrow 0}\hat{B}_t=0]&=Q[x\in C(0,1]:\lim_{t\downarrow 0}x(t)=0]\\ &=\mu[x\in C(0,1]:\lim_{t\downarrow 0}x(t)=0]\\ &=P[\lim_{t\downarrow 0}B_t=0]\\ &=1. \end{align*}

cheers

math

Alex Ortiz
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math
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  • this is exactly what I was looking for – mastro Jul 28 '15 at 09:40
  • But the event ${x \in C(0,1]: \lim _{t \downarrow 0} x(t)=0}$ is not measurable? – XXX Mar 13 '22 at 22:57
  • The event is measurable since it can be written as $\cap_{\varepsilon \in \mathbb{Q} \cap (0,\infty)} \cup_{t \in \mathbb{Q} \cap (0,\infty)} { x \in C(0,1]: \vert x(t) \vert < \varepsilon}$ – G. Chiusole May 17 '22 at 08:39
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Using the characterisation of Brownian motion as a unique Gaussian process subject to certain properties, continuity at zero may be demonstrated differently, without the appeal to the Wiener measure. Indeed, we may write the event as: \begin{align*} \left\{ \lim_{t\ \to 0}\hat{B}_t=0 \right\} = \bigcap_{n=1}^{\infty} \bigcup_{m=1}^{\infty} \bigcap_{q \in \mathbb{Q} \cap \left(0,\frac{1}{m}\right]} \left\{ |\hat{B}_q| \leq \frac{1}{n} \right\}. \end{align*} Under our probability measure for $t>0$, \begin{align*} \mathbb{P}\left[|\hat{B}_t| \leq \frac{1}{n}\right] = \mathbb{P}\left[|B_t| \leq \frac{1}{n}\right], \end{align*} so the almost sure continuity follows from that of the original Brownian motion.

spetrevski
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  • Should it not be ${|\hat{B}_q|\leq \frac{1}{n}}$ in the first equation – OgvRubin Jan 23 '21 at 10:06
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    Absolutely - thanks for spotting this! – spetrevski Jan 23 '21 at 12:39
  • @spetrevski Why does $\mathbb P(\bigcap_{q\in\mathbb Q\cap (0;1/m]}{|B_q|\le 1/n})$ remain equal if we change $\mathbb P$ to $\hat {\mathbb P}$ and $B$ to $\hat B$? – Kolodez Feb 04 '22 at 21:27
  • Oh, I see it: We can write $\mathbb Q \cap (0;1/m] = {q^m_1,q^m_2,\ldots}$ and then the event is equal to $\bigcap_{k\in{1,2,\ldots}} {\max(|B_{q^m_1}|,\ldots,|B_{q^m_k}|) \le 1/n}$, which is an intersection of a non-increasing sequence of events, which only depend on finite-dimensional distributions. – Kolodez Feb 07 '22 at 10:51
  • convergence on the rationals is not enough to show that the newly defined process is continuous. For example, the dirichelet function with 0 on the rationals, and 1 otherwise. – XXX Mar 13 '22 at 23:27
  • @XXX we are not proving convergence on the rationals. We are proving that the probability of convergence (on the reals) remains equal if the finite dimensional distributions remain equal. – Kolodez May 18 '22 at 12:17
  • @Kolodez Why on the reals? – XXX May 19 '22 at 20:27
  • @XXX This is the first equation of the original answer. ${\lim_{t\to 0} \hat B_t = 0}$ is the event that the path of $\hat B$ as function defined on $[0;\infty)$ (all non-negative reals) is continuous in $0$. Since it is already known that the path is continuous on $(0;\infty)$, we can write this event as a countable intersection of countable unions of countable intersections, as the first equation states. – Kolodez May 20 '22 at 21:33
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The only difficulty is to prove the continuity at $\hat{B}_0$, i.e. $$P\left(\lim _{t \rightarrow 0+} t B_{1/t}=0\right)=1.$$ In other words, we only need to prove $$P\left(\lim _{t \rightarrow \infty} B_{t} / t=0\right)=1.$$

Lemma. Let $\xi_{1}, \xi_{2}, \cdots$ be i.i.d. random variables with $E\left|\xi_{1}\right|<\infty$, then $$ P\left(\lim _{n \rightarrow\infty} \frac{\xi_{n}}{n}=0\right)=1 . $$

Proof. Notice that \begin{equation} \sum_{n=1}^{\infty}P\left(\left|\xi_{n}\right|>n \varepsilon\right) = E\left\lfloor\frac{|\xi_1|}{\varepsilon}\right\rfloor. \end{equation} Since $E\left|\xi_{1}\right|<\infty$, we have $\Sigma_{n} P\left(\left|\xi_{n}\right|>n \varepsilon\right)<\infty, \forall \varepsilon>0$. Thus we can derive $P\left(\left|\xi_{n}\right|>n \varepsilon\right.$ i.o. $)=0$ from Borel-Cantelli Lemma, and the lemma is proved.

Corollary. $P\left(\lim _{t \rightarrow \infty} B_{t} / t=0\right)=1$.

Proof. For any integer $n \geqslant 0$, let $$ X_{n}=\sup _{n \leqslant t \leqslant n+1}\left(B_{t}-B_{n}\right), $$ and then $X_{0}, X_{1}, X_{2}, \cdots$ are i.i.d. random varibles with $E|X_1|<\infty$. The lemma above shows $X_{n} / n \rightarrow 0$ a.s..

Let $$S_t = B_{\lfloor t\rfloor},$$ $$U_t = \sup _{\lfloor t\rfloor \leqslant r \leqslant \lfloor t\rfloor+1}\left(B_{r}-B_{\lfloor t\rfloor}\right),$$ $$V_t = \sup _{\lfloor t\rfloor \leqslant r \leqslant \lfloor t\rfloor+1}\left(B_{\lfloor t\rfloor} - B_{r}\right)$$ be 3 random processes (which are all piece-wise constant).

The SLLN shows that $B_{n} / n \rightarrow 0$ a.s., and thus $S_{t} / t \rightarrow 0$ a.s.. Using the above fact that $X_{n} / n \rightarrow 0$ a.s., we can derive that $U_{t} / t \rightarrow 0$ a.s., and $V_{t} / t \rightarrow 0$ a.s. for the same reason. Finally, we have $|B_{t} / t|\le |S_{t} / t| + U_{t} / t + V_{t} / t \rightarrow 0$ a.s..

qdmj
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  • Hi, out of all proofs here, I like yours the best. However it is not clear to me, how the $(X_n)$ are independent. Surely, for any $0 \leq t < 1$ the $(B_n+t - B_n)_n$ are independent, but taking a supremum is not a 'small thing'. Am I missing out on something here? –  May 09 '22 at 12:52
  • @user941567 I guess we may modify the definition of $(X_n)$ to make $X_n$'s be independent. To be more specific, we may define $X_{n}=\sup {n \leqslant t \color{red}{<} n+1}\left(B{t}-B_{n}\right)$. Since $(B_t)$ is continuous a.s. and each $X_n$ is defined by taking supremum, this new $(X_n)$ should be equal to the original $(X_n)$ defined in the answer a.s.. And now we have independence. – Sam Wong Apr 07 '23 at 16:14