Preface to the revised edition Remarks on notation 1. Basic examples 2. Characterization and existence 3. Stable processes and their extensions 4. The Levy-Ito decomposition of sample functions 5. Distributional properties of Levy processes 6. Subordination and density transformation 7. Recurrence and transience 8. Potential theory for Levy processes 9. Wiener-Hopf factorizations 10. More distributional properties Supplement Solutions to exercises References and author index Subject index.

Lévy processes and infinitely divisible distributions

Real and Complex Analysis

Formally we have arrived at the middle of the book. So you may need a pause for recovering, a pause which we want to fill up by some fixed point theorems supplementing those which you already met or which you will meet in later chapters. The first group of results centres around Banach’s fixed point theorem. The latter is certainly a nice result since it contains only one simple condition on the map F, since it is so easy to prove and since it nevertheless allows a variety of applications. Therefore it is not astonishing that many mathematicians have been attracted by the question to which extent the conditions on F and the space Ω can be changed so that one still gets the existence of a unique or of at least one fixed point. The number of results produced this way is still finite, but of a statistical magnitude, suggesting at a first glance that only a random sample can be covered by a chapter or even a book of the present size. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) most of the modifications have not found applications up to now, so that there is no reason to write a cookery book about conditions but to write at least a short outline of some ideas indicating that this field can be as interesting as other chapters. A systematic account of more recent ideas and examples in fixed point theory should however be written by one of the true experts. Strange as it is, such a book does not seem to exist though so many people are puzzling out so many results.

Fixed Point Theory

THE theory of Fourier integrals arises out of the elegant pair of reciprocal formulae The Laplace Transform By David Vernon Widder. (Princeton Mathematical Series.) Pp. x + 406. (Princeton: Princeton University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1941.) 36s. net.

The Laplace Transform

1. Stochastic processes and random fields 2. Continuous semimartingales and stochastic integrals 3. Semimartingales with spatial parameter and stochastic integrals 4. Stochastic flows 5. Convergence of stochastic flows 6. Stochastic partial differential equations.

Stochastic flows and stochastic differential equations

This paper is concerned with the characterization of arbitrage-free dynamic stochastic models for the equity markets when Ito stochastic differential equations are used to model the dynamics of a set of basic instruments including, but not limited to, the underliers. We study these market models in the framework of the HJM philosophy originally articulated for Treasury bond markets. The main thrust of the paper is to characterize absence of arbitrage by a drift condition and a spot consistency condition for the coefficients of the local volatility dynamics.

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Local volatility dynamic models

We propose an interacting particle system to model the evolution of a system of banks with mutual exposures. In this model, a bank defaults when its normalized asset value hits a lower threshold, and its default causes instantaneous losses to other banks, possibly triggering a cascade of defaults. The strength of this interaction is determined by the level of the so-called noncore exposure. We show that, when the size of the system becomes large, the cumulative loss process of a bank resulting from the defaults of other banks exhibits discontinuities. These discontinuities are naturally interpreted as systemic events, and we characterize them explicitly in terms of the level of noncore exposure and the fraction of banks that are “about to default.” The main mathematical challenges of our work stem from the very singular nature of the interaction between the particles, which is inherited by the limiting system. A similar particle system is analyzed in [Ann. Appl. Probab. 25 (2015) 2096–2133] and [Stochastic Process. Appl. 125 (2015) 2451–2492], and we build on and extend their results. In particular, we characterize the large-population limit of the system and analyze the jump times, the regularity between jumps, and the local uniqueness of the limiting process.

Particle systems with singular interaction through hitting times: Application in systemic risk modeling

This paper is concerned with the axiomatic foundation and explicit construction of a general class of optimality criteria that can be used for investment problems with multiple time horizons, or when the time horizon is not known in advance. Both the investment criterion and the optimal strategy are characterized by the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation on a semi-infinite time interval. In the case where this equation can be linearized, the problem reduces to a time-reversed parabolic equation, which cannot be analyzed via the standard methods of partial differential equations. Under the additional uniform ellipticity condition, we make use of the available description of all minimal solutions to such equations, along with some basic facts from potential theory and convex analysis, to obtain an explicit integral representation of all positive solutions. These results allow us to construct a large family of the aforementioned optimality criteria, including some closed-form examples in relevant financial models.

Optimal investment for all time horizons and Martin boundary of space-time diffusions

We consider the supercooled Stefan problem, which captures the freezing of a supercooled liquid, in one space dimension. A probabilistic reformulation of the problem allows to define global solutions, even in the presence of blow-ups of the freezing rate. We provide a complete description of such solutions, by relating the temperature distribution in the liquid to the regularity of the ice growth process. The latter is shown to transition between (i) continuous differentiability, (ii) Holder continuity, and (iii) discontinuity. In particular, in the second regime we rediscover the square root behavior of the growth process pointed out by Stefan in his seminal paper [Ste89] from 1889 for the ordinary Stefan problem. In our second main theorem, we establish the uniqueness of the global solutions, a first result of this kind in the context of growth processes with singular self-excitation when blow-ups are present.

Global solutions to the supercooled Stefan problem with blow-ups: regularity and uniqueness

We study forward investment performance processes with non-zero forward volatility. We focus on the class of homothetic preferences in a single stochastic factor model. The forward performance process is represented in a closed-form via a deterministic function of the wealth and the stochastic factor. This function is, in turn, given as a distortion transformation of the solution to a linear ill-posed problem. We analyze the solutions of this problem in detail. We, also, provide two examples for specific dynamics of the stochastic factor, specifically, log-mean reverting and Heston-type dynamics.

Sergey Nadtochiy

Papers

Local volatility dynamic models

Particle systems with singular interaction through hitting times: Application in systemic risk modeling

Optimal investment for all time horizons and Martin boundary of space-time diffusions

Global solutions to the supercooled Stefan problem with blow-ups: regularity and uniqueness

A Class of Homothetic Forward Investment Performance Processes with Non-zero Volatility