In this paper we investigate three discrete or semi-discrete approximation schemes for reflected Brownian motion on bounded Euclidean domains. For a class of bounded domains $D$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$ that includes all bounded Lipschitz domains and the von Koch snowflake domain, we show that the laws of both discrete and continuous time simple random walks on $D\cap2^{-k}\mathbb{Z}^n$ moving at the rate $2^{-2k}$ with stationary initial distribution converge weakly in the space $\mathbf{D}([0,1],\mathbb{R}^n)$, equipped with the Skorokhod topology, to the law of the stationary reflected Brownian motion on $D$. We further show that the following ``myopic conditioning'' algorithm generates, in the limit, a reflected Brownian motion on any bounded domain $D$. For every integer $k\geq1$, let $\{X^k_{j2^{-k}},j=0,1,2,...\}$ be a discrete time Markov chain with one-step transition probabilities being the same as those for the Brownian motion in $D$ conditioned not to exit $D$ before time $2^{-k}$. We prove that the laws of $X^k$ converge to that of the reflected Brownian motion on $D$. These approximation schemes give not only new ways of constructing reflected Brownian motion but also implementable algorithms to simulate reflected Brownian motion.
(i) Uncountably many synchronized reflected Brownian motions can hit the boundary of a $C^2$ domain at the same time. (ii) Measures associated to local times of two synchronized reflected Brownian motions are mutually singular until the time when the normal vectors at the reflection locations become identical. (iii) Mirror coupled reflected Brownian motions can simultaneously hit opposite sides of a wedge at different distances from the origin.
We prove that a stochastic flow of reflected Brownian motions in a smooth multidimensional domain is differentiable with respect to its initial position. The derivative is a linear map represented by a multiplicative functional for reflected Brownian motion. The method of proof is based on excursion theory and analysis of the deterministic Skorokhod equation.
In this paper, we study the reflected backward stochastic differential equation driven by G-Brownian motion (reflected G-BSDE for short) with an upper obstacle. The existence is proved by approximation via penalization. By using a variant comparison theorem, we show that the solution we constructed is the largest one.
In this paper we consider a (reflected) Brownian motion with broken drift hitting a random boundary. Some dedicated calculations allow us to obtain the formula on the joint Laplace transform of the hitting time and hitting position. These develop the research on first rendezvous times of (reflected) Brownian motion and compound Poisson-type processes by Perry et al. (2004).
In this note, we study the asymptotical frontier behavior of a branching reflected Brownian motion. There is essentially no difference in maximal displacement between a branching Brownian motion and its reflected counterpart. We provide two proofs of this fact, one via a soft argument on the dependance of two-sided extremal particles in a branching Brownian motion and the other based on direct computations as in Roberts. The asymptotics of minimal displacement is also given.
In this paper, we prove that there exists at least one solution for the reflected forward-backward stochastic differential equation driven by G-Brownian motion satisfying the obstacle constraint with monotone coefficients.
We prove that a sequence of semi-discrete approximations converges to a multiplicative functional for reflected Brownian motion, which intuitively represents the Lyapunov exponent for the corresponding stochastic flow. The method of proof is based on a study of the deterministic version of the problem and the excursion theory.
In this paper, we study the reflected solutions of one-dimensional backward stochastic differential equations driven by G-Brownian motion (RGBSDE for short). The reflection keeps the solution above a given stochastic process. In order to derive the uniqueness of reflected GBSDEs, we apply a "martingale condition" instead of the Skorohod condition. Similar to the classical case, we prove the existence by approximation via penalization.
In this paper, we first review the penalization method for solving deterministic Skorokhod problems in non-convex domains and establish estimates for problems with $α$-Hölder continuous functions. With the help of these results obtained previously for deterministic problems, we pathwisely define the reflected $G$-Brownian motion and prove its existence and uniqueness in a Banach space. Finally, multi-dimensional reflected stochastic differential equations driven by $G$-Brownian motion are investigated via a fixed-point argument.
Prompted by an example arising in critical percolation, we study some reflected Brownian motions in symmetric planar domains and show that they are intertwined with one-dimensional diffusions. In the case of a wedge, the reflected Brownian motion is intertwined with the 3-dimensional Bessel process. This implies some simple hitting distributions and sheds some light on the formula proposed by Watts for double-crossing probabilities in critical percolation.
In this paper, we consider the reflected backward stochastic differential equations driven by G-Brownian motion (reflected G-BSDEs) whose coefficients satisfy the beta-order Mao's condition. The uniqueness is obtained by some a priori estimates and the existence can be proved by two different methods. The first one is Picard iteration and the second one is approximation via penalization. The latter construction is useful to get the comparison theorem.
Let $B_H(\cdot)$ be a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter $H\in(0,1]$. Motivated by applications to maximal inequalities for fractional Brownian motion, in this note we derive bounds for K_T(H,γ):=E[\sup_{t\in[0,T]}|B_H(t)|]^γ, with $γ, T>0$.
We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the stationary density of semimartingale reflected Brownian motion in a wedge to be written as a finite sum of terms of exponential product form. Relying on geometric ideas reminiscent of the reflection principle, we give an explicit formula for the density in such cases.
We construct obliquely reflected Brownian motions in all bounded simply connected planar domains, including non-smooth domains, with general reflection vector fields on the boundary. Conformal mappings and excursion theory are our main technical tools. A key intermediate step, which may be of independent interest, is an alternative characterization of reflected Brownian motions in smooth bounded planar domains with a given field of angles of oblique reflection on the boundary in terms of a pair of quantities, namely an integrable positive harmonic function, which represents the stationary dist…
We supply two different descriptions of the pushing process driving the reflected Brownian motion in Weyl chambers, when the latter domains are simplexes. The first one shows that a simple root lies in one and only one orbit if and only if the pushing process in the direction of that simple root increases as the sum of all the Brownian local times in the directions of the orbit's positive elements. The last one shows that the pushing process may be written as the sum of an inward normal vector at the chamber's boundary and an inward normal vector at the origin, yielding a kind of a multivoque …
Using Girsanov transformations we construct from sticky reflected Brownian motion on $[0,\infty)$ a conservative diffusion on $E:=[0,\infty)^n$, $n \in \mathbb{N}$, and prove that its transition semigroup possesses the strong Feller property for a specified general class of drift functions. By identifying the Dirichlet form of the constructed process, we characterize it as sticky reflected distorted Brownian motion. In particular, the relations of the underlying analytic Dirichlet form methods to the probabilistic methods of random time changes and Girsanov transformations are presented. Our s…
In this paper, we consider a reflected backward stochastic differential equation driven by a $G$-Brownian motion ($G$-BSDE), with the generator growing quadratically in the second unknown. We obtain the existence by the penalty method, and a priori estimates which implies the uniqueness, for solutions of the $G$-BSDE. Moreover, focusing our discussion at the Markovian setting, we give a nonlinear Feynman-Kac formula for solutions of a fully nonlinear partial differential equation.
For every bounded planar domain $D$ with a smooth boundary, we define a `Lyapunov exponent' $Λ(D)$ using a fairly explicit formula. We consider two reflected Brownian motions in $D$, driven by the same Brownian motion (i.e., a `synchronous coupling'). If $Λ(D)>0$ then the distance between the two Brownian particles goes to 0 exponentially fast with rate $Λ(D)/(2|D|)$ as time goes to infinity. The exponent $Λ(D)$ is strictly positive if the domain has at most one hole. It is an open problem whether there exists a domain with $Λ(D)<0$.
In this paper, we study the uniqueness and existence of solutions of RGSDEs with nonlinear resistance under an integral-Lipschitz condition of coefficients. Moreover we obtain the comparison theorem for RGSDEs with nonlinear resistance.
We give sharp two-sided estimates for the functions $g_M(t,x,y)$ and $g_M(t,x,y)-g(t,x,y)$, where $g_M(t,x,y)$ are the transition probability densities of the reflected Brownian motion on a $M$-complex of size $M \in \mathbb{Z}$ of an unbounded planar simple nested fractal and $g(t,x,y)$ are the transition probability densities of the `free' Brownian motion on this fractal. This is done for a large class of planar simple nested fractals with the good labeling property.
We study a correlated Brownian motion in two dimensions, which is reflected, stopped or killed in a wedge represented as the intersection of two half spaces. First, we provide explicit density formulas, hinted by the method of images. These explicit expressions rely on infinite oscillating sums of Bessel functions and may demand computationally costly procedures. We propose suitable recursive algorithms for the simulation of the laws of reflected and stopped Brownian motion which are based on generalizations of the reflection principle in two dimensions. We study and give bounds for the comple…
This work contributes a systematic survey and complementary insights of reflecting Brownian motion and its properties. Extension of the Skorohod problem's solution to more general cases is investigated, based on which a discussion is further conducted on the existence of solutions for a few particular kinds of stochastic differential equations with a reflected boundary. It is proved that the multidimensional version of the Skorohod equation can be solved under the assumption of a convex domain (D).
Consider an multidimensional obliquely reflected Brownian motion in the positive orthant, or, more generally, in a convex polyhedral cone. We find sufficient conditions for existence of a stationary distribution and convergence to this distribution at the exponential rate, as time goes to infinity. We also prove that certain exponential moments for this distribution are finite, thus providing a tail estimate for this distribution. Finally, we apply these results to systems of rank-based competing Brownian particles.
We calculate the probability $p_c$ that the maximum of a reflected Brownian motion $U$ is achieved on a complete excursion, i.e. $p_c:=P\big(\overline{U}(t)=U^*(t)\big)$ where $\overline{U}(t)$ (respectively $U^*(t)$) is the maximum of the process $U$ over the time interval $[0,t]$ (resp. $\big[0,g(t)\big]$ where $g(t)$ is the last zero of $U$ before $t$).
In this paper we provide convergence analysis for a class of Brownian queues in tandem by establishing an exponential drift condition. A consequence is the uniform exponential ergodicity for these multidimensional diffusions, including the O'Connell-Yor process. A list of open problems are also presented.
We study the stationary reflected Brownian motion in a non-convex wedge, which, compared to its convex analogue model, has been much rarely analyzed in the probabilistic literature. We prove that its stationary distribution can be found by solving a two dimensional vector boundary value problem (BVP) on a single curve for the associated Laplace transforms. The reduction to this kind of vector BVP seems to be new in the literature. As a matter of comparison, one single boundary condition is sufficient in the convex case. When the parameters of the model (drift, reflection angles and covariance …
For Brownian motion in a (two-dimensional) wedge with negative drift and oblique reflection on the axes, we derive an explicit formula for the Laplace transform of its stationary distribution (when it exists), in terms of Cauchy integrals and generalized Chebyshev polyno-mials. To that purpose we solve a Carleman-type boundary value problem on a hyperbola, satisfied by the Laplace transforms of the boundary stationary distribution.
We consider a Brownian motion with drift in the quarter plane with orthogonal reflection on the axes. The Laplace transform of its stationary distribution satisfies a functional equation, which is reminiscent from equations arising in the enumeration of (discrete) quadrant walks. We develop a Tutte's invariant approach to this continuous setting, and we obtain an explicit formula for the Laplace transform in terms of generalized Chebyshev polynomials.
In this paper we study a reflected Markov-modulated Brownian motion with a two sided reflection in which the drift, diffusion coefficient and the two boundaries are (jointly) modulated by a finite state space irreducible continuous time Markov chain. The goal is to compute the stationary distribution of this Markov process, which in addition to the complication of having a stochastic boundary can also include jumps at state change epochs of the underlying Markov chain because of the boundary changes. We give the general theory and then specialize to the case where the underlying Markov chain h…
We study reflecting Brownian motion with drift constrained to a wedge in the plane. Our first set of results provide necessary and sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of a solution to the corresponding submartingale problem with drift, and show that its solution possesses the Markov and Feller properties. Next, we study a version of the problem with absorption at the vertex of the wedge. In this case, we provide a condition for existence and uniqueness of a solution to the problem and some results on the probability of the vertex being reached.
Let $X_H(t), t\ge 0$ be a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst index $H\in(0,1}$ and define a gamma-reflected process $W_\Ga(t)=X_H(t)-ct-\gammainf_{s\in[0,t]}\left(X_H(s)-cs \right)$, $t\ge0$ with $c>0,γ\in [0,1]$ two given constants. In this paper we establish the exact tail asymptotic behaviour of $\sup_{t\in [0,T]} W_γ(t)$ for any $T\in (0,\IF]$. Furthermore, we derive the exact tail asymptotic behaviour of the supremum of certain non-homogeneous mean-zero Gaussian random fields.
This paper develops the first class of algorithms that enable unbiased estimation of steady-state expectations for multidimensional reflected Brownian motion. In order to explain our ideas, we first consider the case of compound Poisson (possibly Markov modulated) input. In this case, we analyze the complexity of our procedure as the dimension of the network increases and show that, under certain assumptions, the algorithm has polynomial-expected termination time. Our methodology includes procedures that are of interest beyond steady-state simulation and reflected processes. For instance, we u…
We compute a closed-form expression for the moment generating function $\hat{f}(x;λ,α)=\frac{1}λ\mathbb{E}_x(e^{αL_τ})$, where $L_t$ is the local time at zero for standard Brownian motion with reflecting barriers at $0$ and $b$, and $τ\sim \mathrm{Exp}(λ)$ is independent of $W$. By analyzing how and where $\hat{f}(x;\cdot,α)$ blows up in $λ$, a large-time large deviation principle (LDP) for $L_t/t$ is established using a Tauberian result and the Gärtner-Ellis Theorem.
We describe and analyze a class of positive recurrent reflected Brownian motions (RBMs) in $\mathbb{R}^d_+$ for which local statistics converge to equilibrium at a rate independent of the dimension $d$. Under suitable assumptions on the reflection matrix, drift and diffusivity coefficients, dimension-independent stretched exponential convergence rates are obtained by estimating contractions in an underlying weighted distance between synchronously coupled RBMs. We also study the Symmetric Atlas model as a first step in obtaining dimension-independent convergence rates for RBMs not satisfying th…
We introduce a transient reflected Brownian motion in a multidimensional orthant, which is either absorbed at the apex of the cone or escapes to infinity. We address the question of computing the absorption probability, as a function of the starting point of the process. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the absorption probability to admit an exponential product form, namely, that the determinant of the reflection matrix is zero. We call this condition a dual skew symmetry. It recalls the famous skew symmetry introduced by Harrison, which characterizes the exponential station…
We study the variational problem that arises from consideration of large deviations for semimartingale reflected Brownian motion (SRBM) in the positive octant. Due to the difficulty of the general problem, we consider the case in which the SRBM has rotationally symmetric parameters. In this case, we are able to obtain conditions under which the optimal solutions to the variational problem are paths that are gradual (moving through faces of strictly increasing dimension) or that spiral around the boundary of the octant. Furthermore, these results allow us to provide an example for which it can …
We determine the processes obtained from a large class of reflected Brownian motions (RBMs) in the nonnegative orthant by means of time reversal. The class of RBMs we deal with includes, but is not limited to, RBMs in the so-called Harrison-Reiman class [4] having diagonal covariance matrices. For such RBMs our main result resolves the long-standing open problem of determining the time reversal of RBMs beyond the skew-symmetric case treated by R.J. Williams in [16]. In general, the time-reversed process itself is no longer a RBM, but its distribution is absolutely continuous with respect to a …
Brownian motion in R 2 + with covariance matrix $Σ$ and drift $μ$ in the interior and reflection matrix R from the axes is considered. The asymptotic expansion of the stationary distribution density along all paths in R 2 + is found and its main term is identified depending on parameters ($Σ$, $μ$, R). For this purpose the analytic approach of Fayolle, Iasnogorodski and Malyshev in [12] and [36], restricted essentially up to now to discrete random walks in Z 2 + with jumps to the nearest-neighbors in the interior is developed in this article for diffusion processes on R 2 + with reflections on…
We consider a Markov-modulated Brownian motion reflected to stay in a strip [0,B]. The stationary distribution of this process is known to have a simple form under some assumptions. We provide a short probabilistic argument leading to this result and explaining its simplicity. Moreover, this argument allows for generalizations including the distribution of the reflected process at an independent exponentially distributed epoch. Our second contribution concerns transient behavior of the reflected system. We identify the joint law of the processes t,X(t),J(t) at inverse local times.
We construct a family of SDEs whose solutions select a reflected Brownian flow as well as a stochastic damped transport process (W\_t). The latter gives a representation for the solutions to the heat equation for differential 1-forms with the absolute boundary conditions; it evolves pathwise by the Ricci curvature in the interior, by the shape operator on the boundary and driven by the boundary local time, and has its normal part erased on the boundary. On the half line this construction selects the Skorohod solution (and its derivative with respect to initial points), not the Tanaka solution.…
Let $\{B_H(t):t\ge 0\}$ be a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter $H\in(\frac{1}{2},1)$. For the storage process $Q_{B_H}(t)=\sup_{-\infty\le s\le t} \left(B_H(t)-B_H(s)-c(t-s)\right)$ we show that, for any $T(u)>0$ such that $T(u)=o(u^\frac{2H-1}{H})$, \[\mathbb P (\inf_{s\in[0,T(u)]} Q_{B_H}(s)>u)\sim\mathbb P(Q_{B_H}(0)>u),\quad\text{as}\quad u\to\infty.\] This finding, known in the literature as the strong Piterbarg property, is in line with previously observed properties of storage processes with self-similar and infinitely divisible input without Gaussian component.
Let $π$ be the occupancy density of an obliquely reflected Brownian motion in the half plane and let ($ρ$, $α$) be the polar coordinates of a point in the upper half plane. This work determines the exact asymptotic behavior of $π$($ρ$, $α$) as $ρ$ $\rightarrow$ $\infty$ with $α$ $\in$ (0, $π$). We find explicit functions a, b, c such that $π$($ρ$, $α$) $\sim$ $ρ$$\rightarrow$$\infty$ a($α$)$ρ$ b($α$) e --c($α$)$ρ$. This closes an open problem first stated by Professor J. Michael Harrison in August 2013. We also compute the exact asymptotics for the tail distribution of the boundary occupancy m…
Local perturbations of a Brownian motion are considered. As a limit we obtain a non-Markov process that behaves as a reflected Brownian motion on the positive half line until its local time at zero reaches some exponential level, then changes a sign and behaves as a reflected Brownian motion on the negative half line until some stopping time, etc.
