Concerning the geometry of stochastic differential equations and stochastic flows

Abstract

Following Le Jan and Watanabe we define a connection associated with a non-degenrrate diffusion operators. This connection is characterized here and shown to be the Levi-Civita connection for gradient systems. This both explains why such systems have useful properties and allows us to extend these properties to more general systems. Topics described here include: moment estimates for $T\xi_t$, a Weitzenb\"ock formula for the generator of the semigroup on p-forms induced by the flow, a Bismut type formula for $d\log p_t$ in terms of an arbitrary metric connection, and a generalized Bochner vanishing theorem. A comprehensive theory on this, its generalization to semi-elliptic case and applications is published in the book `On the geometry of diffusion operators and stochastic flows'. Related to this is also the book `The geometry of filtering'. This article is easier to read.