arXiv subjects

Benjamin A. Robinson

Publications and source records attributed to Benjamin A. Robinson.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Bicausal optimal transport for SDEs with irregular coefficients

We solve constrained optimal transport problems in which the marginal laws are given by the laws of solutions of stochastic differential equations (SDEs). We consider SDEs with irregular coefficients, making only minimal regularity assumptions. We show that the so-called synchronous coupling is optimal among bicausal couplings, that is couplings that respect the flow of information encoded in the stochastic processes. Our results provide a method to numerically compute the adapted Wasserstein distance between laws of SDEs with irregular coefficients. We show that this can be applied to quantifying model uncertainty in stochastic optimisation problems. Moreover, we introduce a transformation-based semi-implicit numerical scheme and establish the first strong convergence result for SDEs with exponentially growing and discontinuous drift.

math.PR↗

arXiv2026

Talagrand-type transport inequalities for path spaces over Carnot groups

We consider Talagrand-type transportation inequalities for the law of Brownian motion on Carnot groups. An important example is the lift of standard Brownian motion to the Brownian rough path. We present a direct proof on enhanced path space, which also yields equality when restricting to adapted couplings in the transport problem. Moreover, we prove a Talagrand inequality for the heat kernel measure on Carnot groups and deduce the inequality for the law of Brownian motion on Carnot groups via a bottom-up argument. Our study of this enhanced Wiener measure contributes to a longstanding programme to extend key properties of Wiener measure to the non-commutative setting of the enhanced Wiener measure, which is of central importance in Lyons' rough path theory. With a non-commutative sub-Riemannian state space, we observe phenomena that differ from the Euclidean case. In particular, while a top-down projection argument recovers Talagrand's inequality on Euclidean space from the corresponding inequality on the path space, such a projection argument breaks down in the Carnot group setting. We further study a Riemannian approximation of the Heisenberg group, in which case the failure of the top-down projection can be partially overcome. Finally, we show that the cost function used in the Talagrand inequality is a natural choice, in that it arises as a limit of discretised costs in the sense of $Γ$-convergence.

math.PR↗

arXiv2025

Adapted Wasserstein distance between the laws of SDEs

We consider the bicausal optimal transport problem between the laws of scalar time-homogeneous stochastic differential equations, and we establish the optimality of the synchronous coupling between these laws. The proof of this result is based on time-discretisation and reveals a novel connection between the synchronous coupling and the celebrated discrete-time Knothe--Rosenblatt rearrangement. We also prove a result on equality of topologies restricted to a certain subset of laws of continuous-time processes. We complement our main results with examples showing how the optimal coupling may change in path-dependent and multidimensional settings.

math.PR↗

arXiv2024

A regularized Kellerer theorem in arbitrary dimension

We present a multidimensional extension of Kellerer's theorem on the existence of mimicking Markov martingales for peacocks, a term derived from the French for stochastic processes increasing in convex order. For a continuous-time peacock in arbitrary dimension, after Gaussian regularization, we show that there exists a strongly Markovian mimicking martingale Itô diffusion. A novel compactness result for martingale diffusions is a key tool in our proof. Moreover, we provide counterexamples to show, in dimension $d \geq 2$, that uniqueness may not hold, and that some regularization is necessary to guarantee existence of a mimicking Markov martingale.

math.PR↗

arXiv2023

SDEs with no strong solution arising from a problem of stochastic control

We study a two-dimensional stochastic differential equation that has a unique weak solution but no strong solution. We show that this SDE shares notable properties with Tsirelson's example of a one-dimensional SDE with no strong solution. In contrast to Tsirelson's equation, which has a non-Markovian drift, we consider a strong Markov martingale with Markovian diffusion coefficient. We show that there is no strong solution of the SDE and that the natural filtration of the weak solution is generated by a Brownian motion. We also discuss an application of our results to a stochastic control problem for martingales with fixed quadratic variation in a radially symmetric environment.

math.PR↗

arXiv2022

Optimal control of martingales in a radially symmetric environment

We study a stochastic control problem for continuous multidimensional martingales with fixed quadratic variation. In a radially symmetric environment, we are able to find an explicit solution to the control problem and find an optimal strategy. We show that it is optimal to switch between two strategies, depending only on the radius of the controlled process. The optimal strategies correspond to purely radial and purely tangential motion. It is notable that the value function exhibits smooth fit even when switching to tangential motion, where the radius of the optimal process is deterministic. Under sufficient regularity on the cost function, we prove optimality via viscosity solutions of a Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. We extend the results to cost functions that may become infinite at the origin. Extra care is required to solve the control problem in this case, since it is not clear how to define the optimal strategy with deterministic radius at the origin. Our results generalise some problems recently considered in Stochastic Portfolio Theory and Martingale Optimal Transport.

math.PR↗