arXiv subjects

Camelia A. Pop

Publications and source records attributed to Camelia A. Pop.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2018

Obstacle problems for nonlocal operators: A brief overview

In this note, we give a brief overview of obstacle problems for nonlocal operators, focusing on the applications to financial mathematics. The class of nonlocal operators that we consider can be viewed as infinitesimal generators of non-Gaussian asset price models, such as Variance Gamma Processes and Regular Lévy Processes of Exponential type. In this context, we analyze the existence, uniqueness and regularity of viscosity solutions to obstacle problems which correspond to prices of perpetual and finite expiry American options. Complete proofs can be found in arXiv:1709.10384, where these results have originally appeared.

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arXiv2017

Obstacle problems for nonlocal operators

We prove existence, uniqueness, and regularity of viscosity solutions to the stationary and evolution obstacle problems defined by a class of nonlocal operators that are not stable-like and may have supercritical drift. We give sufficient conditions on the coefficients of the operator to obtain Hölder and Lipschitz continuous solutions. The class of nonlocal operators that we consider include non-Gaussian asset price models widely used in mathematical finance, such as Variance Gamma Processes and Regular Lévy Processes of Exponential type. In this context, the viscosity solutions that we analyze coincide with the prices of perpetual and finite expiry American options.

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arXiv2017

Transition probabilities for degenerate diffusions arising in population genetics

We provide a detailed description of the structure of the transition probabilities and of the hitting distributions of boundary components of a manifold with corners for a degenerate strong Markov process arising in population genetics. The Markov processes that we study are a generalization of the classical Wright-Fisher process. The main ingredients in our proofs are based on the analysis of the regularity properties of solutions to a forward Kolmogorov equation defined on a compact manifold with corners, which is degenerate in the sense that it is not strictly elliptic and the coefficients of the first order drift term have mild logarithmic singularities.

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arXiv2017

Boundary estimates for a degenerate parabolic equation with partial Dirichlet boundary conditions

We study the boundary regularity properties and derive a priori pointwise supremum estimates of weak solutions and their derivatives in terms of suitable weighted $L^2$-norms for a class of degenerate parabolic equations that satisfy homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions on certain portions of the boundary. Such equations arise in population genetics in the study of models for the evolution of gene frequencies. Among the applications of our results is the description of the structure of the transition probabilities and of the hitting distributions of the underlying gene frequencies process, which correspond to the fundamental solution and the caloric measure of the parabolic equation, respectively.

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arXiv2016

Boundary-degenerate elliptic operators and Holder continuity for solutions to variational equations and inequalities

The Heston stochastic volatility process, which is widely used as an asset price model in mathematical finance, is a paradigm for a degenerate diffusion process where the degeneracy in the diffusion coefficient is proportional to the square root of the distance to the boundary of the half-plane. The generator of this process with killing, called the elliptic Heston operator, is a second-order, degenerate-elliptic partial differential operator whose coefficients have linear growth in the spatial variables and where the degeneracy in the operator symbol is proportional to the distance to the boundary of the half-plane. With the aid of weighted Sobolev spaces, we prove supremum bounds, a Harnack inequality, and Hölder continuity near the boundary for solutions to variational equations defined by the elliptic Heston operator, as well as Hölder continuity up to the boundary for solutions to variational inequalities defined by the elliptic Heston operator. In mathematical finance, solutions to obstacle problems for the elliptic Heston operator correspond to value functions for perpetual American-style options on the underlying asset.

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arXiv2015

Regularity of the free boundary for the obstacle problem for the fractional Laplacian with drift

We establish the $C^{1+γ}$-Hölder regularity of the regular free boundary in the stationary obstacle problem defined by the fractional Laplace operator with drift in the subcritical regime. Our method of the proof consists in proving a new monotonicity formula and an epiperimetric inequality. Both tools generalizes the original ideas of G. Weiss for the classical obstacle problem to the framework of fractional powers of the Laplace operator with drift. Our study continues the earlier research, where two of us established the optimal interior regularity of solutions.

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arXiv2014

Degenerate-elliptic operators in mathematical finance and higher-order regularity for solutions to variational equations

We establish higher-order weighted Sobolev and Holder regularity for solutions to variational equations defined by the elliptic Heston operator, a linear second-order degenerate-elliptic operator arising in mathematical finance. Furthermore, given $C^\infty$-smooth data, we prove $C^\infty$-regularity of solutions up to the portion of the boundary where the operator is degenerate. In mathematical finance, solutions to obstacle problems for the elliptic Heston operator correspond to value functions for perpetual American-style options on the underlying asset.

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arXiv2014

Harnack Inequalities for Degenerate Diffusions

We study various probabilistic and analytical properties of a class of degenerate diffusion operators arising in Population Genetics, the so-called generalized Kimura diffusion operators. Our main results is a stochastic representation of weak solutions to a degenerate parabolic equation with singular lower-order coefficients, and the proof of the scale-invariant Harnack inequality for nonnegative solutions to the Kimura parabolic equation. The stochastic representation of solutions that we establish is a considerable generalization of the classical results on Feynman-Kac formulas concerning the assumptions on the degeneracy of the diffusion matrix, the boundedness of the drift coefficients, and on the a priori regularity of the weak solutions.

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arXiv2014

$C^0$-estimates and smoothness of solutions to the parabolic equation defined by Kimura operators

Kimura diffusions serve as a stochastic model for the evolution of gene frequencies in population genetics. Their infinitesimal generator is an elliptic differential operator whose second-order coefficients matrix degenerates on the boundary of the domain. In this article, we consider the inhomogeneous initial-value problem defined by generators of Kimura diffusions, and we establish $C^0$-estimates, which allows us to prove that solutions to the inhomogeneous initial-value problem are smooth up to the boundary of the domain where the operator degenerates, even when the initial data is only assumed to be continuous.

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arXiv2014

Existence, uniqueness and the strong Markov property of solutions to Kimura diffusions with singular drift

Motivated by applications to proving regularity of solutions to degenerate parabolic equations arising in population genetics, we study existence, uniqueness and the strong Markov property of weak solutions to a class of degenerate stochastic differential equations. The stochastic differential equations considered in our article admit solutions supported in the set $[0,\infty)^n\times\mathbb{R}^m$, and they are degenerate in the sense that the diffusion matrix is not strictly elliptic, as the smallest eigenvalue converges to zero proportional to the distance to the boundary of the domain, and the drift coefficients are allowed to have power-type singularities in a neighborhood of the boundary of the domain. Under suitable regularity assumptions on the coefficients, we establish existence of weak solutions that satisfy the strong Markov property, and uniqueness in law in the class of Markov processes.

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arXiv2014

Optimal regularity of solutions to the obstacle problem for the fractional Laplacian with drift

We prove existence, uniqueness and optimal regularity of solutions to the stationary obstacle problem defined by the fractional Laplacian operator with drift, in the subcritical regime. We localize our problem by considering a suitable extension operator introduced by L. Caffarelli and L. Silvestre. The structure of the extension equation is different from the one considered by L. Caffarelli, S. Salsa and L. Silvestre in their study of the obstacle problem for the fractional Laplacian without drift, in that the obstacle function has less regularity, and exhibits some singularities. To take into account the new features of the problem, we prove a new Almgren-type monotonicity formula, which we then use to establish the optimal regularity of solutions.

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arXiv2014

Regularity for the supercritical fractional Laplacian with drift

We consider the linear stationary equation defined by the fractional Laplacian with drift. In the supercritical case, that is the case when the dominant term is given by the drift instead of the diffusion component, we prove local regularity of solutions in Sobolev spaces em- ploying tools from the theory of pseudo-differential operators. The regularity of solutions in the supercritical case is as expected in the subcritical case, when the diffusion is at least as strong as the drift component, and the operator defined by the fractional Laplacian with drift can be viewed as an elliptic operator, which is not the case in the supercritical regime. We compute the leading singularity for the Green's kernel in the supercritical range, which displays some unusual behavior: it is more singular in the half plane into which the drift vector points, than in the complementary half plane.

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