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Mauro Rosestolato

Publications and source records attributed to Mauro Rosestolato.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

Partial regularity of semiconvex viscosity supersolutions to fully nonlinear elliptic HJB equations and applications to stochastic control

In this note, we demonstrate that a locally semiconvex viscosity supersolution to a possibly degenerate fully nonlinear elliptic Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation is differentiable along the directions spanned by the range of the coefficient associated with the second-order term. The proof leverages techniques from convex analysis combined with a contradiction argument. This result has significant implications for various stationary stochastic control problems. In the context of drift-control problems, it provides a pathway to construct a candidate optimal feedback control in the classical sense and establish a verification theorem. Furthermore, in optimal stopping and impulse control problems, when the second-order term is nondegenerate, the value function of the problem is shown to be differentiable.

math.OC↗
arXiv2024

An optimal advertising model with carryover effect and mean field terms

We consider a class of optimal advertising problems under uncertainty for the introduction of a new product into the market, on the line of the seminal papers of Vidale and Wolfe, 1957, and Nerlove and Arrow, 1962. The main features of our model are that, on one side, we assume a carryover effect (i.e. the advertisement spending affects the goodwill with some delay); on the other side we introduce, in the state equation and in the objective, some mean field terms which take into account the presence of other agents. We take the point of view of a planner who optimizes the average profit of all agents, hence we fall into the family of the so-called "Mean Field Control" problems. The simultaneous presence of the carryover effect makes the problem infinite dimensional hence belonging to a family of problems which are very difficult in general and whose study started only very recently, see Cosso et Al, 2023. Here we consider, as a first step, a simple version of the problem providing the solutions in a simple case through a suitable auxiliary problem.

math.OC↗
arXiv2024

Mean Field Games Incorporating Carryover Effects: Optimizing Advertising Models

We consider a class of optimal control problems that arise in connection with optimal advertising under uncertainty. Two main features appear in the model: a delay in the control variable driving the state dynamics; a mean-field term both in the state dynamics and in the utility functional, taking into account for other agents. We interpret the model in a competitive environment, hence we set it in the framework of Mean Field Games. We rephrase the problem in an infinite dimensional setting, in order to obtain the associated Mean Field Game system. Finally, we specify the problem to a simple case, and solve it providing an explicit solution.

math.OC↗
arXiv2023

Path-dependent Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation: Uniqueness of Crandall-Lions viscosity solutions

We formulate a path-dependent stochastic optimal control problem under general conditions, for which weprove rigorously the dynamic programming principle and that the value function is the unique Crandall-Lions viscosity solution of the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. Compared to the literature, the proof of our core result, that is the comparison theorem, is based on the fact that the valuefunction is bigger than any viscosity subsolution and smaller than any viscosity supersolution. It alsorelies on the approximation of the value function in terms of functions defined on finite-dimensionalspaces as well as on regularity results for parabolic partial differential equations.

math.PR↗
arXiv2022

Optimal control of path-dependent McKean-Vlasov SDEs in infinite dimension

We study the optimal control of path-dependent McKean-Vlasov equations valued in Hilbert spaces motivated by non Markovian mean-field models driven by stochastic PDEs. We first establish the well-posedness of the state equation, and then we prove the dynamic programming principle (DPP) in such a general framework. The crucial law invariance property of the value function V is rigorously obtained, which means that V can be viewed as a function on the Wasserstein space of probability measures on the set of continuous functions valued in Hilbert space. We then define a notion of pathwise measure derivative, which extends the Wasserstein derivative due to Lions [41], and prove a related functional It{ô} formula in the spirit of Dupire [24] and Wu and Zhang [51]. The Master Bellman equation is derived from the DPP by means of a suitable notion of viscosity solution. We provide different formulations and simplifications of such a Bellman equation notably in the special case when there is no dependence on the law of the control.

math.OC↗
arXiv2022

Master Bellman equation in the Wasserstein space: Uniqueness of viscosity solutions

We study the Bellman equation in the Wasserstein space arising in the study of mean field control problems, namely stochastic optimal control problems for McKean-Vlasov diffusion processes.Using the standard notion of viscosity solution à la Crandall-Lions extended to our Wasserstein setting,we prove a comparison result under general conditions on the drift and reward coefficients, whichcoupled with the dynamic programming principle, implies that the value function is the unique viscosity solution of the Master Bellman equation.This is the first uniqueness result in such a second-order context. The classical arguments used in the standard cases of equations in finite-dimensional spaces or in infinite-dimensional separable Hilbert spaces do not extend to the present framework, due to the awkward nature of the underlying Wasserstein space. The adopted strategy is based on finite-dimensional approximations of the value function obtained in terms of the related cooperative $n$-player game, and on the construction of a smooth gauge-type function, built starting from a regularization of a sharp estimate of the Wasserstein metric; such a gauge-type function is used to generate maxima/minima through a suitable extension of the Borwein-Preiss generalization of Ekeland's variational principle on the Wasserstein space.

math.AP↗
arXiv2019

Irreversible investment with fixed adjustment costs: a stochastic impulse control approach

We consider an optimal stochastic impulse control problem over an infinite time horizon motivated by a model of irreversible investment choices with fixed adjustment costs. By employing techniques of viscosity solutions and relying on semiconvexity arguments, we prove that the value function is a classical solution to the associated quasi-variational inequality. This enables us to characterize the structure of the continuation and action regions and construct an optimal control. Finally, we focus on the linear case, discussing, by a numerical analysis, the sensitivity of the solution with respect to the relevant parameters of the problem.

math.OC↗
arXiv2018

Path-dependent SDEs in Hilbert spaces

We study path-dependent SDEs in Hilbert spaces. By using methods based on contractions in Banach spaces, we prove existence and uniqueness of mild solutions, continuity of mild solutions with respect to perturbations of all the data of the system, Gâteaux differentiability of generic order n of mild solutions with respect to the starting point, continuity of the Gâteaux derivatives with respect to all the data. The analysis is performed for generic spaces of paths that do not necessarily coincide with the space of continuous functions.

math.PR↗
arXiv2018

Functional Itō calculus in Hilbert spaces and application to path-dependent Kolmogorov equations

Recently, functional Itō calculus has been introduced and developed in finite dimension for functionals of continuous semimartingales. With different techniques, we develop a functional Itō calculus for functionals of Hilbert spacevalued diffusions. In this context, we first prove a path-dependent Itō's formula, then we show applications to classical solutions of path-dependent Kolmogorov equations in Hilbert spaces and derive a Clark-Ocone type formula. Finally, we explicitly verify that all the theory developed can be applied to a class of diffusions driven by SDEs with a path-dependent drift (suitably regular) and constant diffusion coefficient.

math.PR↗
arXiv2018

A note on stochastic Fubini's theorem and stochastic convolution

We provide a version of the stochastic Fubini's theorem which does not depend on the particular stochastic integrator chosen as far as the stochastic integration is built as a continuous linear operator from an $L^p$ space of Banach space-valued processes (the stochastically integrable processes) to an $L^p$ space of Banach space-valued paths (the integrated processes). Then, for integrators on a Hilbert space $H$, we consider stochastic convolutions with respect to a strongly continuous map $R:(0,T]\rightarrow L(H)$, not necessarily a semigroup. We prove existence of predictable versions of stochastic convolutions and we characterize the measurability needed by operator-valued processes in order to be convoluted with $R$. Finally, when $R$ is a $C_0$-semigroup and the stochastic integral provides continuous paths, we show existence of a continuous version of the convolution, by adapting the factorization method to the present setting.

math.PR↗
arXiv2018

Viscosity solutions of path-dependent PDEs with randomized time

We introduce a new definition of viscosity solution to path-dependent partial differential equations, which is a slight modification of the definition introduced in [8]. With the new definition, we prove the two important results till now missing in the literature, namely, a general stability result and a comparison result for semicontinuous sub-/super-solutions. As an application, we prove the existence of viscosity solutions using the Perron method. Moreover, we connect viscosity solutions of path-dependent PDEs with viscosity solutions of partial differential equations on Hilbert spaces.

math.PR↗
arXiv2018

$C_0$-sequentially equicontinuous semigroups: theory and applications

We present and apply a theory of one parameter $C_0$-semigroups of linear operators in locally convex spaces. Replacing the notion of equicontinuity considered by the literature with the weaker notion of sequential equicontinuity, we prove the basic results of the classical theory of $C_0$-equicontinuous semigroups: we show that the semigroup is uniquely identified by its generator and we provide a generation theorem in the spirit of the celebrated Hille-Yosida theorem. Then, we particularize the theory in some functional spaces and identify two locally convex topologies that allow to gather under a unified framework various notions $C_0$-semigroup introduced by some authors to deal with Markov transition semigroup. Finally, we apply the results to transition semigroups.

math.FA↗
arXiv2017

Path-dependent equations and viscosity solutions in infinite dimension

Path-dependent PDEs (PPDEs) are natural objects to study when one deals with non Markovian models. Recently, after the introduction of the so-called pathwise (or functional or Dupire) calculus (see [15]), in the case of finite-dimensional underlying space various papers have been devoted to studying the well-posedness of such kind of equations, both from the point of view of regular solutions (see e.g. [15, 9]) and viscosity solutions (see e.g. [16]). In this paper, motivated by the study of models driven by path-dependent stochastic PDEs, we give a first well-posedness result for viscosity solutions of PPDEs when the underlying space is a separable Hilbert space. We also observe that, in contrast with the finite-dimensional case, our well-posedness result, even in the Markovian case, applies to equations which cannot be treated, up to now, with the known theory of viscosity solutions.

math.PR↗