Sample-continuous process

In mathematics, a sample-continuous process is a stochastic process whose sample paths are almost surely continuous functions.

Definition

Let (Ω, Σ, P) be a probability space. Let X : I × Ω → S be a stochastic process, where the index set I and state space S are both topological spaces. Then the process X is called sample-continuous (or almost surely continuous, or simply continuous) if the map X(ω) : I → S is continuous as a function of topological spaces for P-almost all ω in Ω.

In many examples, the index set I is an interval of time, [0, T] or [0, +∞), and the state space S is the real line or n-dimensional Euclidean space Rⁿ.

Examples

Brownian motion (the Wiener process) on Euclidean space is sample-continuous.
For "nice" parameters of the equations, solutions to stochastic differential equations are sample-continuous. See the existence and uniqueness theorem in the stochastic differential equations article for some sufficient conditions to ensure sample continuity.
The process X : [0, +∞) × Ω → R that makes equiprobable jumps up or down every unit time according to

{\begin{cases}X_{t}\sim \mathrm {Unif} (\{X_{t-1}-1,X_{t-1}+1\}),&t{\mbox{ an integer;}}\\X_{t}=X_{\lfloor t\rfloor },&t{\mbox{ not an integer;}}\end{cases}}

is not sample-continuous. In fact, it is surely discontinuous.

Properties

For sample-continuous processes, the finite-dimensional distributions determine the law, and vice versa.

References

Kloeden, Peter E.; Platen, Eckhard (1992). Numerical solution of stochastic differential equations. Applications of Mathematics (New York) 23. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. pp. 38–39. ISBN 3-540-54062-8.

v t e Stochastic processes
Discrete time	Bernoulli process Branching process Chinese restaurant process Galton–Watson process Independent and identically distributed random variables Markov chain Moran process Random walk Loop-erased Self-avoiding Biased Maximal entropy
Continuous time	Additive process Bessel process Birth–death process pure birth Brownian motion Bridge Excursion Fractional Geometric Meander Cauchy process Contact process Continuous-time random walk Cox process Diffusion process Dyson Brownian motion Empirical process Feller process Fleming–Viot process Gamma process Geometric process Hawkes process Hunt process Interacting particle systems Itô diffusion Itô process Jump diffusion Jump process Lévy process Local time Markov additive process McKean–Vlasov process Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process Poisson process Compound Non-homogeneous Quasimartingale Schramm–Loewner evolution Semimartingale Sigma-martingale Stable process Superprocess Telegraph process Variance gamma process Wiener process Wiener sausage
Both	Branching process Gaussian process Hidden Markov model (HMM) Markov process Martingale Differences Local Sub- Super- Random dynamical system Regenerative process Renewal process Stochastic chains with memory of variable length White noise
Fields and other	Dirichlet process Gaussian random field Gibbs measure Hopfield model Ising model Potts model Boolean network Markov random field Percolation Pitman–Yor process Point process Cox Poisson Random field Random graph
Time series models	Autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) model Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model Autoregressive (AR) model Autoregressive–moving-average (ARMA) model Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model Moving-average (MA) model
Financial models	Binomial options pricing model Black–Derman–Toy Black–Karasinski Black–Scholes Chan–Karolyi–Longstaff–Sanders (CKLS) Chen Constant elasticity of variance (CEV) Cox–Ingersoll–Ross (CIR) Garman–Kohlhagen Heath–Jarrow–Morton (HJM) Heston Ho–Lee Hull–White Korn-Kreer-Lenssen LIBOR market Rendleman–Bartter SABR volatility Vašíček Wilkie
Actuarial models	Bühlmann Cramér–Lundberg Risk process Sparre–Anderson
Queueing models	Bulk Fluid Generalized queueing network M/G/1 M/M/1 M/M/c
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Inequalities	Burkholder–Davis–Gundy Doob's martingale Doob's upcrossing Kunita–Watanabe Marcinkiewicz–Zygmund
Tools	Cameron–Martin formula Convergence of random variables Doléans-Dade exponential Doob decomposition theorem Doob–Meyer decomposition theorem Doob's optional stopping theorem Dynkin's formula Feynman–Kac formula Filtration Girsanov theorem Infinitesimal generator Itô integral Itô's lemma Karhunen–Loève theorem Kolmogorov continuity theorem Kolmogorov extension theorem Lévy–Prokhorov metric Malliavin calculus Martingale representation theorem Optional stopping theorem Prokhorov's theorem Quadratic variation Reflection principle Skorokhod integral Skorokhod's representation theorem Skorokhod space Snell envelope Stochastic differential equation Tanaka Stopping time Stratonovich integral Uniform integrability Usual hypotheses Wiener space Classical Abstract
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List of topics Category

Definition

Examples

Properties

See also

References