Doob–Meyer decomposition theorem

The Doob–Meyer decomposition theorem is a theorem in stochastic calculus stating the conditions under which a submartingale may be decomposed in a unique way as the sum of a martingale and an increasing predictable process. It is named for Joseph L. Doob and Paul-André Meyer.

History

In 1953, Doob published the Doob decomposition theorem which gives a unique decomposition for certain discrete time martingales.^[1] He conjectured a continuous time version of the theorem and in two publications in 1962 and 1963 Paul-André Meyer proved such a theorem, which became known as the Doob-Meyer decomposition.^[2][3] In honor of Doob, Meyer used the term "class D" to refer to the class of supermartingales for which his unique decomposition theorem applied.^[4]

Class D Supermartingales

A càdlàg submartingale $Z$ is of Class D if $Z_{0}=0$ and the collection

$\{Z_{T}\mid {\text{T a finite valued stopping time}}\}$

is uniformly integrable.^[5]

The theorem

Let $Z$ be a cadlag submartingale of class D with $Z_{0}=0$. Then there exists a unique, increasing, predictable process $A$ with $A_{0}=0$ such that $M_{t}=Z_{t}-A_{t}$ is a uniformly integrable martingale.^[5]

See also

• Doob decomposition theorem

Notes

1. Doob 1953
2. Meyer 1952
3. Meyer 1963
4. Protter 2005
5. Protter (2005)

References

• Doob, J. L. (1953). Stochastic Processes. Wiley.
• Meyer, Paul-André (1962). "A Decomposition theorem for supermartingales". Illinois Journal of Mathematics 6 (2): 193–205.
• Meyer, Paul-André (1963). "Decomposition of Supermartingales: the Uniqueness Theorem". Illinois Journal of Mathematics 7 (1): 1–17.
• Protter, Philip (2005). Stochastic Integration and Differential Equations. Springer-Verlag. pp. 107–113. ISBN 3-540-00313-4.

External links

• The Doob–Meyer decomposition theorem with proof, by Jan van Neerven