Brownian Motion generator applied on indicator function.

brownian motionmarkov-processprobabilitystochastic-analysisstochastic-calculus

We know that for a vanishing real-valued $C^2$-function $f$ and a brownian motion $B$ we have
$$\frac{d}{dt}\mathbb{E}_x[f(B_t)]=\frac{1}{2}\frac{d^2}{dx^2}\mathbb{E}_x[f(B_t)]$$
Now, i have seen the following. Let
$$\Phi_t(x)=\mathbb{P}(B_t\leq x)$$
which is the distribution function of a normal distribution with parameters $(0,t)$. Then it holds
$$\frac{d}{dt}\Phi_t(x)=\frac{1}{2}\frac{d^2}{dx^2}\Phi_t(x)$$
I don't understand why this is true or where this comes from. How to rewrite
$$\Phi_t(x)=\mathbb{E}_x[f(B_t)]$$ with suitable $f$ such that $f$ is in the domain of the generator of brownian motion?

Best Answer

Denote by $$p_t(y) := \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi t}} \exp \left(-\frac{y^2}{2t} \right)$$ the density of $B_t$. Then $$\Phi_t(x) = \mathbb{P}(B_t \leq x) = \int_{(-\infty,x]} p_t(y) \, dy.$$ Differentiation with respect to $t$ yields

$$\frac{d}{dt} \Phi_t(x) = \int_{(-\infty,x]} \frac{d}{dt} p_t(y) \, dy.$$ Since $$\frac{d}{dt} p_t(y) = \frac{1}{2} \frac{d^2}{dy^2} p_t(y)$$ we get $$\frac{d}{dt} \Phi_t(x) = \frac{1}{2} \int_{(-\infty,x]} \frac{d^2}{dy^2}p_t(y) \, dy = \frac{1}{2} \frac{d}{dx} p_t(x).\tag{1}$$

On the other hand, the fundamental theorem of calculus gives

$$\frac{d}{dx} \Phi_t(x) = p_t(x)$$

and so

$$\frac{d^2}{dx^2} \Phi_t(x) = \frac{d}{dx} p_t(x).\tag{2}$$

Combining $(1)$ and $(2)$ proves the assertion.