Construct a martingale from given conditions

conditional-expectationmartingalesprobabilityprobability theory

If there exists a sequence of non-negative real numbers $a_n$ with $\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} a_n <\infty$ with
$$\mathbb E[X_n\mid \mathcal F_{n-1}]\leq X_{n-1}+a_n,$$
prove $X_n$ converges almost surely, and its limit is bounded a.s..

I think the point of this is to construct a supermartingale from the $X_n$'s, so I can apply the martigale convergence theorem. But I have no idea how to construct the supermartingales.

Best Answer

If $S_{n}=\sum_{i=1}^{n} a_{i}$, you have to $\mathbb{E}[Y_{n}|\mathcal{F}_{n-1}]\le Y_{n-1}$, where $Y_{n}=X_{n}-S_{n}$, then $Y_{n}$ is supermartingale.

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