Question from Exercise $1.8$ in Karatzas and Shreve. Representation of a filtration.

measure-theoryreal-analysisstochastic-calculusstochastic-processes

This is Exercise $1.8$ from Karatzas and Shreve.

Let $X$ be a process whose sample paths are RCLL a.s., and let $A$ be the event that $X$ is continuous on $[0,t_0)$. Show that $A$ can fail to be in $\mathscr{F}^X_{t_0}$.

This is part of the solution given in the text.


We first construct an example with $A \notin \mathscr{F}_{t_0}^X$. The collection of sets of the form $\{(X_{t_1},X_{t_2},\dots)\in B\}$, where $ B \in \mathscr{B}(\mathbb{R}^d) \otimes \mathscr{B}(\mathbb{R}^d) \otimes \cdots $and $0\le t_1 < t_2 < \cdots \le t_0,$ forms a $\sigma$-field and each such set is in $\mathscr{F}_{t_0}^X$. Indeed, every set in $\mathscr{F}_{t_0}^X$ has such a representation.

Choose $\Omega = [0,2), \mathscr{F}= \mathscr{B}([0,2))$, and $P(F) = \operatorname{meas}(F \cap [0,1]);$ $F \in \mathscr{F}$, where meas stands for "Lebesgue measure." For $\omega \in [0,1]$, define $X_t(\omega)=0,$ $\forall t \ge 0;$ for $\omega \in (1,2),$ define $X_t(\omega)=0$ if $t \neq \omega$, $X_\omega(\omega)=1$. Choose $t_0=2.$ If $A \in \mathscr{F}_{t_0}^X$, then for some $B \in \mathscr{B}(\mathbb{R}^d) \otimes \mathscr{B}(\mathbb{R}^d) \otimes \cdots $ and some sequence $t_k \in [0,2]$, we have $A = \{(X_{t_1},X_{t_2},\dots)\in B\}.$ Choose $\bar{t} \in (1,2)$, $\bar{t} \notin \{t_1, t_2, \dots\}.$ Since $\omega = \bar{t} $ is not in $A$ and $X_{t_k}(\bar{t})=0, k=1,2, \dots, $ we see that $(0,0,\dots) \notin B$. But $X_{t_k}(\omega)=0,$ $k=1,2, \dots,$ for all $\omega \in [0,1]$; we conclude that $[0,1] \cap A = \phi$, which contradicts the definition of $A$ and the construction of $X$.


I am not convinced by the bolded statement.

How do we show that every set in a filtration is of the given form?

Best Answer

Let $T:=[0,t_0]$ and $X^T:=(X_s:s\le t_0)$. Any set $A\in\mathcal{B}(\mathbb{R}^T)$ can be represented as $$ A=\{x:(x_{t_1},x_{t_2},\ldots)\in B_A\}, $$ where $(t_1,t_2,\ldots)$ is a countable set of points in $T$ and $B_A\in\mathcal{B}(\mathbb{R}^{\infty})$. Also note that $$ \mathcal{F}_{t_0}^X=\{(X^T)^{-1}(A):A\in \mathcal{B}(\mathbb{R}^T)\} $$ and, using the first fact, $(X^T)^{-1}(A)=\{\omega\in\Omega:(X_{t_1}(\omega),X_{t_2}(\omega),\ldots)\in B_A\}$.

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