2BSDE with uncertain horizon and application to stochastic control in erratic environments

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gennaro, Alberto, Mastrolia, Thibaut
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Gennaro, Alberto
Mastrolia, Thibaut
author_facet Gennaro, Alberto
Mastrolia, Thibaut
contents We investigate the existence and uniqueness of non-Markovian second-order backward stochastic differential equations with an uncertain terminal horizon and establish comparison principles under the assumption that the driver is Lipschitz continuous. The terminal time is both random and exogenous, and it may not be adapted to the Brownian filtration, leading to a singular jump in the 2BSDE decomposition. We also provide a connection between this new class of 2BSDE and a fully nonlinear PDE in a Markovian setting. Our theoretical results are applied to non-Markovian stochastic control problems in two settings: (1) when an agent seeks to maximize utility from a payoff received at an uncertain terminal time by controlling both the drift and volatility of a diffusion process; and (2) when the agent contends with volatility uncertainty stemming from an external source, referred to as Nature, and optimizes the drift in a worst-case scenario for the ambiguous volatility. We term this class of problems erratic stochastic control, reflecting the dual uncertainty in both model parameters and the timing of the terminal horizon.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_15037
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle 2BSDE with uncertain horizon and application to stochastic control in erratic environments
Gennaro, Alberto
Mastrolia, Thibaut
Probability
Optimization and Control
60G12, 60H20, 60H30, 93E20
We investigate the existence and uniqueness of non-Markovian second-order backward stochastic differential equations with an uncertain terminal horizon and establish comparison principles under the assumption that the driver is Lipschitz continuous. The terminal time is both random and exogenous, and it may not be adapted to the Brownian filtration, leading to a singular jump in the 2BSDE decomposition. We also provide a connection between this new class of 2BSDE and a fully nonlinear PDE in a Markovian setting. Our theoretical results are applied to non-Markovian stochastic control problems in two settings: (1) when an agent seeks to maximize utility from a payoff received at an uncertain terminal time by controlling both the drift and volatility of a diffusion process; and (2) when the agent contends with volatility uncertainty stemming from an external source, referred to as Nature, and optimizes the drift in a worst-case scenario for the ambiguous volatility. We term this class of problems erratic stochastic control, reflecting the dual uncertainty in both model parameters and the timing of the terminal horizon.
title 2BSDE with uncertain horizon and application to stochastic control in erratic environments
topic Probability
Optimization and Control
60G12, 60H20, 60H30, 93E20
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15037