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I'm trying to understand Feynman-Kac formula for Schrödinger operators.

Let $(B_t)_{t\geq0}$ be $\mathbb{R}^d$ valued Brownian motion on probability space $(\Omega , \mathscr{F},P)$, $(\mathscr{F_t})_{t\geq0}$ be its natural filtration, $V\in C^{\infty}_0(\mathbb{R}^d)$, define a map $K_t$ on $L^2(\mathbb{R}^d)$ by $$(K_tf)(x)=\mathbb{E}^x[e^{-\int_0^tV(B_s)ds}f(B_t)]$$ Here $\mathbb{E}^x[\ ]$ means expectation value of random variable with respect to Brownian motion starting at $x\in\mathbb{R}^d$.

For convenience, write $Z_t = e^{-\int_0^tV(B_s)ds}$. Book I read says,

$$\begin{align*} (K_sK_tf)(x) &= \mathbb{E}^x[Z_s\mathbb{E}^{B_s}[Z_tf(B_t)]] \\ &= \mathbb{E}^x[\mathbb{E}^x[Z_s e^{-\int_0^t V(B_{s+u})du} f(B_{s+t})|\mathscr{F}_s]]\\ &= \mathbb{E}^x[Z_{s+t}f(B_{s+t})] \\ &= K_{s+t}f(x)\tag{1} \end{align*}$$

For the second line, I think I can use Markov property

$$\mathbb{E}^x[f(B_{s+t_0},...,B_{s+t_n})|\mathscr{F_s}]=\mathbb{E}^{B_s}[f(B_{t_0},...,B_{t_n})]\tag{2}$$

and for the third line I can use $$\begin{align} Z_se^{-\int_0^t V(B_{s+u})du} &= e^{-\int_0^s V(B_{u})du}e^{-\int_0^t V(B_{s+u})du} \\ &= e^{-\int_0^{s+t} V(B_{u})du} =Z_{s+t}\tag{3} \end{align}$$

What mainly I'm not sure is why I can omit the condition $|\mathscr{F_s}$ in the third line of $(1)$. Could you give me some advice? If there is unclear notation, please ask me.

Thanks in advance.

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    Use the tower property for the conditional expectation. – Kurt G. Jan 05 '25 at 10:08
  • @KurtG. Thanks very much. I was stupid. I am also worried about the second line. Do you know if i can use the equation below the (1) to get second line? – particle-not good at english Jan 05 '25 at 11:12
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    It is better to number all equations when having such discussions. For the "second line" you use the Markov property which holds not only for a function $f$ evaluated at $n$ discrete points of $B$ but also for functionals i.e. integrals of the whole path of $B,.$ – Kurt G. Jan 05 '25 at 12:58
  • @KurtG. Thanks for more answer which I needed! I'll edit and put number! – particle-not good at english Jan 06 '25 at 00:56
  • @KurtG. For now, I need your help. At first I thought that it's good just using the fact you let me know and proving it later. I found proving it is difficult for me. Could you give me reference including the proof? Or should I make a question about it? Thanks – particle-not good at english Jan 09 '25 at 06:44

2 Answers2

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Edit: my original answer was wrong because I wrongfully treated $\mathbb E^{B_s}[\ \cdot\ ]$ as a conditional expectation with respect to $B_s$, which it is not. It helps intuition to think of it in that way, but it is defined differently (see Øksendal under definition 7.1.1 for details).


Yes, the second line is indeed a consequence of the Markov property, but not in the way you wrote it. Here is a possible way to look at it:

First, note that the stochastic process given by $X_t := \left(B_t,\int_0^t V(B_s)\ ds\right)^T$ is an $\mathbb R^{d+1}$-valued Itô diffusion. Indeed, we have $$ dX_t = \big(dB_t,\ V(B_t)dt\big)^T = \sigma(X_t)dB_t + b(X_t)dt $$ where, for all $x\in\mathbb R^d$, $b(x_1,\ldots,x_{d+1}) = (\mathbf 0_d,V(x_1,\ldots,x_d))^T$ and $\sigma(x)$ is the $(d+1)\times d$ matrix whose first $d$ lines are the $d\times d$ identity matrix, and the last line is full of $0$'s.

I claim that we have the following equality

Lemma: for all $s,t\ge 0$, $$\mathbb E^{B_s}\left[e^{-\int_0^t V(B_u) dB_u}f(B_t)\mid \mathscr F_s\right] = e^{-\int_s^{t+s} V(B_u) dB_u}f(B_{t+s}) \tag1$$

Indeed, write for all $t, s\ge 0$: $$X_{t+s} = X_s + \int_s^{t+s} b(X_u)du +\int_s^{t+s} \sigma(X_u)dBu $$ and note that the increment $X_{t+s}-X_s$ is independent from $\mathscr F_s \equiv \{\sigma(B_u),0\le u \le s\}$ (see here for a proof). Furthermore, by time homogeneity, we have $$X_{t+s}-X_s = X_t - X_0\ \ \text{ in distribution} $$ (see chapter 7 of Øksendal's book for a proof).

Now we can piece everything together. Define $g:(x_1,\ldots,x_{d+1})\mapsto e^{-x_{d+1}}\cdot f(x_1,\ldots,x_{d})$, and note that $$\begin{align} \mathbb E^{B_s}\left[e^{-\int_0^t V(B_u) dB_u}f(B_t)\mid \mathscr F_s\right] &= \mathbb E^{B_s}\left[g(X_t)\mid \mathscr F_s\right] \ (\text{by def. of } g) \\ &=\mathbb E^{B_s}\left[g(X_{t+s} - X_s + X_0)\mid \mathscr F_s\right] \ (\text{same distribution})\\ &= \mathbb E^{B_s}\left[g(X_{t+s} - X_s + X_0)\right] \ (\text{independence from }\mathscr F_s)\\ &= \mathbb E^{B_s}\left[e^{-\int_s^{t+s} V(B_u) dB_u}f(B_{t+s} - B_s + B_0)\right] \ (\text{replacing})\\ &= e^{-\int_s^{t+s} V(B_u) dB_u}f(B_{t+s}) \end{align} $$

where the last equality is due to the fact that $B_0 = B_s$ under $\mathbb Q^{B_s}$. This concludes the proof of Lemma $(1)$ and implies the second inequality in the OP.

Finally, to prove that $\mathbb E^x\left[\mathbb{E}^x[Z_{s+t}f(B_{s+t})\mid\mathscr F_s]\right] = \mathbb{E}^x[Z_{s+t}f(B_{s+t})] $, remember that we have the tower property of conditional expectations

Tower property: If $X$ is integrable, and $\mathscr G$ and $\mathscr H$ are two sigma-algebras such that $\mathscr H\subseteq\mathscr G$, then $$\mathbb E[\mathbb E[X\mid\mathscr G]\mid\mathscr H] = E[X\mid\mathscr H] $$

and apply it to $X\equiv Z_{s+t}f(B_{s+t})$, $\mathscr G \equiv\mathscr F_s$ and $\mathscr H = \{\Omega,\emptyset\} $.

  • Thanks very much for detailed answer! I'm just studying Ito diffusion, so, please wait for me to understand your answer. – particle-not good at english Jan 06 '25 at 01:02
  • It took a long time for me to read my textbook up to Ito diffusion. I'm sorry for the late reply. I have a question about your answer. I had thought that the definition of $\mathbb E^{B_s}\left[g(X_{t})\right]$ is $\mathbb E^{(・)}\left[g(X_{t})\right]\circ B_s$. Is it wrong? I'd like you to let me know the definition of $\mathbb E\left[g(X_{t})\mid B_s\right]$. I really appreciate again that you took so long time to type and explain to me. – particle-not good at english Jan 08 '25 at 06:50
  • I also not sure how to get $\mathbb{E}^x[Z_{s+t}f(B_{s+t})]$ from $\mathbb{E}^x\left[Z_s\mathbb E^x\left[g(X_{s+t})\mid \mathscr F_s\right]\right]$. I think $\mathbb{E}^x\left[Z_s\mathbb E^x\left[g(X_{s+t})\mid \mathscr F_s\right]\right] = \mathbb{E}^x\left[\mathbb E^x\left[Z_sZ_{s+t}f(B_{s+t})\mid \mathscr F_s\right]\right] =\mathbb{E}^x\left[Z_sZ_{s+t}f(B_{s+t})\right]\neq \mathbb{E}^x[Z_{s+t}f(B_{s+t})]$. – particle-not good at english Jan 08 '25 at 07:58
  • Ah, I think I misunderstood. I finally understand what you wanted to say! Thank you very much!! – particle-not good at english Jan 08 '25 at 14:16
  • @particle-notgoodatenglish hi, thank you for pinging me. You were absolutely right, there was a bug with my proof because I treated the $\mathbb E^{B_s} $ symbol as a conditional expectation, which it is not. I have come up with another argument, I think it has the right idea but it is not super rigorous. It is kind of inspired by the proof of Markov property for Itô diffusions in Øksendal's book, so if you can have the book open while reading my answer that will probably help. It took me ages to write this so I left out some small details too, any questions feel free to ask. – Stratos supports the strike Jan 08 '25 at 16:22
  • Thanks for additional edition! I'm sorry but I don't understand "by Markov property, both $X_s$ and $X_{t+s}$ are independent of ${\sigma(B_u),0\le u \le s}$". Could you add a bit more logic? – particle-not good at english Jan 09 '25 at 06:11
  • @particle-notgoodatenglish there is a proof in Øksendal but actually all we need is independence of the increments, which is easier. See my edit. – Stratos supports the strike Jan 09 '25 at 16:41
  • Thank you very much again! I'll check the link you added! Please wait for me to understand it. – particle-not good at english Jan 10 '25 at 02:56
  • I understood (https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/4866897/ito-integral-independence-of-time-increments). But I'm still not sure that $X_{s+t}-X_s$ is independent from $B_u (0\leq u\leq s)$. $X_{s+t}-X_s$=$(B_{s+t}-B_s, \int_{s}^{s+t}V(B_r)dB_r)$. I think there is no correlation between $B_{s+t}-B_s$ and $B_u(0\leq u\leq s)$ but there is correlation between $V(B_r) (s\leq r\leq s+t)$ and $B_u(0\leq r\leq s)$. So, I don't think $X_{s+t}-X_s$ is independent from $B_u (0\leq u\leq s)$. – particle-not good at english Jan 10 '25 at 07:29
  • $V(B_r) (s\leq r\leq s+t)$ may be correlated with the past realizations of $B_r$ but the whole integral is not. You can prove it the same way: write $\int_{s}^{s+t}V(B_r)dB_r$ as a $L^2$ limit of finite sums of the form $\sum V(B_{t_i})(B_{t_{i+1}} - B_{t_i}) $ where $t_i$ ranges from $s$ to $s+t$. Note that $(B_{t_{i+1}} - B_{t_i})$ is independent of both $B_{t_i}$ and $B_u$ for any $i$ and $0\le u\le s$. This implies (linearity of expectation) that the correlation between $B_u$ and $\sum V(B_{t_i})(B_{t_{i+1}} - B_{t_i}) $ is $0$, and this still holds when taking the limit (by DCT) – Stratos supports the strike Jan 10 '25 at 13:17
  • I'm really sorry that I made a big mistake. I wanted to type $\int_{s}^{s+t}V(B_r)dr$. Is this independent from $B_u (0\leq u\leq s)$? – particle-not good at english Jan 10 '25 at 13:34
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    @Stratossupportsthestrike I do not see either how from the independence of $B_{t_{i+1}}-B_{t_i}$ from both, $B_u,0\le u\le s$ and $B_{t_i}$ one can conclude the independence of $\sum V(B_{t_i})(B_{t_{i+1}}-B_{t_i})$ from $B_u,.$ OP's gap in (1) is small and fairly standard to close. See my answer. – Kurt G. Jan 10 '25 at 15:06
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This post shows how one derives from the Markov property in the form of your equation (2) the following: $$ \mathbb E^x\left[e^{-\int_0^tV(B_{s+u})\,du}f(B_{s+t})\Big|{\mathscr F}_s\right] =\mathbb E^{B_s}\left[e^{-\int_0^tV(B_u)\,du}f(B_t)\right] $$ which leads to the second equals sign in your chain of equations ending with (1). To see this we just note that $$ \Psi(B_.)=e^{-\int_0^tV(B_u)\,du}f(B_t) $$ is a measurable functional of the whole path of $B$ that the linked post is considering and that $$ \Psi(B_{.+s})=e^{-\int_0^tV(B_{u+s})\,du}f(B_{t+s})\,. $$

Kurt G.
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