Bessel process

In mathematics, a Bessel process, named after Friedrich Bessel, is a type of stochastic process.

Formal definition

Three realizations of Bessel Processes.

The Bessel process of order n is the real-valued process X given (when n ≥ 2) by

[math]\displaystyle{ X_t = \| W_t \|, }[/math]

where ||·|| denotes the Euclidean norm in Rⁿ and W is an n-dimensional Wiener process (Brownian motion). For any n, the n-dimensional Bessel process is the solution to the stochastic differential equation (SDE)

[math]\displaystyle{ dX_t = dW_t + \frac{n-1}{2}\frac{dt}{X_t} }[/math]

where W is a 1-dimensional Wiener process (Brownian motion). Note that this SDE makes sense for any real parameter [math]\displaystyle{ n }[/math] (although the drift term is singular at zero).

Notation

A notation for the Bessel process of dimension n started at zero is BES₀(n).

In specific dimensions

For n ≥ 2, the n-dimensional Wiener process started at the origin is transient from its starting point: with probability one, i.e., X_t > 0 for all t > 0. It is, however, neighbourhood-recurrent for n = 2, meaning that with probability 1, for any r > 0, there are arbitrarily large t with X_t < r; on the other hand, it is truly transient for n > 2, meaning that X_t ≥ r for all t sufficiently large.

For n ≤ 0, the Bessel process is usually started at points other than 0, since the drift to 0 is so strong that the process becomes stuck at 0 as soon as it hits 0.

Relationship with Brownian motion

0- and 2-dimensional Bessel processes are related to local times of Brownian motion via the Ray–Knight theorems.

The law of a Brownian motion near x-extrema is the law of a 3-dimensional Bessel process (theorem of Tanaka).

References

• Øksendal, Bernt (2003). Stochastic Differential Equations: An Introduction with Applications. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 3-540-04758-1. 
• Williams D. (1979) Diffusions, Markov Processes and Martingales, Volume 1 : Foundations. Wiley. ISBN:0-471-99705-6.