Date of Award:

5-1985

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Mathematics and Statistics

Department name when degree awarded

Mathematics

Committee Chair(s)

Michael Brennan

Committee

Michael Brennan

Abstract

This work is a study of the relationship between Brownian motion and elementary, linear partial differential equations. In the text, I have shown that Brownian motion is a Markov process, and that Brownian motion itself, and certain Stochastic processes involving Brownian motion are also martingales. In particular, Dynkin's formula for Brownian motion was shown. Using Dynkin's formula and Brownian motion, I then constructed solutions for the classical Dirichlet problem and the heat equation, given by Δu=0 and ut= 1/2Δu+g, respectively. I have shown that the bounded solution is unique if Brownian motion will always exit the domain of the function once it has started at a point in the domain. The heat equation also has a unique bounded solution.

Checksum

c6f04f6948c9fd002cd70d51bcd5ff8f

Included in

Mathematics Commons

Share

COinS