Linear Stochastic Differential Equations
Linear SDEs are equations of the form . They can be solved explicitly using Itô's formula.
Homogeneous case
ExampleGeometric Brownian motion
with . Apply Itô to :
Integrating:
This is the Black-Scholes model for stock prices.
Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process
ExampleMean-reverting process
. This models a variable reverting to mean with rate . Solution:
As , converges in distribution to .
Summary
Linear SDEs can be solved explicitly via Itô's formula and variation of constants, yielding closed-form expressions for key financial and physical models.