Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

It is common practice to use Cox-Snell residuals to check for overall goodness of tin survival models. We evaluate the presumed relation of unit exponentially dis-tributed residuals for a good model t and evaluate under some violations of themodel. This is done graphically with the usual graphs of Cox-Snell residual andformally using Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness of t test. It is observed that residu-als from a correctly tted model follow unit exponential distribution. However, theCox-Snell residuals do not seem to be sensitive to the violations of the model.

This report is mainly based on the paper "Optimal multiple stopping and valuation of swing options" by R. Carmona and N. Touzi (1). Here the authors model and solve optimal stopping problems with more than one exercise time. The existence of optimal stopping times is firstly proved and they then construct the value function of American put options with multiple exercises in the case of the Black-Scholes model, characterizing the exercise boundaries of the perpetual case. Finally, they extend the analysis to the swing contracts with infinitely many exercise rights. In this report, we concentrate on explaining their rigorous mathematical analysis in detail, especially for the valuation of the perpetual American put options with single exercise and two exercise rights, and the characteristics of the exercise boundaries of the multiple stopping case. These results are presented as theorems in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. / text

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-81). Also available via the World Wide Web.

I went into the wilderness and I found Alec Baldwin. This is not a lie. It is also a title for a video installation and this thesis. In it, I investigate three separate adventure-performances, providing a theoretical context for their existence, meaning, and relationship as a form of artistic practice. I call this practice ‘adventure-art’, using the term to describe a performance-based action in which the artist publically explores his or her reality through some type of physical adventure, search, quest, or challenge. It is an attempt to engage oneself and others at both at the physical and mediated levels, reconciling, confusing, and merging the real with the simulated. In this thesis, I explore the confluence of consumption, creativity, the real, and the simulated within American popular culture from the perspective of a middle-class, suburban, white-male, art student – me, Steve Snell.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l’analyse de ces modèles particulaires pour les mathématiques financières.Le manuscrit est organisé en quatre chapitres. Chacun peut être lu séparément.Le premier chapitre présente le travail de thèse de manière globale, définit les objectifs et résume les principales contributions. Le deuxième chapitre constitue une introduction générale à la théorie des méthodes particulaire, et propose un aperçu de ses applications aux mathématiques financières. Nous passons en revue les techniques et les résultats principaux sur les systèmes de particules en interaction, et nous expliquons comment ils peuvent être appliques à la solution numérique d’une grande variété d’applications financières, telles que l’évaluation d’options compliquées qui dépendent des trajectoires, le calcul de sensibilités, l’évaluation d’options américaines ou la résolution numérique de problèmes de contrôle et d’estimation avec observation partielle.L’évaluation d’options américaines repose sur la résolution d’une équation d’évolution à rebours, nommée l’enveloppe de Snell dans la théorie du contrôle stochastique et de l’arrêt optimal. Les deuxième et troisième chapitres se concentrent sur l’analyse de l’enveloppe de Snell et de ses extensions à différents cas particuliers. Un ensemble de modèles particulaires est alors proposé et analysé numériquement. / This thesis is concerned with the analysis of these particle models for computational finance.The manuscript is organized in four chapters. Each of them could be read separately.The first chapter provides an overview of the thesis, outlines the motivation and summarizes the major contributions. The second chapter gives a general in- troduction to the theory of interacting particle methods, with an overview of their applications to computational finance. We survey the main techniques and results on interacting particle systems and explain how they can be applied to the numerical solution of a variety of financial applications; to name a few: pricing complex path dependent European options, computing sensitivities, pricing American options, as well as numerically solving partially observed control and estimation problems.The pricing of American options relies on solving a backward evolution equation, termed Snell envelope in stochastic control and optimal stopping theory. The third and fourth chapters focus on the analysis of the Snell envelope and its variation to several particular cases. Different type of particle models are proposed and studied.

This thesis consists of two main chapters along with an introduction andconclusion. In the introduction, we address the inspiration for the thesis, whichoriginates in a common calculus problem wherein travel time is minimized across two media separated by a single, straight boundary line. We then discuss the correlation of this problem with physics via Snells Law. The first core chapter takes this idea and develops it to include the concept of two media with a circular border. To make the problem easier to discuss, we talk about it in terms of running and swimming speeds. We first address the case where the starting and ending points for the passage are both on the boundary. We find the possible optimal paths, and also determine the conditions under which we travel along each path. Next we move the starting point to a location outside the boundary. While we are not able to determine the exact optimal path, we do arrive at some conclusions about what does not constitute the optimal path. In the second chapter, we alter this problem to address a rectangular enclosed boundary, which we refer to as a swimming pool. The variations in this scenario prove complex enough that we focus on the case where both starting and ending points are on the boundary. We start by considering starting and ending points on adjacent sides of the rectangle. We identify three possibilities for the fastest path, and are able to identify the conditions that will make each path optimal. We then address the case where the points are on opposite sides of the pool. We identify the possible paths for a minimum time and once again ascertain the conditions that make each path optimal. We conclude by briefly designating some other scenarios that we began to investigate, but were not able to explore in depth. They promise insightful results, and we hope to be able to address them in the future.

Ce mémoire présente une méthode de reconstruction de la surface d’un pare-brise à partir d’une image observée au travers de celui-ci. Cette image est déformée, car les rayons lumineux traversant le pare-brise subissent deux réfractions : une de chaque côté du verre. La déformation de l’image est dépendante de la forme du pare-brise, c’est donc cette donnée qui est utilisée pour résoudre le problème. La première étape est la construction d’un champ de vecteurs dans l’espace ambiant à partir des déviations des rayons lumineux passant par le pare-brise. Elle repose sur la loi de la réfraction de Snell-Descartes et sur des hypothèses simplificatrices au sujet de la courbure et de l’épaisseur du pare-brise. Le vecteur en un point de ce champ correspond à une prédiction du vecteur normal à la surface, sous l’hypothèse que celle-ci passe par le point en question. La deuxième étape est de trouver une surface compatible avec le champ de vecteurs obtenu. Pour y arriver, on formule un problème de minimisation où la donnée minimisée est la différence entre les vecteurs normaux à la surface et ceux construits à partir des mesures du système d’inspection. Il en résulte une équation d’Euler-Lagrange non linéaire à laquelle on impose des conditions de Dirichlet. Le graphe de la solution à ce problème est alors la surface recherchée. La troisième étape est une méthode de point fixe pour résoudre l’équation d’Euler-Lagrange. Elle donne une suite d’équations de Poisson linéaires dont la limite des solutions respecte l’équation non linéaire étudiée. On utilise le théorème du point fixe de Banach pour obtenir des conditions suffisantes d’existence et d’unicité de la solution, qui sont aussi des conditions suffisantes pour lesquelles la méthode de point fixe converge. / This Master’s thesis presents a method for the reconstruction of a windshield surface using an image observed through it. This image is distorted because the light rays passing through the windshield undergo two refractions : one on each side of the glass. The distortion depends on the windshield shape and therefore this data is used to solve the problem. The first step is the construction of a vector field in the ambient space, from the deviations of the light rays passing through the windshield. This step relies on the Snell-Descartes refraction law and on simplifying assumptions regarding the curvature and thickness of a windshield. A vector at a point of this field corresponds to a prediction of the surface normal vector at this point, under the hypothesis that this point lies on the surface. The second step is to find a surface that is compatible with the obtained vector field. For this purpose, a minimisation problem is formulated for which the minimized variable is the difference between the surface normal vector and the one deduced from the system’s measurements. This leads to a nonlinear Euler- Lagrange equation for which the Dirichlet boundary conditions are imposed. The graph of the solution is the desired surface. The third step is a fixed-point method to solve the Euler- Lagrange equation. At the center of this method is a sequence of linear Poisson equations, each giving an approximating solution. It is shown that the limit of this sequence of solutions respects the original nonlinear equation. The Banach fixed-point theorem is used to get sufficient existence and uniqueness conditions, that are also sufficient conditions under which the proposed fixed-point method converges.

Submitted by Johnny Rodrigues (johnnyrodrigues@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-08-02T21:04:42Z No. of bitstreams: 1 JOELSON DA CRUZ CAMPOS - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGMAT 2011..pdf: 1767673 bytes, checksum: bf8d4ae8ead7124a54cdc7b566c2a9ff (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-02T21:04:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JOELSON DA CRUZ CAMPOS - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGMAT 2011..pdf: 1767673 bytes, checksum: bf8d4ae8ead7124a54cdc7b566c2a9ff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12 / Capes / Neste trabalho, propomos o modelo de regressão log-Birnbaum-Saunders generalizado para analisar dados com censura intervalar. As funções escore e a matriz de informação de Fisher observada foram obtidas, bem como foi discutido o processo de estimação dos parâmetros do modelo. Como medida de influência, consideramos o afastamento pela verossimilhança (likelihood displacement) sob vários esquemas de perturbação. Derivamos as matrizes apropriadas para obter a influência local nos parâmetros estimados do modelo e realizamos uma análise residual baseada nos resíduos de Cox-Snell ajustado, Martingale e componente do desvio modificado. Apresentamos também um estudo de simulação de Monte Carlo a fim de investigar o comportamento da distribuição empírica dos resíduos propostos. Finalmente, uma aplicação com dados reais é apresentada. / In this work, we propose the model of regression log-Birnbaum-Saunders generalized to analyze data with interval censored. The score functions and the observed Fisher information matrix were obtained, as well as the process for estimating of the parameters was discussed. As measure of influence, we considered the likelihood displacement under several schemes of perturbation. The normal curvatures of local influence were derived and we conducted a residual analysis based on residuals Cox-Snell adjusted, Martingale and modified deviance. A Monte Carlo simulation was carried in order to investigate the behavior of empiric distribution of the proposed residuals. Finally, an application with real data is presented.