Abstract. In this paper we investigate model-independent bounds for exotic options written on a risky asset using infinite-dimensional linear programming methods. Based on arguments from the theory of MongeKantorovich mass-transport we establish a dual version of the problem that has a natural financial interpretation in terms of semi-static hedging. In particular we prove that there is no duality gap.

We consider the problem of superhedging under volatility uncertainty for an investor allowed to dynamically trade the underlying asset, and statically trade European call options for all possible strikes with some given maturity. This problem is classically approached by means of the Skorohod Embedding Problem (SEP). Instead, we provide a dual formulation which converts the superhedging problem into a continuous martingale optimal transportation problem. We then show that this formulation allows us to recover previously known results about lookback options. In particular, our methodology induces a new proof of the optimality of Azéma-Yor solution of the SEP for a certain class of lookback options. Unlike the SEP technique, our approach applies to a large class of exotics and is suitable for numerical approximation techniques.

It is well known but rather mysterious that root spaces of the E k Lie groups appear in the second integral cohomology of regular, complex, compact, del Pezzo surfaces. The corresponding groups act on the scalar fields (0-forms) of toroidal compactifications of M theory. Their Borel subgroups are actually subgroups of supergroups of finite dimension over the Grassmann algebra of differential forms on spacetime that have been shown to preserve the self-duality equation obeyed by all bosonic form-fields of the theory. We show here that the corresponding duality superalgebras are nothing but Borcherds superalgebras truncated by the above choice of Grassmann coefficients. The full Borcherds' root lattices are the second integral cohomology of the del Pezzo surfaces. Our choice of simple roots uses the anti-canonical form and its known orthogonal complement. Another result is the determination of del Pezzo surfaces associated to other string and field theory models. Dimensional reduction on T k corresponds to blow-up of k points in general position with respect to each other. All theories of the Magic triangle that reduce to the E n sigma model in three dimensions correspond to singular del Pezzo surfaces with A 8−n (normal) singularity at a point. The case of type I and heterotic theories if one drops their gauge sector corresponds to non-normal (singular along a curve) del Pezzo's. We comment on previous encounters with Borcherds algebras at the end of the paper.

No abstract

We provide a probabilistic representations of the solution of some semilinear hyperbolic and high-order PDEs based on branching diffusions. These representations pave the way for a Monte-Carlo approximation of the solution, thus bypassing the curse of dimensionality. We illustrate the numerical implications in the context of some popular PDEs in physics such as nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation, a simplified scalar version of the Yang-Mills equation, a fourth-order nonlinear beam equation and the Gross-Pitaevskii PDE as an example of nonlinear Schrödinger equations.