Linear quadratic stochastic optimal control problems with operator coefficients: open-loop solutions

Abstract

An optimal control problem is considered for linear stochastic differential equations with quadratic cost functional. The coefficients of the state equation and the weights in the cost functional are bounded operators on the spaces of square integrable random variables. The main motivation of our study is linear quadratic (LQ, for short) optimal control problems for mean-field stochastic differential equations. Open-loop solvability of the problem is characterized as the solvability of a system of linear coupled forward-backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDE, for short) with operator coefficients, together with a convexity condition for the cost functional. Under proper conditions, the well-posedness of such an FBSDE, which leads to the existence of an open-loop optimal control, is established. Finally, as applications of our main results, a general mean-field LQ control problem and a concrete mean-variance portfolio selection problem in the open-loop case are solved.