Optimal convergence rate of modified Milstein scheme for SDEs with rough fractional diffusions

Abstract

We develop a new framework for error analysis on stochastic numerical schemes, with the rough path theory and stochastic backward error analysis. Based on our approach, we prove that the almost sure convergence rate of the modified Milstein scheme for stochastic differential equations driven by multiplicative multidimensional fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter H∈(14,12) is (2H−12)− for sufficiently smooth coefficients, which is optimal in the sense that it is consistent with the best probable convergence rate of implementable approximations of the Lévy area of fractional Brownian motion. Our result gives a positive answer to the conjecture proposed in [12] for the case H∈(13,12), and reveals for the first time that numerical schemes constructed by a second-order Taylor expansion converge for the case H∈(14,13].