The Bismut-Elworthy formula for backward SDE's and applications to nonlinear Kolmogorov equations and control in infinite dimensional spaces

Abstract

We consider a forward-backward system of stochastic evolution equations in a Hilbert space. Under nondegeneracy assumptions on the diffusion coefficient (that may be nonconstant) we prove an analogue of the well-known Bismut-Elworthy formula. Next, we consider a nonlinear version of the Kolmogorov equation, i.e. a deterministic quasilinear equation associated to the system according to Pardoux, E and Peng, S. (1992). "Backward stochastic differential equations and quasilinear parabolic partial differential equations". In: Rozowskii, B.L., Sowers, R.B. (Eds.), Stochastic Partial Differential Equations and Their Applications , Lecture Notes in Control Inf. Sci., Vol. 176, pp. 200-217. Springer: Berlin. The Bismut-Elworthy formula is applied to prove smoothing effect, i.e. to prove existence and uniqueness of a solution which is differentiable with respect to the space variable, even if the initial datum and (some) coefficients of the equation are not. The results are then applied to the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation of stochastic optimal control. This way we are able to characterize optimal controls by feedback laws for a class of infinite-dimensional control systems, including in particular the stochastic heat equation with state-dependent diffusion coefficient.