1. Introduction
Nowadays, stochastic modeling is playing an important role in many fields of science and industry such that more and more stochastic differential equations (SDEs) are established. In general, the solution for the SDEs does not have an explicit expression, except in the linear case. Therefore, it is necessary and meaningful to seek the approximation solution rather than the accurate solution. Usually, the existence and uniqueness theorem of the solution for SDEs are proved by taking the method of Picard successive approximation [
1]. During the production of the Picard iteration, to compute the approximation solution
at the
nth step, all past information
is needed, which involves lots of calculations on stochastic integrals. Therefore, to reduce the calculation, the Carath
odory successive approximation was first introduced by Constantine Carath
odory in the early part of the 20th century for ordinary differential equations (ODEs) [
2], in which
is computed directly. The Carath
odory’s approximation solutions for some general SDEs were given in the monograph [
1]. Moreover, the Carath
odory approximation solution for the SDEs with pathwise uniqueness was given in [
3]. The Carath
odory’s approximation solution for a class of perturbed SDEs with reflecting boundary was given in [
4]. Considering that the future state of the system may be determined by the present state and some of the past states in some applications, then the functional SDEs are established. Furthermore, some results were obtained on the Carath
odory approximation solutions for functional SDEs with variable delays; for examples, see Refs. [
5,
6,
7,
8,
9]. In particular, the neutral SDEs are a class of SDEs depending on past and present values but that involve derivatives with delays as well as the function itself. Examples are the problem of lossless transmission, the equation of vibrating masses attached to an elastic bar [
10], the collision problem in electrodynamics [
11], and so on.
Fractional calculus is a generalization of integral calculus and has properties of memory and heredity. In the 1970s, B.B. Mandelbrot first pointed out that there are a large number of fractional dimensions in nature and many technical fields, as well as self-similarity between the whole and the part. Since then, fractional calculus has been applied to many fields, such as chemistry, viscoelasticity, anomalous diffusion process, complex networks, neural networks, etc. [
12,
13,
14,
15,
16,
17]. With this background, fractional SDEs are established. The existence and uniqueness theorems of a solution for a class of fractional SDEs were obtained by using the Picard approximation sequence [
18,
19] or by using the theorem of the Banach fixed point [
20,
21,
22,
23,
24]. Then, the Carath
odory approximations and stability of solutions to non-Lipschitz fractional SDEs of the It
–Doob type were investigated in [
25]. The Carath
odory’s approximation for a type of Caputo fractional SDEs was obtained in [
26]. A class of fractional SDEs driven by L
vy noise was studied by using Carath
odory approximation in [
27]. The approximations for solutions of L
vy-type SDEs were given in [
28], and so on.
Inspired by the above discussion, some results on the existence, uniqueness and Carathodory’s successive approximation of FNSDE are given in this paper. The contributions of this paper are listed: (1) The Carathodory’s approximation for the FNSDE with and without time delay is established, respectively. (2) The boundedness and continuity of the mild solution and Carathodory’s approximation solution are given. (3) The mean-square error between the mild solution and Carathodory’s approximation solution is obtained. (4) Under the non-Lipschitz condition, the existence and uniqueness theorem of the solution for the FNSDE without delay is established based on the method of Carathodory’s successive approximation.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In
Section 2, some preliminaries are introduced. The Carath
odory’s approximation solution for the FNSDE with variable time delays is given in
Section 3. The Carath
odory’s approximation solution for the general FNSDE without delay is given in
Section 4. The existence and uniqueness theorem of the solution for the FNSDE under the non-Lipschitz condition is given in
Section 5. A numerical example is given in
Section 6. Finally, the conclusion is given in
Section 7.
Notations: Denote , , and as the set of natural, real and complex numbers, respectively. Let , be two separable Hilbert spaces, be the space of bounded linear operators from into , . denotes the norms in , , and . Let denote the inner product, where represents the mathematical expectation. represents the family of continuously n-times differentiable -valued functions defined on . Let be a complete filtered probability space satisfying that contains all P-null sets of .
2. Preliminaries
Assume that there exists a complete orthonormal basis
in
, and
is a cylindrical
-valued Wiener process [
29] defined on
with a finite trace nuclear covariance operator
. Denote
, with
,
. Let
be a sequence of the one-dimensional standard Wiener process mutually independent of
such that
For , define , and is the adjoint of the operator . For any bounded operator , then If , then is called a Q-Hilbert–Schmidt operator. Denote as the set of all -measurable, square-integral -valued random variables on , which is a Banach space equipped with the norm . Denote as the space of all continuous -valued functions defined on , which is a Banach space equipped with the norm Denote as the family of -valued -adapted process such that almost surely.
Lemma 1 ([
29]).
If Θ
is an -valued stochastic process such that is measurable relative to , and for some , then Definition 1 ([
30]).
The α-order Caputo fractional derivative for a function is defined bywhere , satisfies . Definition 2 ([
30]).
The α-order Riemann–Liouville (R-L) fractional integral for a function is defined bywhere . Definition 3 ([
30]).
The α-order R-L fractional derivative for a function is defined bywhere satisfies . Lemma 2 ([
30]).
Let , , for , thenIn particular, when and , then Definition 4 ([
30]).
A two-parameter Mittag–Leffler function is defined bywhere . Specially, , . Lemma 3 ([
31]).
For any and , then Lemma 4 (H
lder’s inequality [
31]).
Suppose that , . If and , then Lemma 5 (Generalized Gr
nwall inequality [
32]).
For with , suppose that , is a nonnegative, nondecreasing, and locally integrable function on J, is a nonnegative, nondecreasing continuous function defined on J, with , and c is a constant. For , if is non-negative and locally integrable withthen Lemma 6 (Bihari’s inequality [
1]).
For with , let is a positive constant and be a continuous nondecreasing function such that for all . Let be a Borel-measurable bounded non-negative function on J, and be a non-negative integrable function on J. For , ifthenholds with and is the inverse function of . Remark 1. Lemmas 5 and 6 are both generalizations of the classical Grnwall’s inequality, which will be used in the following analysis. In addition, there are many generalizations of Grnwall’s inequality, for example, the fractional version of the stochastic Grnwall inequalities [33,34], and so on. 3. Carathodory’s Approximation Solution for the FNSDE with Variable Time Delays
In this section, the Carath
odory’s approximation solution for the FNSDE with variable time delays is given. For
, let
be a continuous nonnegative function on
with
. Denote
. Consider the following FNSDE with variable time delays:
where
,
,
,
,
, and
are continuous nonlinear mapping functions.
Divide both sides of Equation (
1) by
, then Equation (
1) is equivalent to
which is the
-order R-L derivative of
. Furthermore, Equation (
2) is equivalent to
which is the
-order Caputo derivative of
. Therefore, it could also said that the FNSDE (
3) is considered in this paper. It should be noted that
is only seen as a kind of notation in form, which usually be used in the studies of SDEs [
18,
20,
21,
22,
23,
24,
25,
26]. Taking the
-order R-L fractional integral on both sides of Equation (
3), Equation (
3) is equivalent to the following stochastic integral equation:
Definition 5. An
-valued stochastic process
is called a mild solution of Equation (
3) if it has the following properties:
- (i)
is t-continuous and -adapted.
- (ii)
, , and .
- (iii)
Equation (
4) holds for every
with probability 1.
To continue, the following assumptions are necessary:
Assumption 1. (Linear growth condition) There exists a positive constant such that for all , then
Assumption 2. (Lipschitz condition) There exists a positive constant such that for all and , then
Assumption 3. There exists a positive constant such that for all , then
Remark 2. Assumption 3 is a common hypothesis for neutral SDEs, which means that is uniformly Lipschitz continuous with the Lipschitz coefficient less than 1. It is known from [1] that the Assumption 3 is obtained from a series of experimental data. For
, define
,
. The Carath
odory’s approximation solution for the FNSDE (
3) is defined by
where
and
represent indicator functions of
and
, respectively. Then,
can be determined explicitly by the stepwise iterated It
integrals over the intervals
,
,
, etc.
Remark 3. The main idea of the Carathodory’s approximation solution is to replace the present state with the past state , replace the state with when , and keep the state unchanged when .
Remark 4. Usually, the Picard approximation is defined asDuring this produce, the past states , , …, need to be computed in order to compute , which involve lots of calculations on stochastic integrals. Better than the Picard approximation, can be calculated directly during the Carathodory’s approximation. Theorem 1. Assume that Assumptions 1–3 hold. Let be the unique mild solution of Equation (1) on . Then, for ,where , , and Next, four lemmas are given, which is helpful to prove Theorem 1.
Lemma 7. Under Assumptions 1 and 3, for all , then , that iswhere , and . Proof. From Equation (
5), Lemmas 1–4, Assumptions 1 and 3, then
Furthermore,
where
, and
. From Lemma 5, then
In particular, take
, then
The proof is completed. □
Lemma 8. Under Assumptions 1 and 3, then , that iswhere , and . Proof. This lemma can be proved in the same way as Lemma 7. □
Lemma 9. Under Assumptions 1 and 3, for all , and any with , thenwhere , and . Proof. For any
with
, then
where
. Furthermore,
with
Noted that
, then
and
Furthermore,
where
. Next,
Since , then . The proof is completed. □
Lemma 10. Under Assumptions 1 and 3, for any with , thenwhere . Proof. From Equation (
4), Lemmas 1–4, Assumptions 1 and 3,
where
. Since
then
where
. The proof is completed. □
We are now in a position to prove Theorem 1.
Proof of Theorem 1. From Equations (
4) and (
5) and Assumptions 2 and 3,
Denote
and
, then
with
In particular, take
. Then from Lemma 9,
Denote
, and
, then
Similar to the analysis of
, then
and
Noted that
on
, then
From the above analysis, then
The proof is completed. □
4. Carathodory’s Approximation Solution for the General FNSDE without Delay
In this section, the Carath
odory’s approximation solution for the general FNSDE without delay is given. Denote
. Consider the following FNSDE:
where
,
,
,
, and
are continuous nonlinear mapping functions.
Divide both sides of Equation (
11) by
, then Equation (
11) is equivalent to
which is the
-order R-L derivative of
. Furthermore, Equation (
12) is equivalent to
which is the
-order Caputo derivative of
.
Taking the
-order R-L fractional integral on both sides of Equation (
13), then this equation is equivalent to the following stochastic integral equation:
Definition 6. An -valued stochastic process is called a mild solution of Equation (13) if it has the following properties: - (i)
is t-continuous, and -adapted.
- (ii)
, , and .
- (iii)
Equation (14) holds for every with probability 1.
To continue, the following assumptions are necessary:
Assumption 4. (Linear growth condition) There exists a positive constant such that for all ,
Assumption 5. (Lipschitz condition) There exists a positive constant such that for all and ,
The Carath
odory’s approximation solution of the FNSDE (
11) is defined as follows:
Theorem 2. Assume that Assumptions 3–5 hold. Let be the unique mild solution of Equation (11) on . Then, for , Next, four lemmas are given, which is helpful to prove Theorem 2.
Lemma 11. Under Assumptions 3 and 4, for all , , that iswhere , and . Proof. From Equation (
15), Lemmas 1–4, Assumptions 3 and 4, then
Furthermore,
where
, and
. Then, from Lemma 5,
In particular, take
, then
The proof is completed. □
Lemma 12. Under Assumptions 3 and 4, then , that iswhere , and . Proof. This lemma can be proved in the same way as Lemma 11. □
Lemma 13. Under Assumptions 3 and 4, for all , and any with , thenwhere , and . Proof. Furthermore, from Lemmas 1–4, Assumptions 3 and 4, then
where
,
, and
.
The proof is completed. □
Lemma 14. Under Assumptions 3 and 4, for any
with
, then
where
.
Proof. From Equations (
14), Lemmas 1–5, Assumptions 3 and 4, then
Furthermore, it could be obtained that
where
. The proof is completed. □
We are now in a position to prove Theorem 2.
Proof of Theorem 2. From Equations (
14) and (
15), then
Furthermore, from Lemmas 1–4, Assumptions 3 and 5, then
Denote
and
, then
In particular, take
, then
Obviously,
, and
, then
The proof is completed. □
5. Existence and Uniqueness Theorem under Non-Lipschitz Condition
In this section, by using the method of Carath
odory’s successive approximation, the existence and uniqueness theorem of the solution for the FNSDE (
13) is established under the non-Lipschitz condition, which is weaker than the Lipschitz one.
Assumption 6. Let and be continuous functions. Assume that there exists a continuous increasing concave function with such that and for all and , then
Remark 5 ([
25,
35]).
The concrete form of the concave function can be selected aswhere is sufficiently small. Note that if , then Assumption 6 yields to Assumption 5 (Lipschitz condition). Lemma 15 ([
1]).
Assumption 6 implies the linear growth condition (Assumption 4). Proof. Since
is a concave and non-negative function, there exists a positive constant
such that
for
. Then
where
. The proof is completed. □
Define for . Denote as the inverse function of . From Assumption 6, then and .
Theorem 3. Under Assumptions 3 and 6, the Equation (13) has a unique mild solution on . Proof. Proof of uniqueness. Let
and
be two mild solutions of the FNSDE (
13) with initial value
and
, respectively. From Lemmas 1–4 and Assumptions 3 and 6,
Since
is concave, then from the Jensen inequality,
Furthermore, for any
, then
Letting
gives
, which implies that
for all
almost surely. Therefore, the pathwise uniqueness of the solution for Equation (
13) holds. The proof of the uniqueness is completed.
Proof of existence. Consider the Carath
odory’s successive approximation defined by (
15). From Lemma 15, then Assumption 6 is satisfied. Furthermore, according to Lemma 11, then
,
. Next, it will prove that
is a Cauchy sequence in
for each
. Let
, then
From Assumptions 3, 6, Lemmas 1–4, and Jensen inequality, then
Then,
which implies that
is a uniformly Cauchy sequence in
. Therefore, there exists a continuous function
in
such that
According to Lemma 15, the linear growth condition (Assumption 4) holds under Assumption 6. From Theorem 2, it could be proven that the limit
of the sequence
is a solution of Equation (
13). The proof of existence is completed.
Therefore, the proof of Theorem 3 is completed. □
Remark 6. In this section, only the Lipschitz condition and the linear growth condition that the functions and satisfied are weakened to the non-Lipschitz condition, the assumption condition of the function is not changed, that is, the function still satisfies the Lipschitz condition. This is because the FNSDE is a model summarized from the actual systems. It turns out that should be Lipschitz continuous with the Lipschitz coefficient less than 1 [1]. Remark 7. When , Equations (3) and (13) yield the integer-order SDEs considered in [1]. Therefore, the results of this paper can be regarded as a generalization of the results in [1]. Remark 8. Compared with [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9], where the Carathodory’s approximation solutions of various of SDEs were given, the FNSDE with memory and heredity is considered herein. Different from [18,19], in which the existence and uniqueness of the solution of the fractional SDE were proved by defining Picard’s successive approximation, the existence and uniqueness of the solution of the FNSDE are established by using Carathodory’s successive approximation in this paper.