Can You hear the Shape of a Market? Geometric Arbitrage and Spectral Theory

TL;DR

This paper introduces a geometric framework for financial markets using spectral theory, linking arbitrage conditions to the spectral properties of a connection Laplacian, and explores topological obstructions to no-arbitrage conditions.

Contribution

It develops a novel geometric and spectral approach to arbitrage theory, extending classical results to markets with arbitrage and identifying topological obstructions to no-arbitrage.

Findings

Market arbitrage conditions relate to the zero eigenvalue of the connection Laplacian.

Topological invariants like Euler characteristic obstruct the (NFLVR) condition.

Asset bubbles are characterized and classified within this geometric framework.

Abstract

Geometric Arbitrage Theory reformulates a generic asset model possibly allowing for arbitrage by packaging all assets and their forwards dynamics into a stochastic principal fibre bundle, with a connection whose parallel transport encodes discounting and portfolio rebalancing, and whose curvature measures, in this geometric language, the 'instantaneous arbitrage capability' generated by the market itself. The cashflow bundle is the vector bundle associated to this stochastic principal fibre bundle for the natural choice of the vector space fibre. The cashflow bundle carries a stochastic covariant differentiation induced by the connection on the principal fibre bundle. The link between arbitrage theory and spectral theory of the connection Laplacian on the vector bundle is given by the zero eigenspace resulting in a parametrization of all risk neutral measures equivalent to the statistical one. This indicates that a market satisfies the (NFLVR) condition if and only if $0$ is in the discrete spectrum of the connection Laplacian on the cash flow bundle or of the Dirac Laplacian of the twisted cash flow bundle with the exterior algebra bundle. We apply this result by extending Jarrow-Protter-Shimbo theory of asset bubbles for complete arbitrage free markets to markets not satisfying the (NFLVR). Moreover, by means of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem, we prove that the Euler characteristic of the asset nominal space is a topological obstruction to the the (NFLVR) condition, and, by means of the Bochner-Weitzenb\"ock formula, the non vanishing of the homology group of the cash flow bundle is revealed to be a topological obstruction to (NFLVR), too. Asset bubbles are defined, classified and decomposed for markets allowing arbitrage.