Governing equations for Probability densities of stochastic differential equations with discrete time delays

TL;DR

This paper derives the governing equations for probability densities of stochastic delay differential equations with discrete delays, addressing a gap where traditional Fokker-Planck equations do not apply due to the non-Markovian nature of solutions.

Contribution

It introduces a simple form of governing equations for SDDEs' probability densities, enabling theoretical and numerical analysis where Fokker-Planck equations are not applicable.

Findings

Derived governing equations for SDDE probability densities

Validated equations with an illustrative example

Facilitates analysis and computation for SDDEs

Abstract

The time evolution of probability densities for solutions to stochastic differential equations (SDEs) without delay is usually described by Fokker-Planck equations, which require the adjoint of the infinitesimal generator for the solutions. However, Fokker-Planck equations do not exist for stochastic delay differential equations (SDDEs) because the solutions to SDDEs are not Markov processes and have no corresponding infinitesimal generators. In this paper, we address the open question of finding the governing equations for probability densities of SDDEs with discrete time delays. The governing equation is given in a simple form that facilitates theoretical analysis and numerical computation. An illustrative example is presented to verify the proposed governing equations.