
166 Lectures on Dynamics of Stochastic Systems
We can expand the logarithm of the characteristic functional 2[t; v(τ )] of delta-
correlated processes in the functional Fourier series
2[t; v(τ )] =
∞
X
n=1
i
n
n!
t
Z
0
dτ K
n
(τ )v
n
(τ ), (6.81)
where K
n
(t) determine the cumulant functions of process z(t). Substituting Eq. (6.81)
in Eq. (6.80), we obtain the equation
d
dt
h
x(t)
i
=
b
A(t)
h
x(t)
i
+
∞
X
n=1
1
n!
K
n
(t)
b
B(t)
n
h
x(t)
i
. (6.82)
If there exists power l such that
b
B
l
(t) = 0, then Eq. (6.82) assumes the form
d
dt
h
x(t)
i
=
b
A(t)
h
x(t)
i
+
l−1
X
n=1
1
n!
K
n
(t)
b
B(t)
n
h
x(t)
i
. (6.83)
In this case, the equation for average value depends only on a finite number of cumu-
lants of process z(t). This means that there is no necessity in knowledge of probability
distribution of function z(t) in the context of the equation for average value; sufficient
information includes only certain cumulants of process and knowledge of the fact that
process z(t) can be considered as the delta-correlated random process. Statistical des-
cription of an oscillator with fluctuating frequency is a good example of such system
in physics.
Problems
Problem 6.1
Starting from the backward Liouville equation (3.8), page 71 describing the
behavior of dynamic system (6.1), page 141 as a function of initial values t
0
and x
0
, derive the backward equation for probability density P(x, t|x
0
, t
0
) =
h
δ(x(t|x
0
, t
0
) − x)
i
.
Solution
∂
∂t
0
+ v(x
0
, t
0
)
∂
∂x
0
P(x, t|x
0
, t
0
) =
˙
2
t
0
t, t
0
;
δ
iδf ( y, τ )
δ
(
x(t|x
0
, t
0
) − x
)
,
where
˙
2
t
0
[t, t
0
; u( y, τ )] =
d
dt
0
ln 8[t, t
0
; u( y, τ )]
and 8[t, t
0
; u( y, τ )] is the characteristic functional of field f (x
0
, t
0
).