Nonlinear L\'evy Processes and their Characteristics

Abstract

We develop a general construction for nonlinear L\'evy processes with given characteristics. More precisely, given a set $\Theta$ of L\'evy triplets, we construct a sublinear expectation on Skorohod space under which the canonical process has stationary independent increments and a nonlinear generator corresponding to the supremum of all generators of classical L\'evy processes with triplets in $\Theta$. The nonlinear L\'evy process yields a tractable model for Knightian uncertainty about the distribution of jumps for which expectations of Markovian functionals can be calculated by means of a partial integro-differential equation.