Markovian Solutions to Discontinuous ODEs

Abstract

Given a possibly discontinuous, bounded function $f:\mathbb{R}\mapsto\mathbb{R}$, we consider the set of generalized flows, obtained by assigning a probability measure on the set of Carath\'eodory solutions to the ODE ~$\dot x = f(x)$. The paper provides a complete characterization of all such flows which have a Markov property in time. This is achieved in terms of (i) a positive, atomless measure supported on the set $f^{-1}(0)$ where $f$ vanishes, (ii) a countable number of Poisson random variables, determining the waiting times at points in $f^{-1}(0)$, and (iii) a countable set of numbers $\theta_k\in [0,1]$, describing the probability of moving up or down, at isolated points where two distinct trajectories can originate.