A Wong-Zakai Approximation of Stochastic Differential Equations Driven by a General Semimartingale

Abstract: We examine a Wong-Zakai type approximation of a family of stochastic differential equations driven by a general cadlag semimartingale. For such an approximation, compared with the pointwise convergence result by Kurtz, Pardoux and Protter [12, Theorem 6.5], we establish stronger convergence results under the Skorokhod M_1-topology, which, among other possible applications, implies the convergence of the first passage time of the solution to the stochastic differential equation.