Viscosity Characterization of the Arbitrage Function under Model Uncertainty

Abstract: We show that in an equity market model with Knightian uncertainty regarding the relative risk and covariance structure of its assets, the arbitrage function -- defined as the reciprocal of the highest return on investment that can be achieved relative to the market using nonanticipative strategies, and under any admissible market model configuration -- is a viscosity solution of an associated Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation under appropriate boundedness, continuity and Markovian assumptions on the uncertainty structure. This result generalizes that of Fernholz and Karatzas (2011), who characterized this arbitrage function as a classical solution of a Cauchy problem for this HJB equation under much stronger conditions than those needed here.