Lie symmetries methods in boundary crossing problems for diffusion processes

Abstract: This paper uses Lie symmetry methods to analyze boundary crossing probabilities for a large class of diffusion processes. We show that if Fokker--Planck--Kolmogorov equation has non-trivial Lie symmetry, then boundary crossing identity exists and depends only on parameters of process and symmetry. For time-homogeneous diffusion processes we found necessary and sufficient conditions of symmetries' existence. This paper shows that if drift function satisfy one of a family of Ricatti equations, then the problem has nontrivial Lie symmetries. For each case we present symmetries in explicit form. Based on obtained results, we derive two-parametric boundary crossing identities and prove its uniqueness. Further, we present boundary crossing identities between different process. We show, that if the problem has 6 or 4 group of symmetries then the first passage time density to any boundary can be explicitly represented in terms of the first passage time by Brownian motion or Bessel process. Many examples are presented to illustrate the method.