Rough path
In stochastic analysis, a rough path is a generalization of the notion of smooth path allowing to construct a robust solution theory for controlled differential equations driven by classically irregular signals, for example a Wiener process. The theory was developed in the 1990s by Terry Lyons. Several accounts of the theory are available. Rough path theory is focused on capturing and making precise the interactions between highly oscillatory and non-linear systems. It builds upon the harmonic analysis of L.C. Young, the geometric algebra of K.T. Chen, the Lipschitz function theory of H. Whitney and core ideas of stochastic analysis. The concepts and the uniform estimates have widespread application in pure and applied Mathematics and beyond. It provides a toolbox to recover with relative ease many classical results in stochastic analysis (Wong-Zakai, Stroock-Varadhan support theorem, construction of stochastic flows, etc) without using specific probabilistic properties such as the martingale property or predictability. The theory also extends Itô's theory of SDEs far beyond the semimartingale setting. At the heart of the mathematics is the challenge of describing a smooth but potentially highly oscillatory and multidimensional path effectively so as to accurately predict its effect on a nonlinear dynamical system . The Signature