Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 21, 2026

Continuity in probability

In probability theory, a stochastic process is said to be continuous in probability or stochastically continuous if its distributions converge whenever the values in the index set converge.

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In probability theory, a stochastic process is said to be continuous in probability or stochastically continuous if its distributions converge whenever the values in the index set converge. 12

Definition

Let X = ( X t ) t T {\displaystyle X=(X_{t})_{t\in T}} be a stochastic process in R n {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}} . The process X {\displaystyle X} is continuous in probability when X r {\displaystyle X_{r}} converges in probability to X s {\displaystyle X_{s}} whenever r {\displaystyle r} converges to s {\displaystyle s} .2

Examples and Applications

Feller processes are continuous in probability at t = 0 {\displaystyle t=0} . Continuity in probability is a sometimes used as one of the defining property for Lévy process.1 Any process that is continuous in probability and has independent increments has a version that is càdlàg.2 As a result, some authors immediately define Lévy process as being càdlàg and having independent increments.3

References

References

  1. Applebaum, D. "Lectures on Lévy processes and Stochastic calculus, Braunschweig; Lecture 2: Lévy processes" (PDF). University of Sheffield. pp. 37–53.
  2. Kallenberg, Olav (2002). Foundations of Modern Probability (2nd ed.). New York: Springer. p. 286.
  3. Kallenberg, Olav (2002). Foundations of Modern Probability (2nd ed.). New York: Springer. p. 290.