This paper deals with analytic studies for solving the inverse problem of identifying purely price-dependent volatilities from given option price data. Using the classical theory of parabolic differential equations we formulate and analyze the forward operator as a mapping between the Hilbert spaces H^1(R)and L^2(R). We investigate continuity and Fréchet differentiability of this operator and prove the discontinuity of the inverse operator. We use Tikhonov regularization and present assertions to the stable solvability of this problem.
Keywords:
inverse problem of option pricing, identification of local volatilities, Black-Scholes model, parabolic equations, fundamental solutions, ill-posed problem, regularizations, convergence rates