A global stochastic maximum principle for fully coupled forward-backward stochastic systems

Abstract: We study a stochastic optimal control problem for fully coupled forward-backward stochastic control systems with a nonempty control domain. For our problem, the first-order and second-order variational equations are fully coupled linear FBSDEs. Inspired by Hu (Hu, Probability, Uncertainty and Quantitative Risk, 2(1) (2017):pp 1-20), we develop a new decoupling approach by introducing an adjoint equation which is a quadratic BSDE. By revealing the relations among the terms of the first-order Taylor's expansions, we estimate the orders of them and derive a global stochastic maximum principle which includes a completely new term. Applications to stochastic linear quadratic control problems are investigated.