Open-loop solvability for mean-field stochastic linear quadratic optimal control problems of Markov regime-switching system

Abstract

This paper investigates the mean-field stochastic linear quadratic optimal control problem of Markov regime switching system (M-MF-SLQ, for short). The representation of the cost functional for the M-MF-SLQ is derived using the technique of operators. It is shown that the convexity of the cost functional is necessary for the finiteness of the M-MF-SLQ problem, whereas uniform convexity of the cost functional is sufficient for the open-loop solvability of the problem. By considering a family of uniformly convex cost functionals, a characterization of the finiteness of the problem is derived and a minimizing sequence, whose convergence is equivalent to the open-loop solvability of the problem, is constructed. We demonstrate with a few examples that our results can be employed for tackling some financial problems such as mean-variance portfolio selection problem.