We prove that the multiplicity of a filtration of a local ring satisfies various convexity properties. In particular, we show the multiplicity is convex along geodesics. As a consequence, we prove that the volume of a valuation is log convex on simplices of quasi-monomial valuations and give a new proof of a theorem of Xu and Zhuang on the uniqueness of normalized volume minimizers. In another direction, we generalize a theorem of Rees on multiplicities of ideals to filtrations and characterize when the Minkowski inequality for filtrations is an equality under mild assumptions.

We consider backward filtrations generated by processes coming from deterministic and probabilistic cellular automata. We prove that these filtrations are standard in the classical sense of Vershik’s theory, but we also study them from another point of view that takes into account the measure-preserving action of the shift map, for which each sigma-algebra in the filtrations is invariant. This initiates what we call the dynamical classification of factor filtrations, and the examples we study show that this classification leads to different results.

The paper considers a statistical concept of causality in continuous time between filtered probability spaces, based on Granger’s definition of causality. This causality concept is connected with the preservation of the martingale representation property when the filtration is getting smaller. We also give conditions, in terms of causality, for every martingale to be a continuous semimartingale, and we consider the equivalence between the concept of causality and the preservation of the martingale representation property under change of measure. In addition, we apply these results to weak solutions of stochastic differential equations. The results can be applied to the economics of securities trading.

In this paper we consider the statistical concept of causality in continuous time between filtered probability spaces, based on Granger’s definitions of causality. Then we consider some stable subspaces of $H^p$ which contain right continuous modifications of martingales $P(A \mid {\mathcal {G}}_t)$. We give necessary and sufficient conditions, in terms of statistical causality, for these spaces to coincide with $H^p$. These results can be applied to extremal measures and regular weak solutions of stochastic differential equations.