Reflected and Doubly Reflected Backward Stochastic Differential Equations with Irregular Obstacles and a Large Set of Stopping Strategies

We introduce a new formulation of reflected backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs) and doubly reflected BSDEs associated with irregular obstacles. In the first part of the paper, we consider an extension of the classical optimal stopping problem over a larger set of stopping systems than the set of stopping times (namely, the set of split stopping times), where the payoff process $$\xi $$ ξ is irregular and in the case of a general filtration. Split stopping times are a powerful tool for modeling financial contracts and derivatives that depend on multiple conditions or triggers, and for incorporating stochastic processes with jumps and other types of discontinuities. We show that the value family can be aggregated by an optional process v, which is characterized as the Snell envelope of the reward process $$\xi $$ ξ over split stopping times. Using this, we prove the existence and uniqueness of a solution Y to irregular reflected BSDEs. In the second part of the paper, motivated by the classical Dynkin game with completely irregular rewards considered by Grigorova et al. (Electron J Probab 23:1–38, 2018), we generalize the previous equations to the case of two reflecting barrier processes.