Lyapunov stabilizability of controlled diffusions via a superoptimality principle for viscosity solutions

We prove optimality principles for semicontinuous bounded viscosity solutions of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations. In particular, we provide a representation formula for viscosity supersolutions as value functions of suitable obstacle control problems. This result is applied to extend the Lyapunov direct method for stability to controlled Ito stochastic differential equations. We define the appropriate concept of the Lyapunov function to study stochastic open loop stabilizability in probability and local and global asymptotic stabilizability (or asymptotic controllability). Finally, we illustrate the theory with some examples.