Reflected Optimal Stopping with a Max-Type Payoff: Measure-Valued Stopping Gains and Killed Resolvent Representation

Abstract

We study an infinite-horizon optimal stopping problem for a two-dimensional normally reflected diffusion in the quadrant with payoff \(G(x_1,x_2)=x_1\vee αx_2\). The problem combines three features that complicate the usual free-boundary analysis: reflection on the coordinate axes, a genuinely two-dimensional stopping region, and a nonsmooth max-type reward. We formulate the associated reflected obstacle problem, prove a verification theorem under explicit Itô--Krylov--Tanaka admissibility and measure-superharmonicity assumptions, and derive a conditional epigraph structure for the stopping set. The main technical point is that the stopping-gain object \(Γ=c+rG-\mathcal LG\) is a signed measure rather than a function. Its diagonal component is $\hat{I}{“}^{\hat{I}}”(dx)=-\frac{n^{\top }a(x)n}{2\sqrt{1+\hat{I}{\pm }^2}}\ddot{I}{ƒ}_{\hat{I}}”(dx)$, $n=(1,-\hat{I}\pm )$, which shows that pointwise stopping-gain sign conditions must be interpreted with care. We also prove that the correct potential representation is the killed-resolvent formula $V(x)=G(x)-R_r^{\mathcal{C}}\hat{I}“(x)$, rather than the unrestricted reflected resolvent. A constant-coefficient reflected Brownian example illustrates the diagonal singular term explicitly.