English

A phase transition for repeated averages

Probability 2021-03-29 v4

Abstract

Let x1,,xnx_1,\ldots,x_n be a fixed sequence of real numbers. At each stage, pick two indices II and JJ uniformly at random and replace xIx_I, xJx_J by (xI+xJ)/2(x_I+x_J)/2, (xI+xJ)/2(x_I+x_J)/2. Clearly all the coordinates converge to (x1++xn)/n(x_1+\cdots+x_n)/n. We determine the rate of convergence, establishing a sharp "cutoff" transition, answering a question of Jean Bourgain.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1911.02756,
  title  = {A phase transition for repeated averages},
  author = {Sourav Chatterjee and Persi Diaconis and Allan Sly and Lingfu Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1911.02756},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

21 pages, 2 figures. Final version. To appear in Ann. Probab

R2 v1 2026-06-23T12:08:11.975Z