English

A Real-World Markov Chain arising in Recreational Volleyball

Probability 2021-06-18 v1

Abstract

Card shuffling models have provided simple motivating examples for the mathematical theory of mixing times for Markov chains. As a complement, we introduce a more intricate realistic model of a certain observable real-world scheme for mixing human players onto teams. We quantify numerically the effectiveness of this mixing scheme over the 7 or 8 steps performed in practice. We give a combinatorial proof of the non-trivial fact that the chain is indeed irreducible.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2106.09142,
  title  = {A Real-World Markov Chain arising in Recreational Volleyball},
  author = {David J. Aldous and Madelyn Cruz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.09142},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

To be published in Involve