English

Bounds on Mixing Time for Time-Inhomogeneous Markov Chains

Probability 2023-09-27 v1

Abstract

Mixing of finite time-homogeneous Markov chains is well understood nowadays, with a rich set of techniques to estimate their mixing time. In this paper, we study the mixing time of random walks in dynamic random environments. To that end, we propose a concept of mixing time for time-inhomogeneous Markov chains. We then develop techniques to estimate this mixing time by extending the evolving set method of Morris and Peres (2003). We apply these techniques to study a random walk on a dynamic Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi graph, proving that the mixing time is O(log(n))O(\log(n)) when the graph is well above the connectivity threshold. We also give an almost matching lower bound.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2309.14790,
  title  = {Bounds on Mixing Time for Time-Inhomogeneous Markov Chains},
  author = {Raphael Erb},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.14790},
  year   = {2023}
}