Diagonal Couplings of Quantum Markov Chains

In this article we extend the coupling method from classical probability theory to quantum Markov chains on atomic von Neumann algebras. In particular, we establish a coupling inequality, which allow us to estimate convergence rates by analyzing couplings. For a given tensor dilation we construct a self-coupling of a Markov operator. It turns out that on a dense subset the coupling is a dual version of the extended dual transition operator previously studied by Gohm etal. We deduce that this coupling is successful if and only if the dilation is asymptotically complete.