English

The combinatorics of hopping particles and positivity in Markov chains

Combinatorics 2022-02-02 v1 Mathematical Physics math.MP Probability

Abstract

The asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) is a model for translation in protein synthesis and traffic flow; it can be defined as a Markov chain describing particles hopping on a one-dimensional lattice. In this article I give an overview of some of the connections of the stationary distribution of the ASEP to combinatorics (tableaux and multiline queues) and special functions (Askey-Wilson polynomials, Macdonald polynomials, and Schubert polynomials). I also make some general observations about positivity in Markov chains.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2202.00214,
  title  = {The combinatorics of hopping particles and positivity in Markov chains},
  author = {Lauren K. Williams},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.00214},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

16 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables