Related papers: Carries, shuffling, and symmetric functions

When two Markov operators commute, it suggests that we can couple two copies of one of the corresponding processes. We explicitly construct a number of couplings of this type for a commuting family of Markov processes on the set of…

We provide a coupling proof that the transposition shuffle on a deck of n cards is mixing of rate Cn(log{n}) with a moderate constant, C. This rate was determined by Diaconis and Shahshahani, but the question of a natural probabilistic…

Consider a permutation $\sigma\in S_n$ as a deck of cards numbered from 1 to $n$ and laid out in a row, where $\sigma_j$ denotes the number of the card that is in the $j$-th position from the left.\rm\ We study some probabilistic and…

Analogues of 1-shuffle elements for complex reflection groups of type $G(m,1,n)$ are introduced. A geometric interpretation for $G(m,1,n)$ in terms of rotational permutations of polygonal cards is given. We compute the eigenvalues, and…

This thesis introduces a way to build Markov chains out of Hopf algebras. The transition matrix of a "Hopf-power Markov chain" is (the transpose of) the matrix of the coproduct-then-product operator on a combinatorial Hopf algebra with…

Consider the following method of card shuffling. Start with a deck of $N$ cards numbered 1 through N. Fix a parameter $p$ between 0 and 1. In this model a ``shuffle'' consists of uniformly selecting a pair of adjacent cards and then…

We consider a card guessing game with complete feedback. An ordered deck of $n$ cards labeled $1$ up to $n$ is shelf-shuffled exactly one time. One after the other a single card is drawn from the shuffled deck. The guesser makes has guess…

We prove a theorem that reduces bounding the mixing time of a card shuffle to verifying a condition that involves only triplets of cards. Then we use it to analyze a classic model of card shuffling. In 1988, Diaconis introduced the…

We study the Markov chain on $\mathbf{F}_p$ obtained by applying a function $f$ and adding $\pm\gamma$ with equal probability. When $f$ is a linear function, this is the well-studied Chung--Diaconis--Graham process. We consider two cases:…

It is shown that the combinatorics of commutation relations is well suited for analyzing the convergence rate of certain Markov chains. Examples studied include random walk on irreducible representations, a local random walk on partitions…

In a general setting we solve the following inverse problem: Given a positive operators $R$, acting on measurable functions on a fixed measure space $(X,\mathcal B_X)$, we construct an associated Markov chain. Specifically, starting with a…

Let H be a subgroup of a finite group G. We use Markov chains to quantify how large r should be so that the decomposition of the r tensor power of the representation of G on cosets on H behaves (after renormalization) like the regular…

Consider a real hyperplane arrangement and let $\mathcal{C}$ denote the occurring chambers. Bidigare, Hanlon and Rockmore introduced a Markov chain on $\mathcal{C}$ which is a generalization of some card shuffling models used in computer…

We introduce discrete time Markov chains that preserve uniform measures on boxed plane partitions. Elementary Markov steps change the size of the box from (a x b x c) to ((a-1) x (b+1) x c) or ((a+1) x (b-1) x c). Algorithmic realization of…

We study the rate of convergence of the Markov chain on $S_n$ which starts with a random $(n-k)$-cycle for a fixed $k \geq 1$, followed by random transpositions. The convergence to the stationary distribution turns out to be of order $n$.…

We consider a family of card shuffles of $n$ cards in which the allowed moves involve transpositions corresponding to the Jucys--Murphy elements of the symmetric group $\{S_m\}_{m \leq n}$. We determine the eigenvalues of the corresponding…

We study a family of shuffling operators on the symmetric group $S_n$, which includes the top-to-random shuffle. The general shuffling scheme consists of removing one card at a time from the deck (according to some probability distribution)…

Markov chains are an important example for a course on stochastic processes because simple board games can be used to illustrate the fundamental concepts. For example, a looping board game (like Monopoly) consists of all recurrent states,…

English title: Eigenvalues of Symmetrized Shuffling Operators The random-to-random shuffling operator explains, for example, the evolution of a deck of cards subject to the following random process: draw a card randomly from the deck and…

A function on the state space of a Markov chain is a "lumping" if observing only the function values gives a Markov chain. We give very general conditions for lumpings of a large class of algebraically-defined Markov chains, which include…