Related papers: Mixing times and moving targets
Lifted Markov chains are Markov chains on graphs with added local "memory" and can be used to mix towards a target distribution faster than their memoryless counterparts. Upper and lower bounds on the achievable performance have been…
Consider the interchange process on a connected graph $G=(V,E)$ on $n$ vertices. I.e.\ shuffle a deck of cards by first placing one card at each vertex of $G$ in a fixed order and then at each tick of the clock, picking an edge uniformly at…
Mixing properties of discrete-time quantum walks on two-dimensional grids with torus-like boundary conditions are analyzed, focusing on their connection to the complexity of the corresponding abstract search algorithm. In particular, an…
Quantum walks on graphs have been shown in certain cases to mix quadratically faster than their classical counterparts. Lifted Markov chains, consisting of a Markov chain on an extended state space which is projected back down to the…
We estimate the mixing time of the a nonreversible finite Markov chain called Repeated Balls-into-Bins (RBB) process. This process is a discrete time conservative interacting particle system with parallel updates. Place initially in $L$…
The main subject of the study in this paper is the simultaneous renewal time for two time-inhomogeneous Markov chains which start with arbitrary initial distributions. By a simultaneous renewal we mean the first time of joint hitting the…
We study a model of two-player, zero-sum, stopping games with asymmetric information. We assume that the payoff depends on two continuous-time Markov chains (X, Y), where X is only observed by player 1 and Y only by player 2, implying that…
The mixer chain on a graph G is the following Markov chain. Place tiles on the vertices of G, each tile labeled by its corresponding vertex. A "mixer" moves randomly on the graph, at each step either moving to a randomly chosen neighbor, or…
We consider tilings of a closed region of the Kagome lattice (partition of the plane into regular hexagons and equilateral triangles such that each edge is shared by one triangle and one hexagon). We are interested in the rate of…
We consider Markov chains on general state spaces in stationary random environment which are defined by a random mapping that is contractive up to a bounded perturbation. We prove their convergence to a limiting law, providing convergence…
Dealing with finite Markov chains in discrete time, the focus often lies on convergence behavior and one tries to make different copies of the chain meet as fast as possible and then stick together. There is, however, a very peculiar kind…
We consider irreversible Markov chains on finite commutative rings randomly generated using both addition and multiplication. We restrict ourselves to the case where the addition is uniformly random and multiplication is arbitrary. We first…
The switch chain is a well-known Markov chain for sampling directed graphs with a given degree sequence. While not ergodic in general, we show that it is ergodic for regular degree sequences. We then prove that the switch chain is rapidly…
We generalize the notion of strong stationary time and we give a representation formula for the hitting time to a target set in the general case of non-reversible Markov processes.
Consider shuffling a deck of $n$ cards, labeled $1$ through $n$, as follows: at each time step, pick one card uniformly with your right hand and another card, independently and uniformly with your left hand; then swap the cards. How long…
We study the behavior of random walk on dynamical percolation. In this model, the edges of a graph G are either open or closed and refresh their status at rate \mu\ while at the same time a random walker moves on G at rate 1 but only along…
We present a Markov chain example where non-reversibility and an added edge jointly improve mixing time: when a random edge is added to a cycle of $n$ vertices and a Markov chain with a drift is introduced, we get mixing time of…
We show that the convergence of finite state space Markov chains to stationarity can often be considerably speeded up by alternating every step of the chain with a deterministic move. Under fairly general conditions, we show that not only…
The cover time of a Markov chain on a finite state space is the expected time until all states are visited. We show that if the cover time of a discrete-time Markov chain with rational transitions probabilities is bounded, then it is a…
The convergence rate of a Markov chain to its stationary distribution is typically assessed using the concept of total variation mixing time. However, this worst-case measure often yields pessimistic estimates and is challenging to infer…