Related papers: Intersection and mixing times for reversible chain…
We study a large class of reversible Markov chains with discrete state space and transition matrix $P_N$. We define the notion of a set of {\it metastable points} as a subset of the state space $\G_N$ such that (i) this set is reached from…
We survey recent results concerning the total-variation mixing time of the simple exclusion process on the segment (symmetric and asymmetric) and a continuum analog, the simple random walk on the simplex with an emphasis on cutoff results.…
We describe an exact approach for calculating transition probabilities and waiting times in finite-state discrete-time Markov processes. All the states and the rules for transitions between them must be known in advance. We can then…
A simple lemma bounds $\mathrm{s.d.}(T)/\mathbb{E} T$ for hitting times $T$ in Markov chains with a certain strong monotonicity property. We show how this lemma may be applied to several increasing set-valued processes. Our main result…
We use coupling to study the time taken until the distribution of a statistic on a Markov chain is close to its stationary distribution. Coupling is a common technique used to obtain upper bounds on mixing times of Markov chains, and we…
We give an example of a transient reversible Markov chain that almost surely has only a finite number of cutpoints. We explain how this is relevant to a conjecture of Diaconis and Freedman and a question of Kaimanovich. We also answer…
We study distributions of meeting times for finite symmetric Markov chains. For Markov kernels defined on large state spaces which satisfy certain weak inhomogeneity in return probabilities of points up to large numbers of steps, we obtain…
In the present paper, we investigate the relationship between hitting times and hitting probabilities in discrete-time imprecise Markov chains (IMCs). We define lower and upper hitting times and probabilities for IMCs whose set of…
We prove new results on lazy random walks on finite graphs. To start, we obtain new estimates on return probabilities $P^t(x,x)$ and the maximum expected hitting time $t_{\rm hit}$, both in terms of the relaxation time. We also prove a…
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 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 review results on linearly edge-reinforced random walks. On finite graphs, the process has the same distribution as a mixture of reversible Markov chains. This has applications in Bayesian statistics and it has been used in studying the…
Let $P$ be an irreducible and reversible transition matrix on a finite state space $V$ with invariant distribution $\pi$. We let $k$ chains start by choosing independent locations distributed according to $\pi$ and then they evolve…
To find the number of assignments of zeros and ones satisfying a specific Knapsack Problem is $\#P$ hard, so only approximations are envisageable. A Markov chain allowing uniform sampling of all possible solutions is given by Luby, Randall…
We provide conditions that classify cover times for sequences of random walks on random graphs into two types: One type (Type 1) is the class of cover times that are of the order of the maximal hitting times scaled by the logarithm of the…
This paper proposes a new type of recurrence where we divide the Markov chains into intervals that start when the chain enters into a subset A, then sample another subset B far away from A and end when the chain again return to A. The…
We consider the problem of characterising expected hitting times and hitting probabilities for imprecise Markov chains. To this end, we consider three distinct ways in which imprecise Markov chains have been defined in the literature: as…
Let $G$ be a finite group. The commuting chain on $G$ moves from an element $x$ to $y$ by selecting $y$ uniformly amongst those which commute with $x$. The $t$ step transition probabilities of this chain converge to a distribution uniform…
Consider the random set composed of particles initially distributed on Zd, d >= 2, according to a Poisson point process of intensity u > 0 and moving as independent simple symmetric random walks, the trap particles. We are interested in the…
The random walk process underlies the description of a large number of real world phenomena. Here we provide the study of random walk processes in time varying networks in the regime of time-scale mixing; i.e. when the network connectivity…