Related papers: The two subset recurrent property of Markov chains
Motivated by applications in telecommunications, computer scienceand physics, we consider a discrete-time Markov process withrestart. At each step the process eitherwith a positive probability restarts from a given distribution, orwith the…
Upper bounds are derived on the total variation distance between the invariant distributions of two stochastic matrices differing on a subset W of rows. Such bounds depend on three parameters: the mixing time and the minimal expected…
Consider the barycentric subdivision which cuts a given triangle along its medians to produce six new triangles. Uniformly choosing one of them and iterating this procedure gives rise to a Markov chain. We show that almost surely, the…
Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to sample from a probability distribution $\pi$ defined on a space $(\Theta,\mathcal{T})$ consist of the simulation of realisations of Markov chains $\{\theta_{n},n\geq1\}$ of invariant distribution…
The classical Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithm can be extended to generate non-reversible Markov chains. This is achieved by means of a modification of the acceptance probability, using the notion of vorticity matrix. The resulting Markov…
Interval Markov chains extend classical Markov chains with the possibility to describe transition probabilities using intervals, rather than exact values. While the standard formulation of interval Markov chains features closed intervals,…
This simple note lays out a few observations which are well known in many ways but may not have been said in quite this way before. The basic idea is that when comparing two different Markov chains it is useful to couple them is such a way…
We consider a simple but important class of metastable discrete time Markov chains, which we call perturbed Markov chains. Basically, we assume that the transition matrices depend on a parameter $\varepsilon$, and converge as $\varepsilon$.…
Optimal designs minimize the number of experimental runs (samples) needed to accurately estimate model parameters, resulting in algorithms that, for instance, efficiently minimize parameter estimate variance. Governed by knowledge of past…
We give recurrence and transience criteria for two cases of time-homogeneous Markov chains on the real line with transition kernel $p(x,dy)=f_x(y-x)dy$, where $f_x(y)$ are probability densities of symmetric distributions and, for large…
We develop a practical approach to establish the stability, that is, the recurrence in a given set, of a large class of controlled Markov chains. These processes arise in various areas of applied science and encompass important numerical…
It has become increasingly easy nowadays to collect approximate posterior samples via fast algorithms such as variational Bayes, but concerns exist about the estimation accuracy. It is tempting to build solutions that exploit approximate…
We study the so-called pinning model, which describes the behavior of a Markov chain interacting with a distinguished state. The interaction depends on an external source of randomness, called disorder, which can attract or repel the Markov…
Approximating the stationary probability of a state in a Markov chain through Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques is, in general, inefficient. Standard random walk approaches require $\tilde{O}(\tau/\pi(v))$ operations to approximate the…
Given a set of snapshots from a temporal network we develop, analyze, and experimentally validate a so-called network interpolation scheme. Our method allows us to build a plausible, albeit random, sequence of graphs that transition between…
This paper introduces a framework for speeding up Bayesian inference conducted in presence of large datasets. We design a Markov chain whose transition kernel uses an (unknown) fraction of (fixed size) of the available data that is randomly…
We consider evaluation of proper posterior distributions obtained from improper prior distributions. Our context is estimating a bounded function $\phi$ of a parameter when the loss is quadratic. If the posterior mean of $\phi$ is…
A classical approach for approximating expectations of functions w.r.t. partially known distributions is to compute the average of function values along a trajectory of a Metropolis-Hastings (MH) Markov chain. A key part in the MH algorithm…
We study quasi-stationary distributions and quasi-limiting behavior of Markov chains in general reducible state spaces with absorption. We propose a set of assumptions dealing with particular situations where the state space can be…
Perturbation theory for Markov chains addresses the question how small differences in the transitions of Markov chains are reflected in differences between their distributions. We prove powerful and flexible bounds on the distance of the…