Related papers: A note on faithful coupling of Markov chains

By proving a local limit theorem for higher-order transitions, we determine the time required for necklace chains to be close to stationarity. Because necklace chains, built by arranging identical smaller chains around a directed cycle, are…

We obtain a perfect sampling characterization of weak ergodicity for backward products of finite stochastic matrices, and equivalently, simultaneous tail triviality of the corresponding nonhomogeneous Markov chains. Applying these ideas to…

We give necessary and sufficient conditions guaranteeing that the coupling for L\'evy processes (with non-degenerate jump part) is successful. Our method relies on explicit formulae for the transition semigroup of a compound Poisson process…

Let $\{Y_i\}_{i=1}^{\infty}$ be a stationary reversible Markov chain with state space $[N]$, let $(X, \| \cdot \|)$ be a real-valued Banach space and let $f_1, \ldots, f_n: [N] \rightarrow X$ be functions with mean $0$ such that $\|f_i(v)\|…

A long-standing gap exists between the theoretical analysis of Markov chain Monte Carlo convergence, which is often based on statistical divergences, and the diagnostics used in practice. We introduce the first general convergence…

We establish, for various scenarios, whether or not interruptible exact stationary sampling is possible when a finite-state Markov chain can only be viewed passively. In particular, we prove that such sampling is not possible using a single…

We propose a new definition of metastability of Markov processes on countable state spaces. We obtain sufficient conditions for a sequence of processes to be metastable. In the reversible case these conditions are expressed in terms of the…

Classical coupling constructions arrange for copies of the \emph{same} Markov process started at two \emph{different} initial states to become equal as soon as possible. In this paper, we consider an alternative coupling framework in which…

Consider a Markov chain $(X_n)_{n\geqslant 0}$ with values in the state space $\mathbb X$. Let $f$ be a real function on $\mathbb X$ and set $S_0=0,$ $S_n = f(X_1)+\cdots + f(X_n),$ $n\geqslant 1$. Let $\mathbb P_x$ be the probability…

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…

This note studies monotone Markov chains, a subclass of Markov chains with extensive applications in operations research and economics. While the properties that ensure the global stability of these chains are well studied, their…

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…

Adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms, which automatically tune their parameters based on past samples, have proved extremely useful in practice. The self-tuning mechanism makes them `non-Markovian', which means that their…

We introduce simple conditions ensuring that invariant distributions of a Feller Markov chain on a compact Riemannian manifold are absolutely continuous with a lower semi-continuous, continuous or smooth density with respect to the…

A general criterion is given for when a Markov chain trapped with probability p(x) in state x will be almost surely trapped. The quenched (state x is a trap forever with probability p(x)) and annealed (state x traps with probability p(x) on…

A maximal coupling of two diffusion processes makes two diffusion particles meet as early as possible. We study the uniqueness of maximal couplings under a sort of "reflection structure" which ensures the existence of such couplings. In…

This paper generalizes the work of Kendall [Electron. Comm. Probab. 9 (2004) 140--151], which showed that perfect simulation, in the form of dominated coupling from the past, is always possible (although not necessarily practical) for…

Perfect sampling is a technique that uses coupling arguments to provide a sample from the stationary distribution of a Markov chain in a finite time without ever computing the distribution. This technique is very efficient if all the events…

We consider the computational task of sampling a bit string $x$ from a distribution $\pi(x)=|\langle x|\psi\rangle|^2$, where $\psi$ is the unique ground state of a local Hamiltonian $H$. Our main result describes a direct link between the…

We prove a version of McDiarmid's bounded differences inequality for Markov chains, with constants proportional to the mixing time of the chain. We also show variance bounds and Bernstein-type inequalities for empirical averages of Markov…