Related papers: Velocity formulae between entropy and hitting time…
We study quantum Markov chains on graphs, described by completely positive maps, following the model due to S. Gudder (J. Math. Phys. 49, 072105, 2008) and which includes the dynamics given by open quantum random walks as defined by S.…
Given a discrete source distribution $\mu$ and discrete target distribution $\nu$ on a common finite state space $\mathcal{X}$, we are tasked with transporting $\mu$ to $\nu$ using a given discrete-time Markov chain $X$ with the quickest…
Quantum walks play an important role in the area of quantum algorithms. Many interesting problems can be reduced to searching marked states in a quantum Markov chain. In this context, the notion of quantum hitting time is very important,…
The hitting and mixing times are two fundamental quantities associated with Markov chains. In Peres and Sousi[PS2015] and Oliveira[Oli2012], the authors show that the mixing times and "worst-case" hitting times of reversible Markov chains…
Given an irreducible discrete-time Markov chain on a finite state space, we consider the largest expected hitting time $T(\alpha)$ of a set of stationary measure at least $\alpha$ for $\alpha\in(0,1)$. We obtain tight inequalities among the…
The convergence, convergence rate and expected hitting time play fundamental roles in the analysis of randomised search heuristics. This paper presents a unified Markov chain approach to studying them. Using the approach, the sufficient and…
An analytical formula for the occurence probability of Markovian stochastic paths with repeatedly visited and/or equal departure rates is derived. This formula is essential for an efficient investigation of the trajectories belonging to…
We develop a systematic matrix-analytic approach, based on intertwinings of Markov semigroups, for proving theorems about hitting-time distributions for finite-state Markov chains -- an approach that (sometimes) deepens understanding of the…
We define the hitting time for a Markov decision process (MDP). We do not use the hitting time of the Markov process induced by the MDP because the induced chain may not have a stationary distribution. Even it has a stationary distribution,…
In this work, we consider an inhomogeneous (discrete time) Markov chain and are interested in its long time behavior. We provide sufficient conditions to ensure that some of its asymptotic properties can be related to the ones of a…
This paper is concerned with the development of rigorous approximations to various expectations associated with Markov chains and processes having non-stationary transition probabilities. Such non-stationary models arise naturally in…
We show how to map the states of an ergodic Markov chain to Euclidean space so that the squared distance between states is the expected commuting time. We find a minimax characterization of commuting times, and from this we get monotonicity…
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 consider a particle moving in continuous time as a Markov jump process; its discrete chain is given by an ordinary random walk on ${\mathbb Z}^d$ , and its jump rate at $({\mathbf x},t)$ is given by a fixed function $\varphi$ of the…
Markov chains are a natural and well understood tool for describing one-dimensional patterns in time or space. We show how to infer $k$-th order Markov chains, for arbitrary $k$, from finite data by applying Bayesian methods to both…
A well-known theorem for an irreducible skip-free chain with absorbing state $d$, under some conditions, is that the hitting (absorbing) time of state $d$ starting from state 0 is distributed as the sum of $d$ independent geometric (or…
Many modern techniques employed in physics, such a computation of path integrals, rely on random walks on graphs that can be represented as Markov chains. Traditionally, estimates of running times of such sampling algorithms are computed…
The mean time taken by an irreducible Markov chain on a finite state space to hit a target chosen at random according to the stationary distribution does not depend on the initial state of the chain. This mean time is known as Kemeny's…
For discrete-time stochastic processes, there is a close connection between return/waiting times and entropy. Such a connection cannot be straightforwardly extended to the continuous-time setting. Contrarily to the discrete-time case one…
For any discrete target distribution, we exploit the connection between Markov chains and Stein's method via the generator approach and express the solution of Stein's equation in terms of expected hitting time. This yields new upper bounds…