Related papers: Cutoff phenomenon for the warp-transpose top with …
For a finite graph $G=(V,E)$ let $G^*$ be obtained by considering a random perfect matching of $V$ and adding the corresponding edges to $G$ with weight $\varepsilon$, while assigning weight 1 to the original edges of $G$. We consider…
We prove a cutoff for the random walk on random $n$-lifts of finite weighted graphs, even when the random walk on the base graph $\mathcal{G}$ of the lift is not reversible. The mixing time is w.h.p. $t_{mix}=h^{-1}\log n$, where $h$ is a…
This paper studies Markov chains on the symmetric group $S_n$ where the transition probabilities are given by the Ewens distribution with parameter $\theta>1$. The eigenvalues are identified to be proportional to the content polynomials of…
It is a fact simple to establish that the mixing time of the simple random walk on a d-regular graph $G_n$ with n vertices is asymptotically bounded from below by $d/ ((d-2)\log (d-1))\log n$. Such a bound is obtained by comparing the walk…
We establish universality of cutoff for simple random walk on a class of random graphs defined as follows. Given a finite graph $G=(V,E)$ with $|V|$ even we define a random graph $ G^*=(V,E \cup E')$ obtained by picking $E'$ to be the…
We present an overview of the representation theoretic techniques used to study the mixing times of random walks on finite groups. We focus on the card shuffle studied by Diaconis and Shahshahani in the 1980s and a recent improvement on…
We consider a family of card shuffles of $n$ cards in which the allowed moves involve transpositions corresponding to the Jucys--Murphy elements of the symmetric group $\{S_m\}_{m \leq n}$. We determine the eigenvalues of the corresponding…
A deck of $n$ cards are shuffled by repeatedly taking off the top card, flipping it with probability $1/2$, and inserting it back into the deck at a random position. This process can be considered as a Markov chain on the group $B_n$ of…
We give refined estimates for the discrete time and continuous time versions of some basic random walks on the symmetric and alternating groups $S_n$ and $A_n$. We consider the following models: random transposition, transpose top with…
We study random walks on the giant component of the Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random graph ${\cal G}(n,p)$ where $p=\lambda/n$ for $\lambda>1$ fixed. The mixing time from a worst starting point was shown by Fountoulakis and Reed, and independently…
Let us consider the continuous-time random walk on $G\wr S_n$, the complete monomial group of degree $n$ over a finite group $G$, as follows: An element in $G\wr S_n$ can be multiplied (left or right) by an element of the form…
A Gilbert-Shannon-Reeds (GSR) shuffle is performed on a deck of $N$ cards by cutting the top $n\sim Bin(N,1/2)$ cards and interleaving the two resulting piles uniformly at random. The celebrated "Seven shuffles suffice" theorem of…
Consider the random Cayley graph of a finite group $G$ with respect to $k$ generators chosen uniformly at random, with $1 \ll \log k \ll \log |G|$; denote it $G_k$. A conjecture of Aldous and Diaconis (1985) asserts, for $k \gg \log |G|$,…
Consider the random Cayley graph of a finite group $G$ with respect to $k$ generators chosen uniformly at random, with $1 \ll \log k \ll \log |G|$ (ie $1 \ll k = |G|^{o(1)}$). A conjecture of Aldous and Diaconis (1985) asserts, for…
We consider an analogue of the Kac random walk on the special orthogonal group $SO(N)$, in which at each step a random rotation is performed in a randomly chosen 2-plane of $\bR^N$. We obtain sharp asymptotics for the rate of convergence in…
We consider random walk on a finite group $G$ as follows. We can consider $G$ as a group of substitutions. Randomly (i.e. with probability $U(g)=|G|^{-1}$ ) we choose a substitution $g \in G$ and execute it twice in a row, i.e. execute a…
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…
A deck of $n$ cards is shuffled by repeatedly moving the top card to one of the bottom $k_n$ positions uniformly at random. We give upper and lower bounds on the total variation mixing time for this shuffle as $k_n$ ranges from a constant…
We establish cutoff for a natural random walk (RW) on the set of perfect matchings (PMs). An $n$-PM is a pairing of $2n$ objects. The $k$-PM RW selects $k$ pairs uniformly at random, disassociates the corresponding $2k$ objects, then…
The cutoff phenomenon for an ergodic Markov chain describes a sharp transition in the convergence to its stationary distribution, over a negligible period of time, known as cutoff window. We study the cutoff phenomenon for simple random…