Related papers: Spectral gap and curvature of monotone Markov chai…

We define the spectral gap of a Markov chain on a finite state space as the second-smallest singular value of the generator of the chain, generalizing the usual definition of spectral gap for reversible chains. We then define the relaxation…

The spectral gap of a Markov chain can be bounded by the spectral gaps of constituent "restriction" chains and a "projection" chain, and the strength of such a bound is the content of various decomposition theorems. In this paper, we…

This pedagogical document explains three variational representations that are useful when comparing the efficiencies of reversible Markov chains: (i) the Dirichlet form and the associated variational representations of the spectral gaps;…

We present a recurrence-transience classification for discrete-time Markov chains on manifolds with negative curvature. Our classification depends only on geometric quantities associated to the increments of the chain, defined via the…

We consider a general multivariate affine stochastic recursion and the associated Markov chain on $\mathbb R^{d}$. We assume a natural geometric condition which implies existence of an unbounded stationary solution and we show that the…

We study convergence properties of pseudo-marginal Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms (Andrieu and Roberts [Ann. Statist. 37 (2009) 697-725]). We find that the asymptotic variance of the pseudo-marginal algorithm is always at least as…

For general spin systems, we prove that a contractive coupling for any local Markov chain implies optimal bounds on the mixing time and the modified log-Sobolev constant for a large class of Markov chains including the Glauber dynamics,…

Applying quantitative perturbation theory for linear operators, we prove non-asymptotic limit theorems for Markov chains whose transition kernel has a spectral gap in an arbitrary Banach algebra of functions X . The main results are…

This paper proposes a quantum algorithm for Markov chain spectral gap estimation that is quasi-optimal (i.e., optimal up to a polylogarithmic factor) in the number of vertices for all parameters, and additionally quasi-optimal in the…

We argue that the spectral theory of non-reversible Markov chains may often be more effectively cast within the framework of the naturally associated weighted-$L_\infty$ space $L_\infty^V$, instead of the usual Hilbert space $L_2=L_2(\pi)$,…

In this work, we characterise the statistics of Markov chains by constructing an associated sequence of periodic differential operators. Studying the density of states of these operators reveals the absolutely continuous invariant measure…

We consider the problem of estimating the state of a continuous-time Markov chain from noisy observations. We show that the corresponding optimal filter is strictly contracting pathwise, when considered in the Hilbert projective space, and…

The cutoff phenomenon describes a case where a Markov chain exhibits a sharp transition in its convergence to stationarity. In 1996, Diaconis surveyed this phenomenon, and asked how one could recognize its occurrence in families of finite…

We prove an upper bound on the total variation mixing time of a finite Markov chain in terms of the absolute spectral gap and the number of elements in the state space. Unlike results requiring reversibility or irreducibility, this bound is…

Markov chain Monte Carlo is widely used in a variety of scientific applications to generate approximate samples from intractable distributions. A thorough understanding of the convergence and mixing properties of these Markov chains can be…

We provide explicit nonasymptotic estimates for the rate of convergence of empirical means of Markov chains, together with a Gaussian or exponential control on the deviations of empirical means. These estimates hold under a "positive…

We study the following learning problem with dependent data: Observing a trajectory of length $n$ from a stationary Markov chain with $k$ states, the goal is to predict the next state. For $3 \leq k \leq O(\sqrt{n})$, using techniques from…

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…

We propose an exact technique to calculate lower bounds of spectral gaps of discrete time reversible Markov chains on finite state sets. Spectral gaps are a common tool for evaluating convergence rates of Markov chains. As an illustration,…

In this paper we investigate the existence of $L^{2}(\pi)$-spectral gaps for $\pi$-irreducible, positive recurrent Markov chains on general state space. We obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of…