Related papers: Bounding spectral gaps of Markov chains: a novel e…
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…
This paper introduces a concept of approximate spectral gap to analyze the mixing time of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms for which the usual spectral gap is degenerate or almost degenerate. We use the idea to analyze a class of…
In this note we prove a spectral gap for various Markov chains on various functional spaces. While proving that a spectral gap exists is relatively common, explicit estimates seems somewhat rare.These estimates are then used to apply 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…
We consider the problem of estimating from sample paths the absolute spectral gap $\gamma_*$ of a reversible, irreducible and aperiodic Markov chain $(X_t)_{t \in \mathbb{N}}$ over a finite state space $\Omega$. We propose the ${\tt UCPI}$…
The spectral gap $\gamma$ of a finite, ergodic, and reversible Markov chain is an important parameter measuring the asymptotic rate of convergence. In applications, the transition matrix $P$ may be unknown, yet one sample of the chain up to…
We show that the minimax sample complexity for estimating the pseudo-spectral gap $\gamma_{\mathsf{ps}}$ of an ergodic Markov chain in constant multiplicative error is of the order of $$\tilde{\Theta}\left( \frac{1}{\gamma_{\mathsf{ps}}…
The spectral gap $\gamma$ of an ergodic and reversible Markov chain is an important parameter measuring the asymptotic rate of convergence. In applications, the transition matrix $P$ may be unknown, yet one sample of the chain up to a fixed…
We take on a Random Matrix theory viewpoint to study the spectrum of certain reversible Markov chains in random environment. As the number of states tends to infinity, we consider the global behavior of the spectrum, and the local behavior…
Stochastic gradient methods are the workhorse (algorithms) of large-scale optimization problems in machine learning, signal processing, and other computational sciences and engineering. This paper studies Markov chain gradient descent, a…
Markov chains are fundamental models for stochastic dynamics, with applications in a wide range of areas such as population dynamics, queueing systems, reinforcement learning, and Monte Carlo methods. Estimating the transition matrix and…
Multiple works regarding convergence analysis of Markov chains have led to spectral gap decomposition formulas of the form \[ \mathrm{Gap}(S) \geq c_0 \left[\inf_z \mathrm{Gap}(Q_z)\right] \mathrm{Gap}(\bar{S}), \] where $c_0$ is a…
We calculate exact convergence times to reach random bipartite entanglement for various random protocols. The eigenproblem of a Markovian chain governing the process is mapped to a spin chain, thereby obtaining exact expression for the gap…
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…
A new approach is developed for evaluating the convergence rate for nonlinear Markov chains (MC) based on the recently developed spectral radius technique of markovian coupling for linear MC and the idea of small nonlinear perturbations of…
Model reduction of Markov processes is a basic problem in modeling state-transition systems. Motivated by the state aggregation approach rooted in control theory, we study the statistical state compression of a discrete-state Markov chain…
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…
Motivated by robotic surveillance applications, this paper studies the novel problem of maximizing the return time entropy of a Markov chain, subject to a graph topology with travel times and stationary distribution. The return time entropy…
This work considers the problem of learning the structure of multivariate linear tree models, which include a variety of directed tree graphical models with continuous, discrete, and mixed latent variables such as linear-Gaussian models,…
The paper presents efficient approaches for evaluating convergence rate in total variation for finite and general linear Markov chains. The motivation for studying convergence rate in this metric is its usefulness in various limit theorems.…