Related papers: Mixing times of lozenge tiling and card shuffling …

We address the problem of estimating the mixing time of a Markov chain from a single trajectory of observations. Unlike most previous works which employed Hilbert space methods to estimate spectral gaps, we opt for an approach based on…

We prove rapid mixing for certain Markov chains on the set $S_n$ of permutations on $1,2,\dots,n$ in which adjacent transpositions are made with probabilities that depend on the items being transposed. Typically, when in state $\sigma$, a…

Card shuffling models have provided simple motivating examples for the mathematical theory of mixing times for Markov chains. As a complement, we introduce a more intricate realistic model of a certain observable real-world scheme for…

We survey recent results concerning the total-variation mixing time of the simple exclusion process on the segment (symmetric and asymmetric) and a continuum analog, the simple random walk on the simplex with an emphasis on cutoff results.…

A simple way to sample a uniform triangulation of the sphere with a fixed number $n$ of vertices is a Monte-Carlo method: we start from an arbitrary triangulation and flip repeatedly a uniformly chosen edge. We give a lower bound in…

The mixing time of the Markov chain induced by a policy limits performance in real-world continual learning scenarios. Yet, the effect of mixing times on learning in continual reinforcement learning (RL) remains underexplored. In this…

Suppose X and Y are two independent irreducible Markov chains on n states. We consider the intersection time, which is the first time their trajectories intersect. We show for reversible and lazy chains that the total variation mixing time…

Two recent and seemingly-unrelated techniques for proving mixing bounds for Markov chains are: (i) the framework of Spectral Independence, introduced by Anari, Liu and Oveis Gharan, and its numerous extensions, which have given rise to…

Let $X$ be a finite set and let $G$ be a finite group acting on $X$. The group action splits $X$ into disjoint orbits. The Burnside process is a Markov chain on $X$ which has a uniform stationary distribution when the chain is lumped to…

In this paper, we study the mixing time of two widely used Markov chain algorithms for the six-vertex model, Glauber dynamics and the directed-loop algorithm, on the square lattice $\mathbb{Z}^2$. We prove, for the first time that, on…

In the field of sampling algorithms, MCMC (Markov Chain Monte Carlo) methods are widely used when direct sampling is not possible. However, multimodality of target distributions often leads to slow convergence and mixing. One common…

This paper explores the mixing time of the random transposition walk on the symmetric group. While it has long been known that this walk mixes in order n*log(n) time, this result has not previously been attained using coupling. A coupling…

We consider the problem of sampling from the uniform distribution on the set of Eulerian orientations of subgraphs of the triangular lattice. Although it is known that this can be achieved in polynomial time for any graph, the algorithm…

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 prove an upper bound of $1.5324 n \log n$ for the mixing time of the random-to-random insertion shuffle, improving on the best known upper bound of $2 n \log n$. Our proof is based on the analysis of a non-Markovian coupling.

The problem of efficiently sampling from a set of (undirected, or directed) graphs with a given degree sequence has many applications. One approach to this problem uses a simple Markov chain, which we call the switch chain, to perform the…

The number of ``carries'' when $n$ random integers are added forms a Markov chain [23]. We show that this Markov chain has the same transition matrix as the descent process when a deck of $n$ cards is repeatedly riffle shuffled. This gives…

The motivation of this work is to extend the techniques of higher order random walks on simplicial complexes to analyze mixing times of Markov chains for combinatorial problems. Our main result is a sharp upper bound on the second…

Define $(X_n)$ on $\mathbf{Z}/q\mathbf{Z}$ by $X_{n+1} = 2X_n + b_n$, where the steps $b_n$ are chosen independently at random from $-1, 0, +1$. The mixing time of this random walk is known to be at most $1.02 \log_2 q$ for almost all odd…

A $k$-height on a graph $G=(V, E)$ is an assignment $V\to\{0, \ldots, k\}$ such that the value on ajacent vertices differs by at most $1$. We study the Markov chain on $k$-heights that in each step selects a vertex at random, and, if…