Related papers: Markov chain comparison
The core of generalization theory was developed for independent observations. Some PAC and PAC-Bayes bounds are available for data that exhibit a temporal dependence. However, there are constants in these bounds that depend on properties of…
Motivated by applications in Markov chain Monte Carlo, we discuss what it means for one Markov chain to be an approximation to another. Specifically included in that discussion are situations in which a Markov chain with continuous state…
For a given absorbing Markov chain $X^*$ on a finite state space, a chain $X$ is a sharp antidual of $X^*$ if the fastest strong stationary time of $X$ is equal, in distribution, to the absorption time of $X^*$. In this paper we show a…
We analyze the general biased adjacent transposition shuffle process, which is a well-studied Markov chain on the symmetric group $S_n$. In each step, an adjacent pair of elements $i$ and $j$ are chosen, and then $i$ is placed ahead of $j$…
We consider the problem of uniformly generating a spanning tree, of a connected undirected graph. This process is useful to compute statistics, namely for phylogenetic trees. We describe a Markov chain for producing these trees. For cycle…
Interactive Markov chains (IMC) are compositional behavioural models extending labelled transition systems and continuous-time Markov chains. We provide a framework and algorithms for compositional verification and optimization of IMC with…
This work introduces a notion of approximate probabilistic trace equivalence for labelled Markov chains, and relates this new concept to the known notion of approximate probabilistic bisimulation. In particular this work shows that the…
Let $(X_n \colon n\in\Z)$ be a two-sided recurrent Markov chain with fixed initial state $X_0$ and let $\nu$ be a probability measure on its state space. We give a necessary and sufficient criterion for the existence of a non-randomized…
We discuss convergence and coupling of Markov chains, and present general relations between the transfer matrices describing these two processes. We then analyze a recently developed local-patch algorithm, which computes rigorous upper…
We state and prove a quantitative version of the bounded difference inequality for geometrically ergodic Markov chains. Our proof uses the same martingale decomposition as \cite{MR3407208} but, compared to this paper, the exact coupling…
We derive explicit upper bounds for the $\bar{d}$-distance between a chain of infinite order and its canonical $k$-steps Markov approximation. Our proof is entirely constructive and involves a "coupling from the past" argument. The new…
This paper focuses on a class of continuous-time controlled Markov chains with time-inconsistent and distribution-dependent cost functional (in some appropriate sense). A new definition of time-inconsistent distribution-dependent…
Let $X_n, n \ge 0$ be a Markov chain with finite state space $M$. If $x,y \in M$ such that $x$ is transient we have $P^y(X_n = x) \to 0$ for $n \to \infty$, and under mild aperiodicity conditions this convergence is monotone in that for…
Verification of infinite-state Markov chains is still a challenge despite several fruitful numerical or statistical approaches. For decisive Markov chains, there is a simple numerical algorithm that frames the reachability probability as…
Let $P$ be the transition matrix of a finite, irreducible and reversible Markov chain. We say the continuous time Markov chain $X$ has transition matrix $P$ and speed $\lambda$ if it jumps at rate $\lambda$ according to the matrix $P$. Fix…
We develop two models for Bayesian estimation and selection in high-order, discrete-state Markov chains. Both are based on the mixture transition distribution, which constructs a transition probability tensor with additive mixing of…
We introduce a new partial order on the class of stochastically monotone Markov kernels having a given stationary distribution $\pi$ on a given finite partially ordered state space $\mathcal{X}$. When $K\preceq L$ in this partial order we…
We consider the problem of identity testing of Markov chain transition matrices based on a single trajectory of observations under the distance notion introduced by Daskalakis et al. [2018a] and further analyzed by Cherapanamjeri and…
The problem of missing mass in statistical inference (posed by McAllester and Ortiz, NIPS'02; most recently revisited by Changa and Thangaraj, ISIT'2019) seeks to estimate the weight of symbols that have not been sampled yet from a source.…
This paper presents an elementary proof of stochastic stability of a discrete-time reversible Markov chain starting from a Foster-Lyapunov drift condition. Besides its relative simplicity, there are two salient features of the proof: (i) it…