Related papers: Markov chain comparison
An aperiodic and irreducible Markov chain on a finite state space converges to its stationary distribution. When convergence to equilibrium is measured by total variation distance, there exists an optimal coupling and a maximal coupling…
This article describes a method for computing limits of a class of non-stationary Markov chains motivated by healthcare sojourn-time cycles. A mathematical validation of the computation method is also given. Applications are described that…
In this brief note, we find formulas for the distribution and the transition probability matrices of a stochastic process described as a time-reversion in a finite time window of a Markov chain, with cluster observation of the Markov state…
In this article, we considers reversible Markov chains of which $L^2$-distances can be expressed in terms of Laplace transforms. The cutoff of Laplace transforms was first discussed by Chen and Saloff-Coste in [8], while we provide here a…
A discrete-time Markov chain can be transformed into a new Markov chain by looking at its states along iterations of an almost surely finite stopping time. By the optional stopping theorem, any bounded harmonic function with respect to the…
This is a free textbook suitable for a one-semester course on Markov chains, covering basics of finite-state chains, many classical models, asymptotic behavior and mixing times, Monte Carlo methods, and martingales and harmonic functions.…
We give a bound on the mixing time of a uniformly ergodic, reversible Markov chain in terms of the spectral radius of the transition operator. This bound has been established previously in finite state spaces, and is widely believed to hold…
Markov chains are a convenient means of generating realizations of networks, since they require little more than a procedure for rewiring edges. If a rewiring procedure exists for generating new graphs with specified statistical properties,…
We consider a Markov chain on invertible $n\times n$ matrices with entries in $\mathbb{Z}_2$ which moves by picking an ordered pair of distinct rows and add the first one to the other, modulo $2$. We establish a logarithmic Sobolev…
Historically time-reversibility of the transitions or processes underpinning Markov chain Monte Carlo methods (MCMC) has played a key r\^ole in their development, while the self-adjointness of associated operators together with the use of…
This survey is an in-depth development of the theoretical aspects of the method of Evolving Sets, a method which has been used in several of my papers. It is fairly esoteric as to a large degree it stems from my efforts to ascertain whether…
We address the problem of estimating the mixing time $t_{\mathsf{mix}}$ of an arbitrary ergodic finite-state Markov chain from a single trajectory of length $m$. The reversible case was addressed by Hsu et al. [2019], who left the general…
For any discrete target distribution, we exploit the connection between Markov chains and Stein's method via the generator approach and express the solution of Stein's equation in terms of expected hitting time. This yields new upper bounds…
We develop a systematic matrix-analytic approach, based on intertwinings of Markov semigroups, for proving theorems about hitting-time distributions for finite-state Markov chains -- an approach that (sometimes) deepens understanding of the…
Imprecise continuous-time Markov chains are a robust type of continuous-time Markov chains that allow for partially specified time-dependent parameters. Computing inferences for them requires the solution of a non-linear differential…
For Markov chains with a partially ordered finite state space we show strong stationary duality under the condition of M\"obius monotonicity of the chain. We show relations of M\"obius monotonicity to other definitions of monotone chains.…
We investigate the sharpness of the spectral profile bound presented by Goel et al. and Chen et al. on the $L^{2}$ mixing time of Markov chains on continuous state spaces. We show that the bound provided by Chen et al. is sharp up to a…
This paper will provide several classes of strictly stationary, countable-state, irreducible, aperiodic Markov chains that are reversible and have finite second moments, such that the central limit theorem fails to hold. The main purpose is…
We prove a theorem that reduces bounding the mixing time of a card shuffle to verifying a condition that involves only triplets of cards. Then we use it to analyze a classic model of card shuffling. In 1988, Diaconis introduced the…
In this paper we consider stopping problems for continuous-time Markov chains under a general risk-sensitive optimization criterion for problems with finite and infinite time horizon. More precisely our aim is to maximize the certainty…