Related papers: Analysis of top to bottom-$k$ shuffles
For positive integers $k$ and $n$, the shuffle group $G_{k,kn}$ is generated by the $k!$ permutations of a deck of $kn$ cards performed by cutting the deck into $k$ piles with $n$ cards in each pile, and then perfectly interleaving these…
Let $G$ be a finite group and let $H$ be a subgroup of $G$. The left-invariant random walk driven by a probability measure $w$ on $G$ is the Markov chain in which from any state $x \in G$, the probability of stepping to $xg \in G$ is…
Determining the total variation mixing time of Kac's random walk on the special orthogonal group $\mathrm{SO}(n)$ has been a long-standing open problem. In this paper, we construct a novel non-Markovian coupling for bounding this mixing…
We establish and generalise several bounds for various random walk quantities including the mixing time and the maximum hitting time. Unlike previous analyses, our derivations are based on rather intuitive notions of local expansion…
In Texas hold'em, after an all-in bet is made and called before the flop, the turn, or the river, the two players sometimes agree to run it $n$ times, meaning that the remaining five, two, or one cards are dealt out not just once but $n$…
The well-known Gilbert-Shannon-Reeds model for riffle shuffles assumes that the cards are initially cut 'about in half' and then riffled together. We analyze a natural variant where the initial cut is biased. Extending results of Fulman…
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…
A Gilbert-Shannon-Reeds (GSR) shuffle is performed on a deck of $N$ cards by cutting the top $n\sim Bin(N,1/2)$ cards and interleaving the two resulting piles uniformly at random. The celebrated "Seven shuffles suffice" theorem of…
The random transposition shuffle on repeated cards induces a Markov chain on the quotient space of arrangements with multiplicities, and is equivalent to the many-urn mean-field Bernoulli-Laplace model introduced by Scarabotti. Writing…
We examine the mixing time for random walks on graphs. In particular we are interested on investigating graphs with bottlenecks. Furthermore, the cutoff phenomenon is examined.
The mixing time of a random walk, with or without backtracking, on a random graph generated according to the configuration model on $n$ vertices, is known to be of order $\log n$. In this paper we investigate what happens when the random…
As a strategy to complete games quickly, we investigate one-dimensional random walks where the step length increases deterministically upon each return to the origin. When the step length after the kth return equals k, the displacement of…
A shift-periodic map is a one-dimensional map from the real line to itself which is periodic up to a linear translation and allowed to have singularities. It is shown that iterative sequences $x_{n+1}=F(x_n)$ generated by such maps display…
The theory of rapid mixing random walks plays a fundamental role in the study of modern randomised algorithms. Usually, the mixing time is measured with respect to the worst initial position. It is well known that the presence of…
We prove limit theorems for the number of fixed points, descents, and inversions of iterated random-to-top shuffles in two asymptotic regimes. Our proofs are analytic, and they utilize new combinatorial decompositions that represent each…
Recently, random walks on dynamic graphs have been studied because of their adaptivity to the time-varying structure of real-world networks. In general, there is a tremendous gap between static and dynamic graph settings for the lazy simple…
A gambler moves between the vertices $1, \ldots, n$ of a graph using the probability distribution $p_{1}, \ldots, p_{n}$. Multiple cops pursue the gambler on the graph, only being able to move between adjacent vertices. We investigate the…
A single-player game of Memory is played with $n$ distinct pairs of cards, with the cards in each pair bearing identical pictures. The cards are laid face-down. A move consists of revealing two cards, chosen adaptively. If these cards…
We consider systems of "pinned balls," i.e., balls that have fixed positions and pseudo-velocities. Pseudo-velocities change according to the same rules as those for velocities of totally elastic collisions between moving balls. The times…
Random walk on changing graphs is considered. For sequences of finite graphs increasing monotonically towards a limiting infinite graph, we establish transition probability upper bounds. It yields sufficient transience criteria for simple…