Related papers: A Tight Bound for the Lamplighter Problem

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…

Establishing cutoff, an abrupt transition from "not mixed" to "well mixed", is a classical topic in the theory of mixing times for Markov chains. Interest has grown recently in determining not only the existence of cutoff and the order of…

The main goal of this paper is to determine the Poisson boundary of lamplighter random walks over a general class of discrete groups $\Gamma$ endowed with a rich boundary. The starting point is the Strip Criterion of identification of the…

This document contains supplementary material for the main articles in our Random Cayley Graphs project. We prove refined results about simple random walks on the integers and on the cycle. We are primarily interested in the entropy of…

We establish conditions on sequences of graphs which ensure that the mixing times of the random walks on the graphs in the sequence converge. The main assumption is that the graphs, associated measures and heat kernels converge in a…

Given a finite, connected graph $G$, the lamplighter chain on $G$ is the lazy random walk $X^\diamond$ on the associated lamplighter graph $G^\diamond={\mathbf Z}_2 \wr G$. The mixing time of the lamplighter chain on the torus ${\mathbf…

We study the ballistic L\'evy walk stemming from an infinite mean traveling time between collision events. Our study focuses on the density of spreading particles all starting from a common origin, which is limited by a `light' cone $-v_0…

Many finite-state reversible Markov chains can be naturally decomposed into "projection" and "restriction" chains. In this paper we provide bounds on the total variation mixing times of the original chain in terms of the mixing properties…

We investigate random walks on a lattice with imperfect traps. In one dimension, we perturbatively compute the survival probability by reducing the problem to a particle diffusing on a closed ring containing just one single trap. Numerical…

We study the entropy of the distribution of the set R_n of vertices visited by a simple random walk on a graph with bounded degrees in its first n steps. It is shown that this quantity grows linearly in the expected size of R_n if the graph…

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…

In this paper we consider the convergence of the conditional entropy to the entropy rate for Markov chains. Convergence of certain statistics of long range dependent processes, such as the sample mean, is slow. It has been shown in Carpio…

The mixer chain on a graph G is the following Markov chain. Place tiles on the vertices of G, each tile labeled by its corresponding vertex. A "mixer" moves randomly on the graph, at each step either moving to a randomly chosen neighbor, or…

The entropy, the spectral radius and the drift are important numerical quantities associated to random walks on countable groups. We prove sharp inequalities relating those quantities for walks with a finite second moment, improving upon…

We give a new rapid mixing result for a natural random walk on the independent sets of a graph $G$. We show that when $G$ has bounded treewidth, this random walk -- known as the Glauber dynamics for the hardcore model -- mixes rapidly for…

In the investigation of limits of Markov chains, the presence of states which become instantaneous states in the limit may prevent the convergence of the chain in the Skorohod topology. We present in this article a weaker topology adapted…

We answer positively a question of Kaimanovich and Vershik from 1979, showing that the final configuration of lamps for simple random walk on the lamplighter group over ${\Bbb Z}^d$ ($d \ge 3$) is the Poisson boundary. For $d \ge 5$, this…

We prove that Broder's Markov chain for approximate sampling near-perfect and perfect matchings is not rapidly mixing for Hamiltonian, regular, threshold and planar bipartite graphs, filling a gap in the literature. In the second part we…

Consider the time T_oz when the random walk on a weighted graph started at the vertex o first hits the vertex set z. We present lower bounds for T_oz in terms of the volume of z and the graph distance between o and z. The bounds are for…

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…