$p$-adic boundary laws and Markov chains on trees

In this paper we consider $q$-state potential on general infinite trees with a nearest-neighbor $p$-adic interactions given by a stochastic matrix. {We show the uniqueness of the associated Markov chain ({\em splitting Gibbs measures}) under some sufficient conditions on the stochastic matrix.} Moreover, we find a family of stochastic matrices for which there are at least two $p$-adic Markov chains on an infinite tree (in particular, on a Cayley tree). When the $p$-adic norm of $q$ is greater ({{\em resp.}} less) than the norm of any element of the stochastic matrix then it is proved that the $p$-adic Markov chain is bounded ({{\em resp.}} is not bounded). Our method {uses} a classical boundary law argument carefully adapted from the real case to the $p$-adic case, by a systematic use of some nice peculiarities of the ultrametric ($p$-adic) norms.