Markov Chains — Transition Kernels & Stationarity

Statistics & Probability Source: Markov (1906) Cite
Primary: Andrey Markov
Publication: Markov chains
Year: 1906
URL: Wikipedia

Discrete-time Markov chain: transition kernel, Chapman–Kolmogorov, irreducibility, recurrence, stationary distribution. Bridge to MCMC and stochastic processes.

graph TD D1["Def: Markov chain\nP(Xₙ₊₁|X₀,...,Xₙ)=P(Xₙ₊₁|Xₙ)"] D2["Def: Transition matrix\nP(i,j)=P(X₁=j|X₀=i)"] D3["Def: Chapman–Kolmogorov\nPⁿ⁺ᵐ=PⁿPᵐ"] D4["Def: Irreducible\nall states communicate"] D5["Def: Stationary dist\nπP=π"] T1["Thm: Chapman–Kolmogorov\nfollows from Markov prop"] T2["Thm: Perron–Frobenius\nirred aperiodic ⇒ unique π"] T3["Thm: LLN for MC\n1/n Σf(Xₖ)→π(f) a.s."] T4["Thm: Recurrence criterion\n∑Pⁿ(i,i)=∞"] T5["Thm: Foster–Lyapunov\ndrift for stability"] D1 --> D2 D2 --> D3 D1 --> T1 D2 --> T1 D3 --> T1 D4 --> T2 D5 --> T2 T2 --> T3 D4 --> T4 T4 --> T5 classDef definition fill:#b197fc,color:#fff classDef theorem fill:#51cf66,color:#fff class D1,D2,D3,D4,D5 definition class T1,T2,T3,T4,T5 theorem

Process Statistics

  • Nodes: 15
  • Edges: 14
  • Definitions: 5
  • Theorems: 5
Frontier: MCMC (Gibbs, Metropolis–Hastings), geometric ergodicity, non-reversible chains, quasi-stationary distributions. math.PR