Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/iii/paper-216/2/b/solution

Write and let
This is the accepted fraction of directions when zero-length chords are redrawn; it equals one in the interior. The Markov kernel integrates a test function as
The signed polar representation has Jacobian determinant . Each point is represented twice, once with positive and once with negative and the opposite direction. Since the chord is the same in either representation, the hit-and-run kernel density is
for almost every , and it is zero outside the body. Thus the transition is absolutely continuous with respect to planar Lebesgue measure. Redrawing removes the only potential zero-chord atoms.
Let . For distinct , the chord contains their segment, so it has positive length, and
Hence . Values on the diagonal, and on other null sets where a density is only specified almost everywhere, can be assigned this same lower bound. This gives a version satisfying
For interior , and the chord length is unchanged on interchanging its endpoints, so . A convex body's boundary has area zero; for example contractions about an interior point fill the interior and their areas tend to the body's area. Thus this symmetry holds almost everywhere for two uniform points, proving detailed balance and stationarity of the uniform distribution. Without positive area or the boundary convention in part (a), the literal assertion need not hold.

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