Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-options-i-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2004/n/n1/solution

Condition on the state after steps and use the Markov property and time-homogeneous Markov property:
This is the Chapman-Kolmogorov equation, or . A stationary distribution is a probability row vector with nonnegative entries summing to one and . Inductively , so a chain started with that distribution retains it at every time.
For the given matrix, its first stationary equation is . Normalization gives . The third equation gives , hence . Therefore
Direct multiplication verifies the second equation as well. The finite chain is irreducible, so this stationary probability distribution is unique.

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