Capacity of a finite set for a transient random walk Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-11-05
The capacity of a finite set is the total mass of its equilibrium measure of a finite set:Capacity is monotone under inclusion, though strict inclusion need not give strict inequality.
Last-exit decomposition for a transient random walk Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-11-05
For a transient random walk on a weighted graph, let be a finite set of graph vertices, and . Its last-exit decomposition for a transient random walk iswhere is the Green function of a transient weighted graph and is the equilibrium measure of a finite set.
On the event of a visit to , transient graph and finiteness of ensure a unique last visit. Partition by its time and location and apply the Markov property at that deterministic time. Every summand is nonnegative, so Tonelli's theorem justifies the infinite sum. The identity expresses a hitting probability as occupation weighted by an escape probability; it does not require a last-visit time to be a stopping time. For a singleton it reduces to the singleton equilibrium potential from the Green function.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 226 1 b i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The displayed identity is false with the printed non-strict inequality. For example, take and let . The event says that the walk returns to at most once, so its left side is , whereas its right side is .
The standard and evidently intended last-exit decomposition for a transient random walk has . Decompose that corrected event according to and . The Strong Markov property at time givesReversibility of the random walk on a graph gives the path-reversal identitySince is the equilibrium measure of a finite set, summing first over and then over yields