A Markov kernel with stationary distribution is geometrically ergodic if there are and a finite function such that
for every and almost every starting point , where is total variation distance.
A measurable set is a small set with minorisation constant if some integer and some probability measure satisfy
for every and every measurable .
A standard drift-minorisation condition is that the chain be irreducible and aperiodic, and that there exist a measurable , a small set , constants and such that
These conditions imply geometric ergodicity.
Let be the importance weight. The two normalized densities give
Since , there is a finite constant such that everywhere. The Independence Metropolis–Hastings algorithm has an accepted transition density satisfying
Consequently the whole state space is a small set, with the one-step minorization condition . Iterating this Doeblin condition gives uniform geometric convergence in total variation distance, so the chain is geometrically ergodic.