The queue length is a birth-death process with birth rate in state and death rate . Its reversible weights satisfy
For , the factor makes their sum finite for every . For , the tail is geometric with ratio , so a stationary distribution exists exactly when .
The chain is an irreducible birth-death process. The detailed balance equations are
so . Normalization gives the stationary distribution
An irreducible countable-state Markov chain that possesses a stationary probability distribution is positive recurrent. Hence is positive recurrent.
False. Again use two states, but now take
The support condition holds. Under , the first return time to state one is identically one, so . Under , the chain is irreducible with stationary distribution . The mean recurrence time formula gives
Thus enlarging transition support does not imply a smaller mean return time.
Let . Solving the stationary distribution equations together with gives
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.
By the stationary distribution property, and have the same marginal distribution . Expanding the square gives
This is the probabilistic representation of the Dirichlet form of a Markov chain.
Reaction 4 creates , reaction 5 removes one and one , and reaction 6 creates ; reaction 7 leaves unchanged. The exact first-moment equations are therefore
At the assumed unique stationary distribution, both left-hand sides vanish. Eliminating the common mixed moment gives
No moment closure or independence assumption is involved.
On the closed class, the transition matrix is
Its stationary distribution is . The class is irreducible and aperiodic because of its self-loops, while the other class is transient and enters it almost surely. Hence
An irreducible Markov chain is positive recurrent when its mean return times are finite. For a nonexplosive Markov chain on a countable state space, this is equivalent to the existence of a stationary distribution on its irreducible class. For continuous time, a return cycle includes departure and return, rather than counting immediate residence as a return.
For a loss network with feasible occupancies , its stationary distribution is proportional to . It is the law of independent Poisson random variables conditioned on the resource constraints. With exponential holding times, detailed balance for a continuous-time Markov chain proves the formula directly.
On the symmetric group , this Markov chain chooses uniformly from the identity and the adjacent transpositions, and multiplies on the right. Its stationary distribution is the uniform distribution on a finite set, because the generators are self-inverse. A fixed label's position is a lumped Markov chain on a path graph with off-diagonal transition probabilities to existing neighbours.
Choose two positions independently and uniformly from and swap them. This Markov chain on the symmetric group holds with probability and assigns probability to each unordered transposition. Its stationary distribution is uniform, and its ordinary spectral gap is for . The latter follows from the Aldous spectral gap theorem: the single-label continuous-time Markov chain has rate between every pair of positions, whose mean-zero eigenvalues are all .
Reversible density-ratio propagation Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
For a reversible Markov chain with stationary distribution and , detailed balance gives
To prove this, integrate either side against a bounded test function and exchange the two endpoints using detailed balance. If , the output probability density function is . A reverse simulation can therefore estimate this density ratio without evaluating a transition probability density function.
Reversible four-cycle flow model Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
The proportionally fair allocation on a four-cycle produces a reversible Markov chain with stationary distribution proportional to . This is normalizable exactly when every resource's offered load is strictly below capacity, equivalently .
Separation distance 2026-09-24
For a finite Markov chain with stationary distribution , the separation distance from an initial state is
If is a strong stationary time, then , and total variation distance is at most separation distance.
For route offered loads , the balance function of a flow-level network gives the stationary distribution
The negative binomial series sums over , and two geometric sums give under the stability conditions for a two-resource linear flow network.
Strong stationary time Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
A randomized stopping time is a strong stationary time for a Markov chain with stationary distribution when has distribution and is independent of . Equivalently,