We formulate a criterion for the existence and uniqueness of an invariant measure for a Markov process taking values in a Polish phase space. In addition, weak-$^*$ ergodicity, that is, the weak convergence of the ergodic averages of the laws of the process starting from any initial distribution, is established. The principal assumptions are the existence of a lower bound for the ergodic averages of the transition probability function and its local uniform continuity. The latter is called the e-property. The general result is applied to solutions of some stochastic evolution equations in Hilbert spaces. As an example, we consider an evolution equation whose solution describes the Lagrangian observations of the velocity field in the passive tracer model. The weak-$^*$ mean ergodicity of the corresponding invariant measure is used to derive the law of large numbers for the trajectory of a tracer.
We present Lyapunov-type conditions for non-strong ergodicity of Markov processes. Some concrete models are discussed including diffusion processes on Riemannian manifolds and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes driven by symmetric $α$-stable processes. For SDE driven by $α$-stable process ($α\in (0,2]$) with polynomial drift, the strong ergodicity or not is independent on $α$.
The Laplace transform of partial sums of the square of a non-centered Gauss-Markov process, conditioning on its starting point, is explicitly computed. The parameters of multiplicative ergodicity are deduced.
Ergodicity is a fundamental issue for a stochastic process. In this paper, we refine results on ergodicity for a general type of Markov chain to a specific type or the $GI/G/1$-type Markov chain, which has many interesting and important applications in various areas. It is of interest to obtain conditions in terms of system parameters or the given information about the process, under which the chain has various ergodic properties. Specifically, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for geometric, strong and polynomial ergodicity, respectively.
We consider a time inhomogeneous strong Markov process $(ξ_t)_{t\ge 0}$ taking values in a Polish state space whose semigroup has a $T$-periodic structure. We give simple conditions which imply ergodicity of the grid chain $(ξ_{kT})_{k\in \mathbb{N}_0}$ In case of $d$-dimensional possibly degenerate diffusions, the conditions are stated in terms of drift and diffusion coefficient of the process.
We prove the convergence at an exponential rate towards the invariant probability measure for a class of solutions of stochastic differential equations with finite delay. This is done, in this non-Markovian setting, using the cluster expansion method, inspired from [4] or [14]. As a consequence, the results hold for small perturbations of ergodic diffusions.
We study properties of the Laplace transforms of non-negative additive functionals of Markov chains. We are namely interested in a multiplicative ergodicity property used in [18] to study bifurcating processes with ancestral dependence. We develop a general approach based on the use of the operator perturbation method. We apply our general results to two examples of Markov chains, including a linear autoregressive model. In these two examples the operator-type assumptions reduce to some expected finite moment conditions on the functional (no exponential moment conditions are assumed in this wo…
We derive sufficient conditions for subgeometric f-ergodicity of strongly Markovian processes. We first propose a criterion based on modulated moment of some delayed return-time to a petite set. We then formulate a criterion for polynomial f-ergodicity in terms of a drift condition on the generator. Applications to specific processes are considered, including Langevin tempered diffusions on R^n and storage models.
We study perturbation theory and uniform ergodicity for discrete-time Markov chains on general state spaces in terms of the uniform moments of the first hitting times on some set. The methods we adopt are different from previous ones. For reversible and non-negative definite Markov chains, we first investigate the geometrically ergodic convergence rates. Based on the estimates, together with a first passage formula, we then get the convergence rates in uniform ergodicity. If the transition kernel $P$ is only reversible, we transfer to study the two-skeleton chain with the transition kernel $P^…
Generalization of the Lorden's inequality is an excellent tool for obtaining strong upper bounds for the convergence rate for various complicated stochastic models. This paper demonstrates a method for obtaining such bounds for some generalization of the Markov modulated Poisson process (MMPP). The proposed method can be applied to reliability and queuing theory.
In this paper, we study the ergodicity of invariant sublinear expectation of sublinear Markovian semigroup. For this, we first develop an ergodic theory of an expectation-preserving map on a sublinear expectation space. Ergodicity is defined as any invariant set either has $0$ capacity itself or its complement has $0$ capacity. We prove, under a general sublinear expectation space setting, the equivalent relation between ergodicity and the corresponding transformation operator having simple eigenvalue $1$, and also with Birkhoff type strong law of large numbers if the sublinear expectation is …
We are interested in quasi-stationarity and quasi-ergodicity when the absorbing boundary is moving. First we show that, in the moving boundary case, the quasi-stationary distribution and the quasi-limiting distribution are not well-defined when the boundary is oscillating periodically. Then we show the existence of a quasi-ergodic distribution for any discrete-time irreducible Markov chain defined on a finite space state in the fixed boundary case. Finally we use this last result to show the quasi-ergodicity in the moving boundary case.
In this paper we prove a sharp quantitative version of the Kendall's Theorem. The Kendal Theorem states that under some mild conditions imposed on a probability distribution on positive integers (i.e. probabilistic sequence) one can prove convergence of its renewal sequence. Due to the well-known property - the first entrance last exit decomposition - such results are of interest in the stability theory of time homogeneous Markov chains. In particular the approach may be used to measure rates of convergence of geometrically ergodic Markov chains and consequently implies estimates on convergenc…
Max-stable processes are central models for spatial extremes. In this paper, we focus on some space-time max-stable models introduced in Embrechts et al. (2016). The processes considered induce discrete-time Markov chains taking values in the space of continuous functions from the unit sphere of $\mathbb{R}^3$ to $(0, \infty)$. We show that these Markov chains are geometrically ergodic. An interesting feature lies in the fact that the state space is not locally compact, making the classical methodology inapplicable. Instead, we use the fact that the state space is Polish and apply results pres…
We are interested in the dynamic of a structured branching population where the trait of each individual moves according to a Markov process. The rate of division of each individual is a function of its trait and when a branching event occurs, the trait of a descendant at birth depends on the trait of the mother. We prove a law of large numbers for the empirical distribution of ancestral trajectories. It ensures that the empirical measure converges to the mean value of the spine which is a time-inhomogeneous Markov process describing the trait of a typical individual along its ancestral lineag…
We study the exponential growth of bifurcating processes with ancestral dependence. We suppose here that the lifetimes of the cells are dependent random variables, that the numbers of new cells are random and dependent. Lifetimes and new cells's numbers are also assumed to be dependent. We illustrate our results by examples, including some Markov models. Our approach is related to the behaviour of the Laplace transform of nonnegative additive functional of Markov chains and require weak moment assumption (no exponential moment is needed).
We develop an effective strategy for proving strong ergodicity of (nonsymmetric) Markov semigroups associated to Hörmander type generators when the underlying configuration space is infinite dimensional.
In this work, we consider an inhomogeneous (discrete time) Markov chain and are interested in its long time behavior. We provide sufficient conditions to ensure that some of its asymptotic properties can be related to the ones of a homogeneous (continuous time) Markov process. Renowned examples such as a bandit algorithms, weighted random walks or decreasing step Euler schemes are included in our framework. Our results are related to functional limit theorems, but the approach differs from the standard "Tightness/Identification" argument; our method is unified and based on the notion of pseudo…
In the present paper we investigate the $L_1$-weak ergodicity of nonhomogeneous discrete Markov processes with general state spaces. Note that the $L_1$-weak ergodicity is weaker than well-known weak ergodicity. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition for such processes to satisfy the $L_1$-weak ergodicity. Moreover, we apply the obtained results to establish $L_1$-weak ergodicity of discrete time quadratic stochastic processes. As an application of the main result, certain concrete examples are also provided.
Asymptotic behavior of the three-dimensional stochastic Navier-Stokes equations with Markov switching in additive noises is studied for incompressible fluid flow in a bounded domain in the three-dimensional space. To study such a system, we introduce a family of regularized equations and investigate the asymptotic behavior of the regularized equations first. The existence an ergodic measure for the regularized system is established via the Krylov-Bogolyubov method. Then the existence of an stationary measure to the original system is obtained by extracting a limit from the ergodic measures of …
Let $P$ be a Markov kernel on a measurable space $\X$ and let $V:\X\r[1,+\infty)$. This paper provides explicit connections between the $V$-geometric ergodicity of $P$ and that of finite-rank nonnegative sub-Markov kernels $\Pc_k$ approximating $P$. A special attention is paid to obtain an efficient way to specify the convergence rate for $P$ from that of $\Pc_k$ and conversely. Furthermore, explicit bounds are obtained for the total variation distance between the $P$-invariant probability measure and the $\Pc_k$-invariant positive measure. The proofs are based on the Keller-Liverani perturbat…
We establish quantitative bounds for rates of convergence and asymptotic variances for iterated conditional sequential Monte Carlo (i-cSMC) Markov chains and associated particle Gibbs samplers. Our main findings are that the essential boundedness of potential functions associated with the i-cSMC algorithm provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the uniform ergodicity of the i-cSMC Markov chain, as well as quantitative bounds on its (uniformly geometric) rate of convergence. Furthermore, we show that the i-cSMC Markov chain cannot even be geometrically ergodic if this essential boundedn…
This paper studies the f-ergodicity and its exponential convergence rate for continuous-time Markov chain. Assume f is square integrable, for reversible Markov chain, it is proved that the exponential convergence of f-ergodicity holds if and only if the spectral gap of the generator is positive. Moreover, the convergence rate is equal to the spectral gap. For irreversible case, the positivity of spectral gap remains a sufficient condition of f-ergodicity. The effectiveness of these results are illustrated by some typical examples.
We study ergodic properties of a class of Markov-modulated general birth-death processes under fast regime switching. The first set of results concerns the ergodic properties of the properly scaled joint Markov process with a parameter that is taken large. Under very weak hypotheses, we show that if the averaged process is exponentially ergodic for large values of the parameter, then the same applies to the original joint Markov process. The second set of results concerns steady-state diffusion approximations, under the assumption that the 'averaged' fluid limit exists. Here, we establish conv…
Let $P$ be a Markov kernel on a measurable space $\X$ and let $V:\X\r[1,+\infty)$. We provide various assumptions, based on drift conditions, under which $P$ is quasi-compact on the weighted-supremum Banach space $(\cB_V,\|\cdot\|_V)$ of all the measurable functions $f : \X\r\C$ such that $\|f\|_V := \sup_{x\in \X} |f(x)|/V(x) < \infty$. Furthermore we give bounds for the essential spectral radius of $P$. Under additional assumptions, these results allow us to derive the convergence rate of $P$ on $\cB_V$, that is the geometric rate of convergence of the iterates $P^n$ to the stationary distri…
The goal of this paper is to develop a general method to establish conditional ergodicity of infinite-dimensional Markov chains. Given a Markov chain in a product space, we aim to understand the ergodic properties of its conditional distributions given one of the components. Such questions play a fundamental role in the ergodic theory of nonlinear filters. In the setting of Harris chains, conditional ergodicity has been established under general nondegeneracy assumptions. Unfortunately, Markov chains in infinite-dimensional state spaces are rarely amenable to the classical theory of Harris cha…
We study the ergodic behaviour of a discrete-time process $X$ which is a Markov chain in a stationary random environment. The laws of $X_t$ are shown to converge to a limiting law in (weighted) total variation distance as $t\to\infty$. Convergence speed is estimated and an ergodic theorem is established for functionals of $X$. Our hypotheses on $X$ combine the standard "small set" and "drift" conditions for geometrically ergodic Markov chains with conditions on the growth rate of a certain "maximal process" of the random environment. We are able to cover a wide range of models that have hereto…
We consider a bivariate stationary Markov chain $(X_n,Y_n)_{n\ge0}$ in a Polish state space, where only the process $(Y_n)_{n\ge0}$ is presumed to be observable. The goal of this paper is to investigate the ergodic theory and stability properties of the measure-valued process $(Π_n)_{n\ge0}$, where $Π_n$ is the conditional distribution of $X_n$ given $Y_0,...,Y_n$. We show that the ergodic and stability properties of $(Π_n)_{n\ge0}$ are inherited from the ergodicity of the unobserved process $(X_n)_{n\ge0}$ provided that the Markov chain $(X_n,Y_n)_{n\ge0}$ is nondegenerate, that is, its trans…
In this paper, conditions for transience, recurrence, ergodicity and strong, subexponential (polynomial) and exponential ergodicity of a class of Feller processes are derived. The conditions are given in terms of the coefficients of the corresponding infinitesimal generator. As a consequence, mixing properties of these processes are also discussed.
Generally the convergence rate in exponential ergodicity $λ$ is an upper bound for the convergence rate $κ$ in uniform ergodicity for a Markov process, that is $λ\geqslantκ$. In this paper, we prove that $κ\geqslant \inf \{lambda,1/M_H\}$, where $M_H$ is a uniform bound on the moment of the hitting time to a "compact" set $H$. In the case where $M_H$ can be made arbitrarily small for $H$ large enough, we obtain that $λ=κ$. The general results are applied to Markov chains, diffusion processes and solutions to SDEs driven by symmetric stable processes.
In this paper we find nonasymptotic exponential upper bounds for the deviation in the ergodic theorem for families of homogeneous Markov processes. We find some sufficient conditions for geometric ergodicity uniformly over a parametric family. We apply this property to the nonasymptotic nonparametric estimation problem for ergodic diffusion processes.
We study coercive inequalities in Orlicz spaces associated to the probability measures on finite and infinite dimensional spaces which tails decay slower than the Gaussian ones. We provide necessary and sufficient criteria for such inequalities to hold and discuss relations between various classes of inequalities.
In this article, we discuss ergodicity properties of a diffusion process given through an Itô stochastic differential equation. We identify conditions on the drift and diffusion coefficients which result in sub-geometric ergodicity of the corresponding semigroup with respect to the total variation distance. We also prove sub-geometric contractivity and ergodicity of the semigroup under a class of Wasserstein distances. Finally, we discuss sub-geometric ergodicity of two classes of Markov processes with jumps.
We study a crystal growth Markov model proposed by Gates and Westcott (\cite{Kinetics1}, \cite{Kinetics2}). This is an aggregation process where particles are packed in a square lattice accordingly to prescribed deposition rates. This model is parametrized by three values $(β_i, i=0,1,2)$ corresponding to depositions on three different types of sites. The main problem is to determine, for the shape of the crystal, when recurrence and when ergodicity do occur. In \cite{AMS} and \cite{MarkovModels} sufficient conditions are given both for ergodicity and transience. We establish some improved con…
We establish verifiable general sufficient conditions for exponential or subexponential ergodicity of Markov processes that may lack the strong Feller property. We apply the obtained results to show exponential ergodicity of a variety of nonlinear stochastic partial differential equations with additive forcing, including 2D stochastic Navier-Stokes equations. Our main tool is a new version of the generalized coupling method.
In this paper the stability and the perturbation bounds of Markov operators acting on abstract state spaces are investigated. Here, an abstract state space is an ordered Banach space where the norm has an additivity property on the cone of positive elements. We basically study uniform ergodic properties of Markov operators by means of so-called a generalized Dobrushin's ergodicity coefficient. This allows us to get several convergence results with rates. Some results on quasi-compactness of Markov operators are proved in terms of the ergodicity coefficient. Furthermore, a characterization of u…
In this article, we discuss subgeometric ergodicity of a class of regime-switching diffusion processes. We derive conditions on the drift and diffusion coefficients, and the switching mechanism which result in subgeometric ergodicity of the corresponding semigroup with respect to the total variation distance as well as a class of Wasserstein distances. At the end, subgeometric ergodicity of certain classes of regime-switching Markov processes with jumps is also discussed.
We study the limit behaviour of upper and lower bounds on expected time averages in imprecise Markov chains; a generalised type of Markov chain where the local dynamics, traditionally characterised by transition probabilities, are now represented by sets of `plausible' transition probabilities. Our first main result is a necessary and sufficient condition under which these upper and lower bounds, called upper and lower expected time averages, will converge as time progresses towards infinity to limit values that do not depend on the process' initial state. Our condition is considerably weaker …
By using the coupling technique, we present sufficient conditions for the exponential ergodicity of general continuous-state nonlinear branching processes in both the $L^1$-Wasserstein distance and the total variation norm, where the drift term is dissipative only for large distance, and either diffusion noise or jump noise is allowed to be vanished. Sufficient conditions for the corresponding strong ergodicity are also established.
We consider general Markov chains with discrete time in an arbitrary measurable (phase) space and homogeneous in time. Markov chains are defined by the classical transition function which within the framework of the operator treatment generates a conjugate pair of linear Markov operators in the Banach space of measurable bounded functions and in the Banach space of bounded finite additive measures. It is proved that the well-known Doeblin condition $ (D) $ of ergodicity (quasi\-compactness) of the Markov chain is equivalent to the condition $ (*) $: all finitely additive invariant measures of …
In this work, we study ergodicity of continuous time Markov processes on state space $\mathbb{R}_{\geq 0} := [0,\infty)$ obtained as unique strong solutions to stochastic equations with jumps. Our first main result establishes exponential ergodicity in the Wasserstein distance, provided the stochastic equation satisfies a comparison principle and the drift is dissipative. In particular, it is applicable to continuous-state branching processes with immigration (shorted as CBI processes), possibly with nonlinear branching mechanisms or in Lévy random environments. Our second main result establis…
We consider the generalization of the Pólya urn scheme with possibly infinite many colors as introduced in \cite{Th-Thesis, BaTH2014, BaTh2016, BaTh2017}. For countable many colors, we prove almost sure convergence of the urn configuration under \emph{uniform ergodicity} assumption on the associated Markov chain. The proof uses a stochastic coupling of the sequence of chosen colors with a \emph{branching Markov chain} on a weighted \emph{random recursive tree} as described in \cite{BaTh2017, Sv_2018}. Using this coupling we estimate the covariance between any two selected colors. In particular…
This work focuses on a class of regime-switching jump diffusion processes, in which the switching component has countably infinite many states or regimes. The existence and uniqueness of the underlying process are obtained by an interlacing procedure. Then the Feller and strong Feller properties of such processes are derived by the coupling method and an appropriate Radon-Nikodym derivative. Finally the paper studies exponential ergodicity of regime-switching jump-diffusion processes.
In this paper, by invoking the coupling approach, we establish exponential ergodicity under the $L^1 $-Wasserstein distance for two-factor affine processes. The method employed herein is universal in a certain sense so that it is applicable to general two-factor affine processes, which allow that the first component solves a general CIR process, and that there are interactions in the second component, as well as that the Brownian noises are correlated; and even to some models beyond two-factor processes.
The paper analyses a model in surface growth, where uniqueness of weak solutions seems to be out of reach. We provide the existence of a weak martingale solution satisfying energy inequalities and having the Markov property. Furthermore, under non-degeneracy conditions on the noise, we establish that any such solution is strong Feller and has a unique invariant measure.
In our earlier paper, a generalized Dobrushin ergodicity coefficient of Markov operators (acting on abstract state spaces) with respect to a projection $P$, has been introduced and studied. It turned out that the introduced coefficient was more effective than the usual ergodicity coefficient. In the present work, by means of a left consistent Markov projections and the generalized Dobrushin's ergodicity coefficient, we investigate uniform and weak $P$-ergodicities of non-homogeneous discrete Markov chains (NDMC) on abstract state spaces. It is easy to show that uniform $P$-ergodicity implies a…
In this paper we study the ergodicity and the related semigroup property for a class of symmetric Markov jump processes associated with time changed symmetric $α$-stable processes. For this purpose, explicit and sharp criteria for Poincaré type inequalities (including Poincaré, super Poincaré and weak Poincaré inequalities) of the corresponding non-local Dirichlet forms are derived. Moreover, our main results, when applied to a class of one-dimensional stochastic differential equations driven by symmetric $α$-stable processes, yield sharp criteria for their various ergodic properties and corre…
We apply Doeblin's ergodicity coefficient as a computational tool to approximate the occupancy distribution of a set of states in a homogeneous but possibly non-stationary finite Markov chain. Our approximation is based on new properties satisfied by this coefficient, which allow us to approximate a chain of duration n by independent and short-lived realizations of an auxiliary homogeneous Markov chain of duration of order ln(n). Our approximation may be particularly useful when exact calculations via first-step methods or transfer matrices are impractical, and asymptotic approximations may no…
