The filtering problem for finite state Markov chains is revisited, when the intensity of the observation noise increases. We give a description of conditional measure concentration around the invariant distribution of the signal and derive asymptotic expressions for the performance indices of the MMSE and MAP filtering estimates.
Consider a filtering process associated to a hidden Markov model with densities for which both the state space and the observation space are complete, separable, metric spaces. If the underlying, hidden Markov chain is strongly ergodic and the filtering process fulfills a certain coupling condition we prove that, in the limit, the distribution of the filtering process is independent of the initial distribution of the hidden Markov chain. If furthermore the hidden Markov chain is uniformly ergodic, then we prove that the filtering process converges in distribution.
We consider dependence coefficients for stationary Markov chains. We emphasize on some equivalencies for reversible Markov chains. We improve some known results and provide a necessary condition for Markov chains based on Archimedean copulas to be exponential $ρ$-mixing. We analyze the example of the Mardia and Frechet copula families using small sets.
We prove that moderate deviations for empirical measures for countable nonhomogeneous Markov chains hold under the assumption of uniform convergence of transition probability matrices for countable nonhomogeneous Markov chains in Cesàro sense.
We consider the filtering of continuous-time finite-state hidden Markov models, where the rate and observation matrices depend on unknown time-dependent parameters, for which no prior or stochastic model is available. We quantify and analyze how the induced uncertainty may be propagated through time as we collect new observations, and used to simultaneously provide robust estimates of the hidden signal and to learn the unknown parameters, via techniques based on pathwise filtering and new results on the optimal control of rough differential equations.
This paper brings some insights of $ψ'$-mixing, $ψ^*$-mixing and $ψ$-mixing for copula-based Markov chains and the perturbations of their copulas. We provide new tools to check Markov chains for $ψ$-mixing or $ψ'$-mixing, and also show that perturbations of $ψ'$-mixing copula-based Markov chains are $ψ'$-mixing while perturbations of $ψ$-mixing Markov chains are not necessarily $ψ$-mixing Markov chains, even when the perturbed copula is $ψ-mixing$. Some examples of copula families are considered. A statistical study is provided to emphasize the impact of perturbations on copula-based Markov ch…
Our purpose is to prove central limit theorem for countable nonhomogeneous Markov chain under the condition of uniform convergence of transition probability matrices for countable nonhomogeneous Markov chain in Cesàro sense. Furthermore, we obtain a corresponding moderate deviation theorem for countable nonhomogeneous Markov chain by Gärtner-Ellis theorem and exponential equivalent method.
We consider the problem of filtering an unseen Markov chain from noisy observations, in the presence of uncertainty regarding the parameters of the processes involved. Using the theory of nonlinear expectations, we describe the uncertainty in terms of a penalty function, which can be propagated forward in time in the place of the filter.
Let X be a continuous-time Markov chain in a finite set I, let h be a mapping of I onto another set, and let Y be defined by Y_t=h(X_t), (for t nonnegative). We address the filtering problem for X in terms of the observation Y, which is not directly affected by noise. We write down explicit equations for the filtering process and show that this is a Markov process with the Feller property. We also prove that it is a piecewise-deterministic Markov process in the sense of Davis, and we identify its characteristics explicitly. We finally solve an optimal stopping problem for X with partial observ…
The goal of this expository paper is to describe conditions which guarantee a central limit theorem for functionals of general state space Markov chains. This is done with a view towards Markov chain Monte Carlo settings and hence the focus is on the connections between drift and mixing conditions and their implications. In particular, we consider three commonly cited central limit theorems and discuss their relationship to classical results for mixing processes. Several motivating examples are given which range from toy one-dimensional settings to complicated settings encountered in Markov ch…
We consider the problem of learning two families of time-evolving random measures from indirect observations. In the first model, the signal is a Fleming--Viot diffusion, which is reversible with respect to the law of a Dirichlet process, and the data is a sequence of random samples from the state at discrete times. In the second model, the signal is a Dawson--Watanabe diffusion, which is reversible with respect to the law of a gamma random measure, and the data is a sequence of Poisson point configurations whose intensity is given by the state at discrete times. A common methodology is develo…
For a Markov chain both the detailed balance condition and the cycle Kolmogorov condition are algebraic binomials. This remark suggests to study reversible Markov chains with the tool of Algebraic Statistics, such as toric statistical models. One of the results of this study in an algebraic parameterization of reversible Markov transitions and their invariant probability.
Filtering theory gives an explicit models for the flow of information and thereby quantifies the rates of change of information supplied to and dissipated from the filter's memory. Here we extend the analysis of Mitter and Newton from linear Gaussian models to general nonlinear filters involving Markov diffusions.The rates of entropy production are now generally the average squared-field (co-metric) of various logarithmic probability densities, which may be interpreted as Fisher information associate with Gaussian perturbations (via de Bruijn's identity). We show that the central connection is…
Exponential stability of the nonlinear filtering equation is revisited, when the signal is a finite state Markov chain. An asymptotic upper bound for the filtering error due to incorrect initial condition is derived in the case of slowly switching signal.
This article continues our study of Markovian consistency and Markov copulae. In particular, we characterize the weak Markovian consistency for finite Markov chains. We discuss some aspects of dependence between the components of a multivariate Markov chain in the context of weak Markovian consistency and strong Markovian consistency. In this connection, we also introduce and discuss the concept of weak Markov copulae.
We consider the Markov chain approximations for singular stable-like processes. First we obtain properties of some Markov chains. Then we construct the approximating Markov chains and give a necessary condition for weak convergence of these chains to singular stable-like processes.
Given a strongly stationary Markov chain and a finite set of stopping rules, we prove the existence of a polynomial algorithm which projects the Markov chain onto a minimal Markov chain without redundant information. Markov complexity is hence defined and tested on some classical problems.
We consider a class of continuous time Markov chains on $\Z^d$. These chains are the discrete space analogue of Markov processes with jumps. Under some conditions, we show that harmonic functions associated with these Markov chains are Hölder continuous.
We consider the higher-order Markov Chain, and characterize the second order Markov chains admitting every probability distribution vector as a stationary vector. The result is used to construct Markov chains of higher-order with the same property. We also study conditions under which the set of stationary vectors of the Markov chain has a certain affine dimension.
All one-condition generalized inverses of the Markovian kernel I - P, where P is the transition matrix of a finite irreducible Markov chain, can be uniquely specified in terms of the stationary probabilities and the mean first passage times of the underlying Markov chain. Special sub-families include the group inverse of I - P, Kemeny and Snell's fundamental matrix of the Markov chain and the Moore-Penrose g-inverse. The elements of some sub-families of the generalized inverses can also be re-expressed involving the second moments of the recurrence time variables. Some applications to Kemeny's…
The asymptotic variance is an important criterion to evaluate the performance of Markov chains, especially for the central limit theorems. We give the variational formulas for the asymptotic variance of discrete-time (non-reversible) Markov chains on general state space. The variational formulas provide many applications, extending the classical Peskun's comparison theorem to non-reversible Markov chains, and obtaining several comparison theorems between Markov chains with various perturbations.
In this paper we discuss weak convergence of continuous-time Markov chains to a non-symmetric pure jump process. We approach this problem using Dirichlet forms as well as semimartingales. As an application, we discuss how to approximate a given Markov process by Markov chains.
We review recent results on the metastable behavior of continuous-time Markov chains derived through the characterization of Markov chains as unique solutions of martingale problems.
In this paper we continue the study of conditional Markov chains (CMCs) with finite state spaces, that we initiated in Bielecki, Jakubowski and Niewęgłowski (2015). Here, we turn our attention to the study of Markov consistency and Markov copulae with regard to CMCs, and thus we follow up on the study of Markov consistency and Markov copulae for ordinary Markov chains that we presented in Bielecki, Jakubowski and Niewęgłowski (2013).
We study inhomogeneous continuous-time weakly ergodic Markov chains with a finite state space. We introduce the notion of a Markov chain with the regular structure of an infinitesimal matrix and study the sharp upper bounds on the rate of convergence for such class of Markov chains.
In this paper, we present reversibility preserving operations on Markov chain transition matrices. Simple row and column operations allow us to create new reversible transition matrices and yield an easy method for checking a Markov chain for reversibility.
We define fully coupled forward-backward stochastic differential equations on spaces related to continuous time, finite state Markov Chains. Existence and uniqueness results of the fully coupled forward-backward stochastic differential equations on Markov Chains are obtained.
The main purpose of this work is to study self-similar branching Markov chains. First we will construct such a process. Then we will establish certain Limit Theorems using the theory of self-similar Markov processes.
Filtering problems with general exponential quadratic criteria are investigated for Gauss-Markov processes. In this setting, the Linear Exponential Gaussian and Risk-Sensitive filtering problems are solved and it is shown that they may have different solutions.
We prove that an irreducible aperiodic Markov chain is geometrically ergodic if and only if any separately bounded functional of the stationary chain satisfies an appropriate subgaussian deviation inequality from its mean.
This paper studies the augmented truncation of discrete-time block-monotone Markov chains under geometric drift conditions. We first present a bound for the total variation distance between the stationary distributions of an original Markov chain and its augmented truncation. We also obtain such error bounds for more general cases where an original Markov chain itself may not be block-monotone but is block-wise dominated by a block-monotone Markov chain. Finally we discuss the application of our results to GI/G/1-type Markov chains.
Extensions of Kemeny's constant, as derived for irreducible finite Markov chains in discrete time, to Markov renewal processes and Markov chains in continuous time are discussed. Three alternative Kemeny's functions and their variants are considered. Typically, they lead to a constant if and only if the mean holding times between the states in the Markov renewal process are constant. However one particular variant leads to a constant, analogous to the discrete time Markov chain result. Specifically, if the state space is finite, the weighted sum of the mean first passage times (omitting the me…
We consider the problem of characterising expected hitting times and hitting probabilities for imprecise Markov chains. To this end, we consider three distinct ways in which imprecise Markov chains have been defined in the literature: as sets of homogeneous Markov chains, as sets of more general stochastic processes, and as game-theoretic probability models. Our first contribution is that all these different types of imprecise Markov chains have the same lower and upper expected hitting times, and similarly the hitting probabilities are the same for these three types. Moreover, we provide a ch…
We consider periodic Markov chains with absorption. Applying to iterates of this periodic Markov chain criteria for the exponential convergence of conditional distributions of aperiodic absorbed Markov chains, we obtain exponential estimates for the periodic asymptotic behavior of the semigroup of the Markov chain. This implies in particular the exponential convergence in total variation of the conditional distribution of the Markov chain given non-absorption to a periodic sequence of limit measures and we characterize the cases where this sequence is constant, which corresponds to the cases w…
We study a multivariate Markov chain on the symmetric group with remarkable enumerative properties. We conjecture that the stationary distribution of this Markov chain can be expressed in terms of positive sums of Schubert polynomials. This Markov chain is a multivariate generalization of a Markov chain introduced by the first author in the study of random affine Weyl group elements.
We study an approximation method of stationary characters of a two-dimensional Markov chain via the Stein method. For this purpose, innovative methods are developed to estimate the moments of the Markov chain, as well as the solution to the Poisson equation with a partial differential operator.
Let $(ξ_n)_{n=0}^\infty$ be a nonhomogeneous Markov chain taking values from finite state-space of $\mathbf{X}=\{1,2,\ldots,b\}$. In this paper, we will study the generalized entropy ergodic theorem with almost-everywhere and $\mathcal{L}_1$ convergence for nonhomogeneous Markov chains, which generalizes the corresponding classical results for the Markov chains.
In this paper, we quantify some known approximation to the Curie-Weiss model via applying the Stein method to the Markov chain whose stationary distribution coincides with Curie-Weiss model.
We are interested in studying the sensitivity of diffusion processes or their approximations by Markov Chains with respect to a perturbation of the coefficients.
Starting from a Markov chain with a finite alphabet, we consider the chain obtained when all but one symbol are undistinguishable for the practitioner. We study necessary and sufficient conditions for this chain to have continuous transition probabilities with respect to the past.
Improved rates of convergence for ergodic Markov chains and relaxed conditions for them, as well as analogous convergence results for some non-homogeneous Markov chains are studied. The setting from the previous works is extended. Examples are provided where the new bounds are better and where they give the same convergence rate as in the classical Markov -- Dobrushin inequality.
In this paper we study the almost sure central limit theorem started from a point for additive functionals of a stationary and ergodic Markov chain via a martingale approximation in the almost sure sense. As a consequence we derive the quenched CLT for additive functionals or reversible Markov chains.
Stemmed from the derivation of the optimal control to a stochastic linear-quadratic control problem with Markov jumps, we study one kind of backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs) that the generator f is affected by a Markovian switching. Then, the case that the Markov chain is involved in a large state space is considered. Following the classical approach, a hierarchical approach is adopted to reduce the complexity and a singularly perturbed Markov chain is involved. We will study the asymptotic property of BSDE with the singularly perturbed Markov chain. At last, as an application…
This is the story of the encounter between two worlds: the world of random walks and the world of Variable Length Markov Chains (VLMC). The meeting point turns around the semi-Markov property of underlying processes.
In this paper we are concerned with hitting times of a family of density-dependent Markov chains. A moderate deviation principle of the hitting time is given. The proof of the main theorem relies heavily on moderate deviations of density-dependent Markov chains given in \cite{Xue2021} and upper bounds of large deviations of Markov processes given in \cite{Dupuis1991}. An analogue moderate deviation of the hitting time of the diffusion approximation of the density-dependent Markov chain introduced in \cite{Ethier1986} is also given.
We consider a time-homogeneous Markov chain $X_n$, $n\ge0$, valued in ${\bf R}$. Suppose that this chain is transient, that is, $X_n$ generates a $σ$-finite renewal measure. We prove the key renewal theorem under condition that this chain has asymptotically homogeneous at infinity jumps and asymptotically positive drift.
We study certain properties of the function space of autocorrelation functions of Unit Continuous Time Markov Chains (CTMCs). It is shown that under particular conditions, the $L^p$ norm of the autocorrelation function of arbitrary finite state space CTMCs is infinite. Several interesting inferences are made for point processes associated with CTMCs/ Discrete Time Markov Chains (DTMCs).
In this paper we study the additive functionals of Markov chains via conditioning with respect to both past and future of the chain. We shall point out new sufficient projective conditions, which assure that the variance of partial sums of n consecutive random variables of a stationary Markov chain is linear in n. The paper also addresses the central limit theorem problem and is listing several open questions.
The present paper establishes a discrete version of the result obtained by P. Carr and S. Nadtochiy (2011) for 1-dimensional diffusion processes. Our result is for Markov chains on $\mathbf{Z}^d$.
We derive an adiabatic theorem for Markov chains using well known facts about mixing and relaxation times. We discuss the results in the context of the recent developments in adiabatic quantum computation.
This paper studies the last-column-block-augmented northwest-corner truncation (LC-block-augmented truncation, for short) of discrete-time block-monotone Markov chains under subgeometric drift conditions. The main result of this paper is to present an upper bound for the total variation distance between the stationary probability vectors of a block-monotone Markov chain and its LC-block-augmented truncation. The main result is extended to Markov chains that themselves may not be block monotone but are block-wise dominated by block-monotone Markov chains satisfying modified drift conditions. Fi…
We study (backward) stochastic differential equations with noise coming from a finite state Markov chain. We show that, for the solutions of these equations to be `Markovian', in the sense that they are deterministic functions of the state of the underlying chain, the integrand must be of a specific form. This allows us to connect these equations to coupled systems of ODEs, and hence to give fast numerical methods for the evaluation of Markov-Chain BSDEs.