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.
Using elementary methods, we prove that for a countable Markov chain $P$ of ergodic degree $d > 0$ the rate of convergence towards the stationary distribution is subgeometric of order $n^{-d}$, provided the initial distribution satisfies certain conditions of asymptotic decay. An example, modelling a renewal process and providing a markovian approximation scheme in dynamical system theory, is worked out in detail, illustrating the relationships between convergence behaviour, analytic properties of the generating functions associated to transition probabilities and spectral properties of the Ma…
It is known that the Dobrushin's ergodicity coefficient is one of the effective tools to study a behavior of non-homogeneous Markov chains. In the present paper, we define such an ergodicity coefficient of a positive mapping defined on ordered Banach space with a base (OBSB), and study its properties. In terms of this coefficient we prove the equivalence uniform and weak ergodicities of homogeneous Markov chains. This extends earlier results obtained in case of von Neumann algebras. Such a result allowed to establish a category theorem for uniformly ergodic Markov operators. We find necessary …
Previous work showed that all Bernoulli shifts over a free group are orbit-equivalent. This result is strengthened here by replacing Bernoulli shifts with the wider class of properly ergodic countable state Markov chains over a free group. A list of related open problems is provided.
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.
Exponential ergodicity in the bounded-Lipschitz distance for a subclass of piecewise-deterministic Markov processes with random switching between flows
We extend results on quadratic pressure and convergence of Gibbs mesures from previous joined work of the authors to the Curie-Weiss-Potts model. We define the notion of equilibrium state for the quadratic pressure and show that under some conditions on the maxima for some auxiliary function, the Gibbs measure converges to a convex combination of eigen-measures for the Transfer Operator. This extension works for dynamical systems defined by {infinite-to-one} maps. As an example, we compute the equilibrium for {the mean-field} $XY$ model as the number of particles goes to $+\infty$.
We study ergodic properties of nonlinear Markov chains and stochastic McKean-Vlasov equations. For nonlinear Markov chains we obtain sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of an invariant measure and uniform ergodicity. We also prove optimality of these conditions. For stochastic McKean-Vlasov equations we establish exponential convergence of their solutions to stationarity in the total variation metric under Veretennikov-Khasminskii-type conditions.
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.
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.
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 $α$.
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.
Let $σ:\boldsymbolΣ\to\boldsymbolΣ$ be the left shift acting on $ \boldsymbolΣ $, a one-sided Markov subshift on a countable alphabet. Our intention is to guarantee the existence of $σ$-invariant Borel probabilities that maximize the integral of a given locally Hölder continuous potential $ A : \boldsymbolΣ \to \mathbb R $. Under certain conditions, we are able to show not only that $A$-maximizing probabilities do exist, but also that they are characterized by the fact their support lies actually in a particular Markov subshift on a finite alphabet. To that end, we make use of objects dual to …
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.
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 a Markov process with two components: the first component evolves according to one of finitely many underlying Markovian dynamics, with a choice of dynamics that changes at the jump times of the second component. The second component is discrete and its jump rates may depend on the position of the whole process. Under regularity assumptions on the jump rates and Wasserstein contraction conditions for the underlying dynamics, we provide a concrete criterion for the convergence to equilibrium in terms of Wasserstein distance. The proof is based on a coupling argument and a weak form of …
In this paper, we give quantitative bounds on the $f$-total variation distance from convergence of an Harris recurrent Markov chain on an arbitrary under drift and minorisation conditions implying ergodicity at a sub-geometric rate. These bounds are then specialized to the stochastically monotone case, covering the case where there is no minimal reachable element. The results are illustrated on two examples from queueing theory and Markov Chain Monte Carlo.
We discuss the ergodic properties of quasi-Markovian stochastic differential equations, providing general conditions that ensure existence and uniqueness of a smooth invariant distribution and exponential convergence of the evolution operator in suitably weighted $L^{\infty}$ spaces, which implies the validity of central limit theorem for the respective solution processes. The main new result is an ergodicity condition for the generalized Langevin equation with configuration-dependent noise and (non-)conservative force.
We present formulas for quasi-ergodic limits of finite absorbing Markov chains. Since the irreducible case has been solved in 1965 by Darroch and Seneta, we focus on the reducible case, and our results are based on a very precise asymptotic analysis of the (exponential and polynomial) growth behaviour along admissible paths
We give a bound on the mixing time of a uniformly ergodic, reversible Markov chain in terms of the spectral radius of the transition operator. This bound has been established previously in finite state spaces, and is widely believed to hold in general state spaces, but a proof has not been provided to our knowledge.
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…
We study a fairly general class of time-homogeneous stochastic evolutions driven by noises that are not white in time. As a consequence, the resulting processes do not have the Markov property. In this setting, we obtain constructive criteria for the uniqueness of stationary solutions that are very close in spirit to the existing criteria for Markov processes. In the case of discrete time, where the driving noise consists of a stationary sequence of Gaussian random variables, we give optimal conditions on the spectral measure for our criteria to be applicable. In particular, we show that under…
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…
We consider Markov chain with spectral gap in $L^2$ space. Assume that $f$ is a bounded function. Then the probabilities of large deviations of average along trajectory satisfy Hoeffding's-type inequalities. These bounds depend only on the stationary mean, spectral gap and the end-points of support of $f$.
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.
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 consider ergodic backward stochastic differential equations, in a setting where noise is generated by a countable state uniformly ergodic Markov chain. We show that for Lipschitz drivers such that a comparison theorem holds, these equations admit unique solutions. To obtain this result, we show by coupling and splitting techniques that uniform ergodicity estimates of Markov chains are robust to perturbations of the rate matrix, and that these perturbations correspond in a natural way to EBSDEs. We then consider applications of this theory to Markov decision problems with a risk-averse avera…
In this paper, the forgetting of the initial distribution for a non-ergodic Hidden Markov Models (HMM) is studied. A new set of conditions is proposed to establish the forgetting property of the filter, which significantly extends all the existing results. Both a pathwise-type convergence of the total variation distance of the filter started from two different initial distributions, and a convergence in expectation are considered. The results are illustrated using generic models of non-ergodic HMM and extend all the results known so far.
We study ergodic quadratic optimal stochastic control problems for an affine state equation with state and control dependent noise and with stochastic coefficients. We assume stationarity of the coefficients and a finite cost condition. We first treat the stationary case and we show that the optimal cost corresponding to this ergodic control problem coincides with the one corresponding to a suitable stationary control problem and we provide a full characterization of the ergodic optimal cost and control.
In this paper, new conditions for the stability of V-geometrically ergodic Markov chains are introduced. The results are based on an extension of the standard perturbation theory formulated by Keller and Liverani. The continuity and higher regularity properties are investigated. As an illustration, an asymptotic expansion of the invariant probability measure for an autoregressive model with i.i.d. noises (with a non-standard probability density function) is obtained.
Let $(S_n)_n$ be a $R^d$-valued random walk ($d\geq2$). Using Babillot's method [2], we give general conditions on the characteristic function of $S_n$ under which $(S_n)_n$ satisfies the same renewal theorem as the classical one obtained for random walks with i.i.d. non-centered increments. This statement is applied to additive functionals of strongly ergodic Markov chains under the non-lattice condition and (almost) optimal moment conditions.
New relations between ergodic rate, L_p convergence rates, and asymptotic behavior of tail probabilities for hitting times of a time homogeneous Markov process are established. For L_p convergence rates and related spectral and functional properties (spectral gap and Poincare inequality) sufficient conditions are given in the terms of an exponential ϕ-coupling. This provides sufficient conditions for L_p convergence rates in the terms of appropriate combination of `local mixing' and `recurrence' conditions on the initial process, typical in the ergodic theory of Markov processes. The range of …
We revisit functional central limit theorems for additive functionals of ergodic Markov diffusion processes. Translated in the language of partial differential equations of evolution, they appear as diffusion limits in the asymptotic analysis of Fokker-Planck type equations. We focus on the square integrable framework, and we provide tractable conditions on the infinitesimal generator, including degenerate or anomalously slow diffusions. We take advantage on recent developments in the study of the trend to the equilibrium of ergodic diffusions. We discuss examples and formulate open problems.
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…
In this paper, we give a sufficient condition for the existence of a quasi-ergodic distribution for absorbing Markov processes. Using an orthogonal-polynomial approach, we prove that the previous main result is valid for the birth-death process on the nonnegative integers with 0 an absorbing boundary and $\infty$ an entrance boundary. We also show that the quasi-ergodic distribution is stochastically larger than the unique quasi-stationary distribution in the sense of monotone likelihood-ratio ordering for the birth-death process.
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.
This paper consists of four parts. In the first part, we explain what eigenvalues we are interested in and show the difficulties of the study on the first (non-trivial) eigenvalue through examples. In the second part, we present some (dual) variational formulas and explicit bounds for the first eigenvalue of Laplacian on Riemannian manifolds or Jacobi matrices (Markov chains). Here, a probabilistic approach--the coupling methods is adopted. In the third part, we introduce recent lower bounds of several basic inequalities; these are based on a generalization of Cheeger's approach which comes fr…
We show how to map the states of an ergodic Markov chain to Euclidean space so that the squared distance between states is the expected commuting time. We find a minimax characterization of commuting times, and from this we get monotonicity of commuting times with respect to equilibrium transition rates. All of these results are familiar in the case of time-reversible chains, where techniques of classical electrical theory apply. In presenting these results, we take the opportunity to develop Markov chain theory in a `conformally correct' way
This paper provides a general and abstract approach to approximate ergodic regimes of Markov and Feller processes. More precisely, we show that the recursive algorithm presented in Lamberton & Pages (2002) and based on simulation algorithms of stochastic schemes with decreasing step can be used to build invariant measures for general Markov and Feller processes. We also propose applications in three different configurations: Approximation of Markov switching Brownian diffusion ergodic regimes using Euler scheme, approximation of Markov Brownian diffusion ergodic regimes with Milstein scheme an…
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 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…
In dimension $d\geq3$, we present a general assumption under which the renewal theorem established by Spitzer for i.i.d. sequences of centered nonlattice r.v. holds true. Next we appeal to an operator-type procedure to investigate the Markov case. Such a spectral approach has been already developed by Babillot, but the weak perturbation theorem of Keller and Liverani enables us to greatly weaken thehypotheses in terms of moment conditions. Our applications concern the v$-geometrically ergodic Markov chains, the $ρ$-mixing Markov chains, and the iterative Lipschitz models, for which the renewal…
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 …
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.
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 establish the existence (and in an appropriate sense uniqueness) of Markovian solutions for ergodic BSDEs under a novel monotonicity condition. Our monotonicity condition allows us to prove existence even when the driver f has arbitrary (in particular super-quadratic) growth in z, which reveals an interesting trade-off between monotonicity and growth for ergodic BSDEs. The technique of proof is to establish a probabilistic representation of the derivative of the Markovian solution, and then use this representation to obtain a-priori estimates. Our study is motivated by applications to ergod…
Bifurcating Markov chains (BMC) are Markov chains indexed by a full binary tree representing the evolution of a trait along a population where each individual has two children. We provide a central limit theorem for additive functionals of BMC under $L^2$-ergodic conditions with three different regimes. This completes the pointwise approach developed in a previous work. As application, we study the elementary case of symmetric bifurcating autoregressive process, which justify the non-trivial hypothesis considered on the kernel transition of the BMC. We illustrate in this example the phase tran…
This paper deals with ergodic theorems for particular time-inhomogeneous Markov processes, whose the time-inhomogeneity is asymptotically periodic. Under a Lyapunov/minorization condition, it is shown that, for any measurable bounded function $f$, the time average $\frac{1}{t} \int_0^t f(X_s)ds$ converges in $\mathbb{L}^2$ towards a limiting distribution, starting from any initial distribution for the process $(X_t)_{t \geq 0}$. This convergence can be improved to an almost sure convergence under an additional assumption on the initial measure. This result will be then applied to show the exis…
We state and prove a quantitative version of the bounded difference inequality for geometrically ergodic Markov chains. Our proof uses the same martingale decomposition as \cite{MR3407208} but, compared to this paper, the exact coupling argument is modified to fill a gap between the strongly aperiodic case and the general aperiodic case.