Random walks on graphs: new bounds on hitting, meeting, coalescing and returning

We prove new results on lazy random walks on finite graphs. To start, we obtain new estimates on return probabilities $P^t(x,x)$ and the maximum expected hitting time $t_{\rm hit}$, both in terms of the relaxation time. We also prove a discrete-time version of the first-named author's ``Meeting time lemma"~ that bounds the probability of random walk hitting a deterministic trajectory in terms of hitting times of static vertices. The meeting time result is then used to bound the expected full coalescence time of multiple random walks over a graph. This last theorem is a discrete-time version of a result by the first-named author, which had been previously conjectured by Aldous and Fill. Our bounds improve on recent results by Lyons and Oveis-Gharan; Kanade et al; and (in certain regimes) Cooper et al.Comment: First draf

The Cover Time of Deterministic Random Walks for General Transition Probabilities

The deterministic random walk is a deterministic process analogous to a random walk. While there are some results on the cover time of the rotor-router model, which is a deterministic random walk corresponding to a simple random walk, nothing is known about the cover time of deterministic random walks emulating general transition probabilities. This paper is concerned with the SRT-router model with multiple tokens, which is a deterministic process coping with general transition probabilities possibly containing irrational numbers. For the model, we give an upper bound of the cover time, which is the first result on the cover time of deterministic random walks for general transition probabilities. Our upper bound also improves the existing bounds for the rotor-router model in some cases

Total Variation Discrepancy of Deterministic Random Walks for Ergodic Markov Chains

Motivated by a derandomization of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), this paper investigates deterministic random walks, which is a deterministic process analogous to a random walk. While there are several progresses on the analysis of the vertex-wise discrepancy (i.e., $L_\infty$ discrepancy), little is known about the {\em total variation discrepancy} (i.e., $L_1$ discrepancy), which plays a significant role in the analysis of an FPRAS based on MCMC. This paper investigates upper bounds of the $L_1$ discrepancy between the expected number of tokens in a Markov chain and the number of tokens in its corresponding deterministic random walk. First, we give a simple but nontrivial upper bound ${\rm O}(mt^*)$ of the $L_1$ discrepancy for any ergodic Markov chains, where $m$ is the number of edges of the transition diagram and $t^*$ is the mixing time of the Markov chain. Then, we give a better upper bound ${\rm O}(m\sqrt{t^*\log t^*})$ for non-oblivious deterministic random walks, if the corresponding Markov chain is ergodic and lazy. We also present some lower bounds

Context-free pairs of groups. II - cuts, tree sets, and random walks

This is a continuation of the study, begun by Ceccherini-Silberstein and Woess, of context-free pairs of groups and the related context-free graphs in the sense of Muller and Schupp. Instead of the cones (connected components with respect to deletion of finite balls with respect to the graph metric), a more general approach to context-free graphs is proposed via tree sets consisting of cuts of the graph, and associated structure trees. The existence of tree sets with certain "good" properties is studied. With a tree set, a natural context-free grammar is associated. These investigations of the structure of context free pairs, resp. graphs are then applied to study random walk asymptotics via complex analysis

Deterministic Random Walks for Rapidly Mixing Chains

The rotor-router model is a deterministic process analogous to a simple random walk on a graph. This paper is concerned with a generalized model, functional-router model, which imitates a Markov chain possibly containing irrational transition probabilities. We investigate the discrepancy of the number of tokens at a single vertex between the functional-router model and its corresponding Markov chain, and give an upper bound in terms of the mixing time of the Markov chain

Perturbations of the Voter Model in One-Dimension

We study the scaling limit of a large class of voter model perturbations in one dimension, including stochastic Potts models, to a universal limiting object, the continuum voter model perturbation. The perturbations can be described in terms of bulk and boundary nucleations of new colors (opinions). The discrete and continuum (space) models are obtained from their respective duals, the discrete net with killing and Brownian net with killing. These determine the color genealogy by means of reduced graphs. We focus our attention on models where the voter and boundary nucleation dynamics depend only on the colors of nearest neighbor sites, for which convergence of the discrete net with killing to its continuum analog was proved in an earlier paper by the authors. We use some detailed properties of the Brownian net with killing to prove voter model perturbations convergence to its continuum counterpart. A crucial property of reduced graphs is that even in the continuum, they are finite almost surely. An important issue is how vertices of the continuum reduced graphs are strongly approximated by their discrete analogues.Comment: 13 figure

The rotor-router group of directed covers of graphs

A rotor-router walk is a deterministic version of a random walk, in which the walker is routed to each of the neighbouring vertices in some fixed cyclic order. We consider here directed covers of graphs (called also periodic trees) and we study several quantities related to rotor-router walks on directed covers. The quantities under consideration are: order of the rotor-router group, order of the root element in the rotor-router group and the connection with random walks.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure

Kesten's theorem for uniformly recurrent subgroups

We prove an inequality on the difference between the spectral radius of the Cayley graph of a group $G$ and the spectral radius of the Schreier graph $H\backslash G$ for any subgroup $H$. As an application we extend Kesten's theorem on spectral radii to uniformly recurrent subgroups and give a short proof that the result of Lyons and Peres on cycle density in Ramanujan graphs holds on average. More precisely, we show that if $\mathcal G$ is an infinite deterministic Ramanujan graph, then the time spent in short cycles by a random walk of length $n$ is $o(n)$.Comment: 8 page

Local limit theorems for sequences of simple random walks on graphs

In this article, local limit theorems for sequences of simple random walks on graphs are established. The results formulated are motivated by a variety of random graph models, and explanations are provided as to how they apply to supercritical percolation clusters, graph trees converging to the continuum random tree and the homogenisation problem for nested fractals. A subsequential local limit theorem for the simple random walks on generalised Sierpinski carpet graphs is also presented

Deterministic approximation for the cover time of trees

We present a deterministic algorithm that given a tree T with n vertices, a starting vertex v and a slackness parameter epsilon > 0, estimates within an additive error of epsilon the cover and return time, namely, the expected time it takes a simple random walk that starts at v to visit all vertices of T and return to v. The running time of our algorithm is polynomial in n/epsilon, and hence remains polynomial in n also for epsilon = 1/n^{O(1)}. We also show how the algorithm can be extended to estimate the expected cover (without return) time on trees