{"id":357674,"date":"2017-01-25T13:02:36","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T21:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-research-item&#038;p=357674"},"modified":"2018-10-16T20:00:09","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T03:00:09","slug":"hitting-times-random-walks-restarts","status":"publish","type":"msr-research-item","link":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/publication\/hitting-times-random-walks-restarts\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitting Times For Random Walks With Restarts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The time it takes a random walker in a lattice to reach the origin from another vertex <span id=\"MathJax-Element-1-Frame\" class=\"MathJax\" tabindex=\"0\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-1\" class=\"math\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-2\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-3\" class=\"mi\">x<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>, has infinite mean. If the walker can restart the walk at <span id=\"MathJax-Element-2-Frame\" class=\"MathJax\" tabindex=\"0\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-4\" class=\"math\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-5\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-6\" class=\"mi\">x<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> at will, then the minimum expected hitting time <span id=\"MathJax-Element-3-Frame\" class=\"MathJax\" tabindex=\"0\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-7\" class=\"math\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-8\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-9\" class=\"mi\">T<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-10\" class=\"mo\">(<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-11\" class=\"mi\">x<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-12\" class=\"mo\">,<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-13\" class=\"mn\">0<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-14\" class=\"mo\">)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>(minimized over restarting strategies) is finite; it was called the &#8220;grade&#8221; of <span id=\"MathJax-Element-4-Frame\" class=\"MathJax\" tabindex=\"0\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-15\" class=\"math\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-16\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-17\" class=\"mi\">x<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> by Dumitriu, Tetali and Winkler. They showed that, in a more general setting, the grade (a variant of the &#8220;Gittins index&#8221;) plays a crucial role in control problems involving several Markov chains. Here we establish several conjectures of Dumitriu et al on the asymptotics of the grade in Euclidean lattices. In particular, we show that in the planar square lattice, <span id=\"MathJax-Element-5-Frame\" class=\"MathJax\" tabindex=\"0\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-18\" class=\"math\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-19\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-20\" class=\"mi\">T<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-21\" class=\"mo\">(<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-22\" class=\"mi\">x<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-23\" class=\"mo\">,<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-24\" class=\"mn\">0<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-25\" class=\"mo\">)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> is asymptotic to <span id=\"MathJax-Element-6-Frame\" class=\"MathJax\" tabindex=\"0\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-26\" class=\"math\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-27\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-28\" class=\"mn\">2<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-29\" class=\"texatom\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-30\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-31\" class=\"mo\">|<\/span><\/span><\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-32\" class=\"mi\">x<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-33\" class=\"msubsup\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-34\" class=\"texatom\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-35\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-36\" class=\"mo\">|<\/span><\/span><\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-37\" class=\"mn\">2<\/span><\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-38\" class=\"mi\">log<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-39\" class=\"mo\"><\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-40\" class=\"texatom\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-41\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-42\" class=\"mo\">|<\/span><\/span><\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-43\" class=\"mi\">x<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-44\" class=\"texatom\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-45\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-46\" class=\"mo\">|<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> as <span id=\"MathJax-Element-7-Frame\" class=\"MathJax\" tabindex=\"0\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-47\" class=\"math\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-48\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-49\" class=\"texatom\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-50\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-51\" class=\"mo\">|<\/span><\/span><\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-52\" class=\"mi\">x<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-53\" class=\"texatom\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-54\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-55\" class=\"mo\">|<\/span><\/span><\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-56\" class=\"mo\">\u2192<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-57\" class=\"mi\">\u221e<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>. The proof hinges on the local variance of the potential kernel <span id=\"MathJax-Element-8-Frame\" class=\"MathJax\" tabindex=\"0\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-58\" class=\"math\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-59\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-60\" class=\"mi\">h<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> being almost constant on the level sets of <span id=\"MathJax-Element-9-Frame\" class=\"MathJax\" tabindex=\"0\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-61\" class=\"math\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-62\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-63\" class=\"mi\">h<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>. We also show how the same method yields precise second order asymptotics for hitting times of a random walk (without restarts) in a lattice disk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The time it takes a random walker in a lattice to reach the origin from another vertex x, has infinite mean. If the walker can restart the walk at x at will, then the minimum expected hitting time T(x,0)(minimized over restarting strategies) is finite; it was called the &#8220;grade&#8221; of x by Dumitriu, Tetali and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-author-ordering":null,"msr_publishername":"Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics","msr_publisher_other":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_edition":"","msr_editors":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_issue":"","msr_journal":"SIAM Journal on Discrete 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