Exact spectral-gap relation for the multi-urn backgammon model

From papers

Let P(m)P^{(m)} be the transition matrix of the mm-urn backgammon model and let g(P(m))g(P^{(m)}) denote its spectral gap. The model has nn balls distributed among mm urns, with the notation and dynamics defined above.

Exact spectral-gap conjecture. The inequality relating the mm-urn and two-urn gaps is an equality:

g(P(m))=1m1g(P(2)).g(P^{(m)})=\frac{1}{m-1}g(P^{(2)}).

Numerical diagonalization for the tested ranges of mm and nn supports the equality; the preceding argument establishes only the corresponding inequality, so the general exact relation remains unproved in the source.

Progress summary

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

N. Destainville, “Bounding spectral gaps of Markov chains: a novel exact multi-decomposition technique”, arXiv:cond-mat/0211166 (2002).

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.