Quasi lumpability, lower-bounding coupling matrices, and nearly completely decomposable Markov chains

Date
1997
Authors
Dayar T.
Stewart, W. J.
Editor(s)
Advisor
Supervisor
Co-Advisor
Co-Supervisor
Instructor
Source Title
SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications
Print ISSN
0895-4798
Electronic ISSN
1095-7162
Publisher
SIAM
Volume
18
Issue
2
Pages
482 - 498
Language
English
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Series
Abstract

In this paper, it is shown that nearly completely decomposable (NCD) Markov chains are quasi-lumpable. The state space partition is the natural one, and the technique may be used to compute lower and upper bounds on the stationary probability of each NCD block. In doing so, a lower-bounding nonnegative coupling matrix is employed. The nature of the stationary probability bounds is closely related to the structure of this lower-bounding matrix. Irreducible lower-bounding matrices give tighter bounds compared with bounds obtained using reducible lower-bounding matrices. It is also noticed that the quasi-lumped chain of an NCD Markov chain is an ill-conditioned matrix and the bounds obtained generally will not be tight. However, under some circumstances, it is possible to compute the stationary probabilities of some NCD blocks exactly.

Course
Other identifiers
Book Title
Citation
Published Version (Please cite this version)