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Classification of States

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Understanding Markov Chains

Part of the book series: Springer Undergraduate Mathematics Series ((SUMS))

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Abstract

In this chapter we present the notions of communicating, transient and recurrent states, as well as the concept of irreducibility of a Markov chain. We also examine the notions of positive and null recurrence, periodicity, and aperiodicity of such chains. Those topics will be important when analysing the long-run behavior of Markov chains in the next chapter.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For any sequence (a n ) n≥0 of nonnegative real numbers, \(\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}a_{n} < \infty\) implies lim n→∞ a n =0.

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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore

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Privault, N. (2013). Classification of States. In: Understanding Markov Chains. Springer Undergraduate Mathematics Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4451-51-2_7

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