Mediaspace scheduled maintenance: Aug 25, 2026 07:00 - 12:00 AM. During this time, videos will be temporarily unavailable. Check status updates.

Lecture

Markov Chains: Stationary Distributions

Description

This lecture covers the concept of Markov chains and stationary distributions, explaining how transitions between states occur with specific probabilities. The instructor discusses the importance of identifying stationary distributions and how they relate to the original chain. By introducing loops with specific probabilities at each state, the lecture demonstrates how to improve convergence in certain scenarios.

Official source

Related concepts (28)

Probability distribution

In probability theory and statistics, a probability distribution is the mathematical function that gives the probabilities of occurrence of different possible outcomes for an experiment. It is a mathematical description of a random phenomenon in terms of its sample space and the probabilities of events (subsets of the sample space). For instance, if X is used to denote the outcome of a coin toss ("the experiment"), then the probability distribution of X would take the value 0.5 (1 in 2 or 1/2) for X = heads, and 0.

Probability

Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1, where, roughly speaking, 0 indicates impossibility of the event and 1 indicates certainty. The higher the probability of an event, the more likely it is that the event will occur. A simple example is the tossing of a fair (unbiased) coin.

Joint probability distribution

Given two random variables that are defined on the same probability space, the joint probability distribution is the corresponding probability distribution on all possible pairs of outputs. The joint distribution can just as well be considered for any given number of random variables. The joint distribution encodes the marginal distributions, i.e. the distributions of each of the individual random variables. It also encodes the conditional probability distributions, which deal with how the outputs of one random variable are distributed when given information on the outputs of the other random variable(s).

Conditional probability

In probability theory, conditional probability is a measure of the probability of an event occurring, given that another event (by assumption, presumption, assertion or evidence) has already occurred. This particular method relies on event B occurring with some sort of relationship with another event A. In this event, the event B can be analyzed by a conditional probability with respect to A. If the event of interest is A and the event B is known or assumed to have occurred, "the conditional probability of A given B", or "the probability of A under the condition B", is usually written as P(AB) or occasionally P_B(A).

Poisson distribution

In probability theory and statistics, the Poisson distribution is a discrete probability distribution that expresses the probability of a given number of events occurring in a fixed interval of time or space if these events occur with a known constant mean rate and independently of the time since the last event. It is named after French mathematician Siméon Denis Poisson ('pwɑːsɒn; pwasɔ̃). The Poisson distribution can also be used for the number of events in other specified interval types such as distance, area, or volume.

Related lectures (36)

Probability and Statistics

Covers Simpson's paradox, probability distributions, and real-life examples in probability and statistics.

Continuous Random Variables

Explores continuous random variables, density functions, joint variables, independence, and conditional densities.

Probability and Statistics

Delves into probability, statistics, paradoxes, and random variables, showcasing their real-world applications and properties.

Probability and Statistics

Covers p-quantile, normal approximation, joint distributions, and exponential families in probability and statistics.

Conditional Expectation: Grouping Lemma

Explores conditional expectation, the grouping lemma, and the law of large numbers.

Related concepts (28)

Probability distribution

Probability

Joint probability distribution

Conditional probability

Poisson distribution