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Diminishing adaptation and uniform ergodicity need not give a strong law
Statement refuted
The claim that simultaneous uniform ergodicity and diminishing adaptation imply for every bounded measurable , even for a finite state space and a common invariant target.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: A finite state space, common target, kernel family, initial state, and block construction specified in the Counterexample below.
The Axiom of Countable Choice (): countable choice is assumed only through the countable-product probability theorem used below.
The axiom of dependent choice: a relation in which every element is related to something admits an -indexed chain: dependent choice is assumed only through the same countable-product probability theorem.
Measure kernel and probability kernel: a probability kernel has probability rows and measurable event evaluations.
Probability measures and probability spaces: each finite uniform space is equipped with a countably additive probability measure of total mass one.
Invariant and stationary distribution for a Markov kernel: is invariant for when .
Total variation distance for probability laws: total variation is the supremum of setwise probability differences.
Diminishing adaptation: diminishing adaptation means tends to zero in probability.
Assuming countable and dependent choice, countable products of arbitrary probability spaces: under countable choice and dependent choice, a countable sequence of probability spaces has a product probability measure with the prescribed finite-coordinate product marginals.
Finite and countable subadditivity of measures: the probability of a countable union is at most the sum of its probabilities.
Expectation of a nonnegative or integrable random variable: for a nonnegative random variable, expectation is its nonnegative integral.
The Lebesgue integral is linear on : the integral is linear on integrable functions.
Markov's inequality for random variables: for nonnegative and , .
Counterexample
Given: [A1] The Axiom of Countable Choice () and [A2] The axiom of dependent choice: a relation in which every element is related to something admits an -indexed chain, together with [F1]–[F10]. Let , , , and . Define three kernels by the matrices, in state order , Write , so .
Since and are finite discrete spaces, all kernel evaluations are jointly measurable. Every displayed matrix has probability rows, is symmetric, and has column sums one. Thus each is a probability kernel and by [F1] and [F3]. For a two-state symmetric kernel with flip probability , ; induction gives . For and , , while reaches in one step. Since by [F4], The family is simultaneously uniformly ergodic.
For , let and , the number of transitions before block . Since ,
For each , equip the finite space with its uniform probability measure. Write a coordinate as and put . Direct counting gives ; conditional on any value of , the are independent and uniform on , with a law not depending on . The countable product over exists by [F6] under [A1]–[A2].
In block , for its first transition set and use to draw from (the next state is iff ). For with , set if ; if , set when and when . Use to sample the selected matrix row: for use thresholds and for rows and respectively, for use thresholds and , and for use threshold ; the next state is exactly when is at most the row's threshold. This recursively defines measurable and . Each next is independent of the gate and earlier block coordinates by [F2] and the finite product counting in step 1.3; different blocks have the product marginals in [F6]. Therefore conditional on the history, has law , so this is an adaptive MCMC process with the stated kernel family.
If , every parameter in block is , and the next block also starts with parameter ; hence at every transition whose current block has gate zero. If , then . For each in block , as , because each block is finite and its index tends to infinity. Thus in probability by [F5].
Conditional on , for each the active rule uses from state and from state . In either case the next state is iff . Hence are independent Bernoulli variables with success probability .
Put and . Under , each centered variable has mean zero and second moment ; distinct centered variables have zero product expectation by the finite product law of the . Expanding the square and using [F8]–[F9] gives Since implies , Markov's inequality [F10] yields
Let . From steps 1.3 and 4.1, for all sufficiently large , so . Each is a function only of coordinate , so [F6] makes these events independent. For any fixed , Thus the probability of no after is zero; [F7] applied to the countable union over shows that infinitely many occur almost surely.
At the endpoint of any block with , the active outputs contain at least zeros. Therefore along the infinitely many such blocks, by step 1.2. But . The strong law fails almost surely despite simultaneous uniform ergodicity and diminishing adaptation.
Depends on
- Markov's inequality for random variables
- The Axiom of Countable Choice ($\mathrm{AC}_\omega$)
- The axiom of dependent choice: a relation in which every element is related to something admits an $\mathbb{N}$-indexed chain
- Diminishing adaptation
- Expectation of a nonnegative or integrable random variable
- Invariant and stationary distribution for a Markov kernel
- Measure kernel and probability kernel
- Probability measures and probability spaces
- Total variation distance for probability laws
- Assuming countable and dependent choice, countable products of arbitrary probability spaces
- Finite and countable subadditivity of measures
- The Lebesgue integral is linear on $L^1(\mu)$
Used by
Nothing in the library uses this result yet.
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Sources
- Gareth O. Roberts and Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, Coupling and Ergodicity of Adaptive MCMC (standard reference, not scraped)