Harris recurrence of Metropolis-within-Gibbs and trans-dimensional Markov chains
| dc.creator | Roberts, Gareth O. | |
| dc.creator | Rosenthal, Jeffrey S. | |
| dc.date | 2007-02-14 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T07:46:53Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T07:46:53Z | |
| dc.description | A $ϕ$-irreducible and aperiodic Markov chain with stationary probability distribution will converge to its stationary distribution from almost all starting points. The property of Harris recurrence allows us to replace ``almost all'' by ``all,'' which is potentially important when running Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms. Full-dimensional Metropolis--Hastings algorithms are known to be Harris recurrent. In this paper, we consider conditions under which Metropolis-within-Gibbs and trans-dimensional Markov chains are or are not Harris recurrent. We present a simple but natural two-dimensional counter-example showing how Harris recurrence can fail, and also a variety of positive results which guarantee Harris recurrence. We also present some open problems. We close with a discussion of the practical implications for MCMC algorithms. | |
| dc.description | Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/105051606000000510 in the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org) | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0702412 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0702412 | |
| dc.identifier | Annals of Applied Probability 2006, Vol. 16, No. 4, 2123-2139 | |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.1214/105051606000000510 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/123978 | |
| dc.subject | Probability | |
| dc.subject | 60J05 (Primary) 65C05, 60J22, 62F15 (Secondary) | |
| dc.title | Harris recurrence of Metropolis-within-Gibbs and trans-dimensional Markov chains | |
| dc.type | text |