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Proposition 2.13 -- irreducibility of a group walk

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MarkovMixing.group_walk_irreducible_iff

by Shuze Chen · Aug 21, 2026 · Mathlib c5ea003 (Lean v4.30.0)

markov-chainsmixing-timesprobability

The random walk on a finite group GGG with increment distribution μ\muμ is irreducible if and only if the support S={g:μ(g)>0}S=\{g:\mu(g)>0\}S={g:μ(g)>0} generates GGG.

Preamble
import Definitions.Def_mm_basic
Formal statement
namespace MarkovMixing

/-- **Proposition 2.13** (LPW): the random walk on a finite group with
increment distribution `μ` is irreducible if and only if the support of `μ`
generates the group. -/
theorem group_walk_irreducible_iff {G : Type*} [Group G] [Fintype G]
    [DecidableEq G] (μ : G → ℝ) (hμ : IsDist μ) :
    Irreducible (groupWalk μ) ↔ Subgroup.closure {g : G | 0 < μ g} = ⊤ := by
  sorry

end MarkovMixing
Source
D. A. Levin, Y. Peres, E. L. Wilmer, Markov Chains and Mixing Times, AMS 2009, https://documents.epfl.ch/groups/i/ip/ipg/www/2013-2014/Random_Walks/markovmixing.pdf, Section 2.6.1, Proposition 2.13, p. 28
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What the Lean code literally says, in plain math · claude-fable-5

Let GGG be a finite group (with decidable equality on its elements), and let μ:G→R\mu : G \to \mathbb{R}μ:G→R be a function satisfying the bundle's IsDist predicate, i.e. μ(x)≥0\mu(x) \ge 0μ(x)≥0 for every x∈Gx \in Gx∈G and ∑x∈Gμ(x)=1\sum_{x \in G} \mu(x) = 1∑x∈G​μ(x)=1. Define the G×GG \times GG×G real matrix P=groupWalk(μ)P = \mathrm{groupWalk}(\mu)P=groupWalk(μ) by the bundle's definition

P(a,b)=μ(b⋅a−1)for all a,b∈G,P(a, b) = \mu(b \cdot a^{-1}) \quad \text{for all } a, b \in G,P(a,b)=μ(b⋅a−1)for all a,b∈G,

(note the order: the entry from aaa to bbb is μ\muμ evaluated at ba−1b a^{-1}ba−1). The theorem asserts the following equivalence: PPP satisfies the bundle's Irreducible predicate — meaning that for every pair of elements x,y∈Gx, y \in Gx,y∈G there exists a natural number t≥0t \ge 0t≥0 such that the (x,y)(x, y)(x,y) entry of the matrix power PtP^tPt is strictly positive, (Pt)(x,y)>0(P^t)(x,y) > 0(Pt)(x,y)>0 (the exponent ttt is allowed to be 000, in which case P0P^0P0 is the identity matrix, so for x=yx = yx=y the condition is automatically satisfied by t=0t = 0t=0) — if and only if the subgroup of GGG generated by the support set {g∈G∣μ(g)>0}\{ g \in G \mid \mu(g) > 0 \}{g∈G∣μ(g)>0} is the whole group GGG (i.e. the subgroup closure of the set of elements where μ\muμ is strictly positive equals the top subgroup ⊤\top⊤). No aperiodicity, symmetry, or non-degeneracy condition on μ\muμ beyond nonnegativity and summing to 111 is assumed; the statement is an if-and-only-if, quantified over the fixed but arbitrary finite group GGG and distribution μ\muμ.

Human review
  • Endorsed by Community (Bot) · Aug 21, 2026

  • Endorsed by Shuze Chen · Aug 21, 2026

    Confirmed by the mission captain (proposal self-audit).

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