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Reversal of an Autoregressive Cauchy Markov Chain

Posted on 11/26/2018
UQ ID:348
Science
Mathematics
Original

Let be the standard one-dimensional Cauchy distribution, i.e.

\begin{align} \mu_0 (dx) = \frac{1}{\pi} \frac{1}{1+x^2} dx. \end{align}

Suppose I fix , and form a Markov chain as follows:

  1. At step , I sample .
  2. I then set

It is not so hard to show that this chain admits as a stationary measure, as this essentially comes from the fact that Cauchy distribution is a stable distribution.

What I'm interested in is the reversal of this Markov chain. More precisely, if the chain I describe above uses the Markov kernel , I want to understand the Markov kernel such that

\begin{align} \mu_0 (dx) q (x \to dy) = \mu_0 (dy) r (y \to dx). \end{align}

Fortunately, all of the quantities involved have densities with respect to Lebesgue measure, and as such, I can write down what is:

\begin{align} r (y \to dx) = \frac{1 + y^2}{\pi} \frac{1}{1 + x^2} \frac{h}{ h^2 + (y - (1 - h) x)^2} dx. \end{align}

My question is then: is there a simple, elegant way to draw exact samples from ?

I would highlight that this is not a purely algorithmic question; I'd really like to understand what this reversal kernel is doing. A nice byproduct of that would then be that I could simulate from it easily.

For completeness, some of the `purely algorithmic' solutions I had considered were the following.

  • I could try rejection sampling, and in principle this would work, but it wouldn't really give me insight into the nature of the Markov chain.
  • I could try something like the inverse CDF method, but it seems to me that the CDF of is not particularly nice to work with. As such, I'd have to use e.g. Newton iterations to use this method, and I'd prefer to not have to do this.
Keywords & Tags
probability
markov-chains
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K2-Think

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MBZUAI-IFM
Qwen2.5-32B
Sep 18, 2025, 01:50 PM

To sample from the reversal kernel ( r(y \to dx) ) of the given autoregressive Cauchy Markov chain, we can utilize the structure of the original chain and properties of the Cauchy distribution. Here's the step-by-step approach:

Insight into the Reversal Kernel

The original chain transitions as ( X_{n+1} = (1 - h)X_n + h Y_n ), where ( Y_n \sim \text{Cauchy}(0,1) ). The stationary distri...

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GPT-5

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Sep 2, 2025, 06:56 AM

Write a = 1 − h and b = h (so a,b ≥ 0 and a + b = 1). The forward step is Y = a X + b Z, with X,Z i.i.d. standard Cauchy and independent. Under stationarity X and Y are both standard Cauchy. The time–reversal kernel r is exactly the conditional law of X given Y=y under this bivariate 1-stable (Cauchy) vector. With densities, r(y → dx) ∝ (1 + y^2) 1/(1 + x^2) · b/(b^2 + (y − a x)^2) dx, which is th...

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o3

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Aug 1, 2025, 12:00 AM

Let

  X₀ ,X₁ ,… (1)
  X_{n+1}= (1–h) X_{n}+h Y_{n},  0<h≤1,  Y_{n}∼ C(0,1) i.i.d.

be the forward chain, whose transition density is

 q(x→y)= h π⁻¹ [ h²+(y−(1–h)x)² ]⁻¹ . (2)

Because the Cauchy law is 1–stable, μ₀(dx)=π⁻¹(1+x²)⁻¹dx is stationary:

 μ₀(dx)q(x→y)=μ₀(dy)q(y→x). (3)

Time re...

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DeepSeek R1

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DeepSeek
deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1
Aug 1, 2025, 12:00 AM
<think> We are given a Markov chain defined by: X_{n+1} = (1-h) * X_n + h * Y_n, where Y_n ~ Cauchy(0,1) (standard Cauchy)

We know that the stationary distribution is the standard Cauchy, i.e., μ_0(dx) = (1/(π(1+x^2))) dx.

The forward kernel q(x -> dy) is the density of the distribution of X_{n+1} given X_n = x. Since: X_{n+1} = (1-h)x + hY, and Y ~ Cauchy(0,1), then the distribution o...

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o3 Pro

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OpenAI
Aug 1, 2025, 12:00 AM

Below I first give an exact simulation algorithm for the reversed kernel

          r(y → dx) = const(y) · (1+x²)⁻¹ (h²+(y-(1-h)x)²)⁻¹ dx ,

and afterwards explain where it comes from and why it is “natural’’ for a Cauchy autoregression.


A. Exact simulation of X₀ | X₁ = y --------------------------------------------------...

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o4 mini

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OpenAI
Aug 1, 2025, 12:00 AM

The key observation is that nothing “mystical’’ is hiding in the reversed kernel. In fact one shows that

  1. Forward in stationarity
 Y = (1−h) X + h Z,  
 with X∼Cauchy(0,1) independent of Z∼Cauchy(0,1).

2. Hence in the joint (X,Y,Z) the map

 (X,Z) ↦ Y=(1−h)X + h Z

 is an invertible linear map (for each fixed Y one can solve for X in terms of Z).  What you wa...
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Claude 3.7 Sonnet

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Anthropic
Aug 1, 2025, 12:00 AM

Reversal of an Autoregressive Cauchy Markov Chain

This is an interesting problem about a Markov chain with Cauchy distributions. Let me analyze the reversal kernel and see if there's an elegant sampling method.

Understanding the Problem

We have a Markov chain defined by:

  • where (standard Cauchy)
  • The stationary distributio...
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Claude Opus 4

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Anthropic
Aug 1, 2025, 12:00 AM

This is a fascinating question about time-reversal of a Cauchy autoregressive process. Let me analyze the structure of the reversal kernel and provide insight into what it's doing.

Understanding the Reversal Kernel

The reversal kernel you've derived:

can be rewritten more suggestively. Let me factor thi...

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Gemini 2.5 Pro

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Google
Aug 1, 2025, 12:00 AM

This is an excellent and challenging question. The integral identity you've found is indeed correct and represents a fundamental result in the theory of multipole expansions, particularly in the context of solutions to the Helmholtz equation. These identities are known as addition theorems for spherical wave functions and are crucial in fields like acoustics, electromagnetism, and quantum mech...

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