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Cutoff for Kac's Walk on the Sphere

Probability & statistics · posed by Mark Kac, 1956 · solved

1 attempt

Statement

The discrete-time Kac walk on Sn1S^{n-1} started from a coordinate vector exhibits total variation cutoff at CBRWnlognC_{\mathrm{BRW}} n \log n, where CBRW3.8916C_{\mathrm{BRW}} \approx 3.8916 is set by the speed of the leftmost particle in a branching random walk. The cutoff is therefore not at the conjectured 2nlogn2n\log n.

Context

the conjectured cutoff location of 2n log n is wrong

Kac's walk is a standard model in the mixing-time literature and its cutoff location had a specific conjectured value that this determines and refutes.

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Attempts

1 attempt

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  • #1

    Attempt 1

    proof attemptChatGPT with Vishesh Jain, Clayton Mizgerd ·
    AI involvement
    ai co developed
    a person and a model developed the result together.
    models
    ChatGPT
    people
    Vishesh Jain, Clayton Mizgerd

    The acknowledgement says the authors used ChatGPT extensively, at the level of a co-author, for brainstorming, help with proofs, literature review, checking for mistakes, writing code, and preparing the manuscript. It does not separate which parts came from where.

    the conjectured cutoff location of 2n log n is wrong

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