Probability Theory – Random Walk on $n$-Cycle

probability theoryrandom walkstochastic-processes

For a graph $G$, let $W$ be the (random) vertex occupied at the
first time the random walk has visited every vertex. That is, $W$ is the last new
vertex to be visited by the random walk. Prove the following remarkable fact:

For the
random walk on an $n$-cycle, $W$ is uniformly distributed over all vertices different
from the starting vertex.

Best Answer

Consider a simple symmetric random walk on the integer line starting from $0$ and, for some integers $-a\leqslant 0\leqslant b$ such that $(a,b)\ne(0,0)$, the event that the walk visits every vertex in $[-a,b]$ before visiting vertex $-a-1$ or vertex $b+1$. This is the disjoint union of two events:

  • Event 1: Starting from $0$, the walk visits $b$ before visiting $-a$, then, starting from $b$, it visits $-a$ before visiting $b+1$,
  • Event 2: Starting from $0$, the walk visits $-a$ before hitting $b$, then, starting from $-a$, it visits $b$ before hitting $-a-1$.

Recall that the probability that a simple symmetric random walk starting from $i$ visits $i-j\leqslant i$ before visiting $i+k\geqslant i$ is $\frac{k}{k+j}$, for every nonnegative integers $j$ and $k$.

Hence, the probability of Event 1 is $\frac{a}{a+b}\cdot\frac1{a+b+1}$, the probability of Event 2 is $\frac{b}{a+b}\cdot\frac1{a+b+1}$, and the probability of their union is $\frac1{a+b+1}$. Note that this last formula is also valid when $a=b=0$.

If $b=x-1$ and $a=n-x-1$ with $1\leqslant x\leqslant n-1$ and $n\geqslant2$, then $a+b+1=n-1$ hence the computation above shows that the probability that the last visited vertex in the discrete circle $\{0,1,\ldots,n-1\}$ is $x$ is $\frac1{a+b+1}=\frac1{n-1}$. That is, the probability of the event $[W=x]$ is $\frac1{n-1}$ for each $x\ne0$ in the circle, and $W$ is uniformly distributed on the circle minus the starting point of the random walk.