Martin boundaries of cartesian products of markov chains

Abstract

Let P and Q be the stochastic transition operators of two time-homogeneous, irreducible Markov chains with countable, discrete state spaces X and Y, respectively. On the Cartesian product Z = X x Y, define a transition operator of the form Ra = a·P + (1 — a) · Q, 0 < a < 1, where P is considered to act on the first variable and Q on the second. The principal purpose of this paper is to describe the minimal Martin boundary of Ra (consisting of the minimal positive eigenfunctions of Ra with respect to some eigenvalue t, also called t-harmonic functions) in terms of the minimal Martin boundaries of P and Q.