closestReversible: Closest reversible approximation of a Markov chain
In markovchain: Easy Handling Discrete Time Markov Chains

closestReversible

R Documentation

Closest reversible approximation of a Markov chain

Description

Finds the Markov chain closest to a given one among those that are reversible with respect to a fixed stationary distribution.

Usage

closestReversible(
  object,
  stationaryDistribution = NULL,
  tolerance = sqrt(.Machine$double.eps)
)

## S4 method for signature 'markovchain'
closestReversible(
  object,
  stationaryDistribution = NULL,
  tolerance = sqrt(.Machine$double.eps)
)

Arguments

`object`	A `markovchain` object representing a finite, irreducible discrete-time Markov chain.
`stationaryDistribution`	Optional numeric vector giving the stationary distribution `\pi` to make the result reversible with respect to. It must have one strictly positive entry per state, sum to one (it is normalized if it does not), and be stationary for `object`, i.e. satisfy `\pi P = \pi`; otherwise an error is raised. The default, `NULL`, uses the chain's own unique stationary distribution from `steadyStates`.
`tolerance`	A single finite non-negative number, used when checking that a supplied `stationaryDistribution` really is stationary. It is a numerical-noise tolerance, not a modelling one.

Details

For a row-stochastic transition matrix P with stationary distribution \pi, define the time reversal P^* by

P^*_{ij} = \frac{\pi_j P_{ji}}{\pi_i}.

P^* is the transition matrix of the same chain run backwards in time, and P is reversible exactly when P = P^*. The approximation returned is the additive reversibilization

R = \tfrac{1}{2}\left(P + P^*\right),

which is stochastic, non-negative, and reversible with respect to the same \pi (see Details).

In what sense is this the closest chain? Work in the space \ell^2(\pi) of functions on the states with inner product \langle f,g\rangle_\pi=\sum_i \pi_i f_i g_i. Reversible chains are exactly the self-adjoint operators on that space, and they form a linear subspace. The matching Hilbert-Schmidt inner product on operators is

\langle A,B\rangle_\pi = \sum_{i,j} \frac{\pi_i}{\pi_j} A_{ij}B_{ij}, \qquad \|A\|_\pi^2 = \sum_{i,j} \frac{\pi_i}{\pi_j} A_{ij}^2,

and A \mapsto A^* is an isometric involution for it. The orthogonal projection onto the fixed points of such an involution is the average of a point and its image, so R=(P+P^*)/2 is the closest \pi-reversible matrix to P in \|\cdot\|_\pi. The stochastic and non-negativity constraints come for free: P^* has row sums \sum_j \pi_j P_{ji}/\pi_i = (\pi P)_i/\pi_i = 1 because \pi is stationary, and both P and P^* are non-negative, so the minimizer over the subspace already lies in the set of transition matrices and no constrained optimization is needed.

What this function does not do. The minimization is over reversible chains with \pi held fixed, in the \pi-weighted norm above. Two related problems are different and are not solved here:

Minimizing the plain Frobenius distance \|P-R\|_F with \pi fixed. The involution A\mapsto A^* is not an isometry for that norm, so R is generally not its minimizer; frobeniusDistance is reported only as a descriptive figure.
Letting the stationary distribution vary, i.e. finding the reversible chain nearest to P over all choices of \pi. That is a genuinely harder constrained optimization problem, studied by Nielsen and Weber (2015), and it needs a numerical optimizer rather than a closed form. If you need it, supply candidate distributions through stationaryDistribution and compare distance values, or use a dedicated implementation.

Properties worth knowing. R has the same stationary distribution \pi as P, and it preserves the support pattern in the symmetrized sense: R_{ij}>0 whenever P_{ij}>0 or P_{ji}>0. It may therefore allow transitions the original chain forbids, which is inherent to making a chain reversible rather than a defect of this construction. If object is already reversible, R=P and distance is zero (up to rounding). Fill (1991) introduces this construction, alongside the multiplicative reversibilization PP^*, which is a different object and is not computed here.

Only irreducibility is required, not aperiodicity. Irreducibility guarantees both a unique \pi and \pi_i>0 for every state, so the division defining P^* is always safe.

The implementation calls steadyStates at most once and is then O(n^2) in time and memory for a dense n-state transition matrix; no eigendecomposition or optimization is involved.

Value

A named list with four elements:

chain: The approximating markovchain object R, with the same states and the same row/column-stochastic storage convention as object.
stationaryDistribution: The \pi used, as a named numeric vector.
distance: The distance \|P-R\|_\pi actually minimized (see Details).
frobeniusDistance: The plain Frobenius distance \|P-R\|_F, reported for convenience. It is not the quantity being minimized.

References

Fill, J. A. (1991). Eigenvalue bounds on convergence to stationarity for nonreversible Markov chains, with an application to the exclusion process. The Annals of Applied Probability, 1(1). \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1214/aoap/1177005981")}

Nielsen, A. and Weber, M. (2015). Computing the nearest reversible Markov chain. Numerical Linear Algebra with Applications, 22. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1002/nla.1967")}

Examples

# A directed 3-cycle is as far from reversible as a chain gets: it only
# ever moves one way round. Its closest reversible approximation is the
# undirected random walk on the same triangle.
statesNames <- c("a", "b", "c")
cycle3 <- new("markovchain", states = statesNames,
  transitionMatrix = matrix(c(0, 1, 0,
                              0, 0, 1,
                              1, 0, 0), byrow = TRUE, nrow = 3,
                            dimnames = list(statesNames, statesNames)))
is.reversible(cycle3)

approximation <- closestReversible(cycle3)
approximation$chain
is.reversible(approximation$chain)
approximation$distance

markovchain documentation built on Oct. 10, 2026, 9:07 a.m.