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Cheeger bound 1/1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheeger_bound reference science, encyclopedia 2026-05-05T12:21:47.049744+00:00 kb-cron

In mathematics, the Cheeger bound is a bound of the second largest eigenvalue of the transition matrix of a finite-state, discrete-time, reversible stationary Markov chain. It can be seen as a special case of Cheeger inequalities in expander graphs. Let

    X
  

{\displaystyle X}

be a finite set and let

    K
    (
    x
    ,
    y
    )
  

{\displaystyle K(x,y)}

be the transition probability for a reversible Markov chain on

    X
  

{\displaystyle X}

. Assume this chain has stationary distribution

    π
  

{\displaystyle \pi }

. Define

    Q
    (
    x
    ,
    y
    )
    =
    π
    (
    x
    )
    K
    (
    x
    ,
    y
    )
  

{\displaystyle Q(x,y)=\pi (x)K(x,y)}

and for

    A
    ,
    B
    ⊂
    X
  

{\displaystyle A,B\subset X}

define

    Q
    (
    A
    ×
    B
    )
    =
    
      ∑
      
        x
        ∈
        A
        ,
        y
        ∈
        B
      
    
    Q
    (
    x
    ,
    y
    )
    .
  

{\displaystyle Q(A\times B)=\sum _{x\in A,y\in B}Q(x,y).}

Define the constant

    Φ
  

{\displaystyle \Phi }

as

    Φ
    =
    
      min
      
        S
        ⊂
        X
        ,
        π
        (
        S
        )
        ≤
        
          
            1
            2
          
        
      
    
    
      
        
          Q
          (
          S
          ×
          
            S
            
              c
            
          
          )
        
        
          π
          (
          S
          )
        
      
    
    .
  

{\displaystyle \Phi =\min _{S\subset X,\pi (S)\leq {\frac {1}{2}}}{\frac {Q(S\times S^{c})}{\pi (S)}}.}

The operator

    K
    ,
  

{\displaystyle K,}

acting on the space of functions from

      |
    
    X
    
      |
    
  

{\displaystyle |X|}

to

      R
    
  

{\displaystyle \mathbb {R} }

, defined by

    (
    K
    ϕ
    )
    (
    x
    )
    =
    
      ∑
      
        y
      
    
    K
    (
    x
    ,
    y
    )
    ϕ
    (
    y
    )
  

{\displaystyle (K\phi )(x)=\sum _{y}K(x,y)\phi (y)}

has eigenvalues

      λ
      
        1
      
    
    ≥
    
      λ
      
        2
      
    
    ≥
    ⋯
    ≥
    
      λ
      
        n
      
    
  

{\displaystyle \lambda _{1}\geq \lambda _{2}\geq \cdots \geq \lambda _{n}}

. It is known that

      λ
      
        1
      
    
    =
    1
  

{\displaystyle \lambda _{1}=1}

. The Cheeger bound is a bound on the second largest eigenvalue

      λ
      
        2
      
    
  

{\displaystyle \lambda _{2}}

. Theorem (Cheeger bound):

    1
    
    2
    Φ
    ≤
    
      λ
      
        2
      
    
    ≤
    1
    
    
      
        
          Φ
          
            2
          
        
        2
      
    
    .
  

{\displaystyle 1-2\Phi \leq \lambda _{2}\leq 1-{\frac {\Phi ^{2}}{2}}.}

== See also == Stochastic matrix Cheeger constant Conductance

== References ==