Random walk covering a simplex and returning home
Question
An ant starts at one vertex of an -dimensional simplex (which has vertices, every pair joined by an edge). At each step it moves to one of the other vertices chosen uniformly at random. It stops the first time it is back at its starting vertex having already visited every vertex. What is the expected number of steps?
Short answer
, where . With of the other vertices visited, each step reaches a new one with probability , so covering them all takes steps on average (coupon collector). From then on each step returns home with probability , adding more.
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Open the worked solutionLessons behind this question
- Expectation, Mean, and Variance
- Conditional Expectation and Variance Revisited
- Sample Spaces, Events, and the Probability Axioms
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