Mixing times of a Burnside process Markov chain on set partitions

Abstract

Let $X$ be a finite set and let $G$ be a finite group acting on $X$. The group action splits $X$ into disjoint orbits. The Burnside process is a Markov chain on $X$ which has a uniform stationary distribution when the chain is lumped to orbits. We consider the case where $X = [k]^n$ with $k \geq n$ and $G = S_k$ is the symmetric group on $[k]$, such that $G$ acts on $X$ by permuting the value of each coordinate. The resulting Burnside process gives a novel algorithm for sampling a set partition of $[n]$ uniformly at random. We obtain bounds on the mixing time and show that the chain is rapidly mixing. For the case $k < n$, the algorithm corresponds to sampling a set partition of $[n]$ with at most $k$ blocks, and we obtain a mixing time bound which is independent of $n$. Along the way, we obtain explicit formulas for the transition probabilities and bounds on the second largest eigenvalue for both the original process and the lumped chain.