The *-Vertex Reinforced Jump Process II: random Schr\"odinger representation

Abstract

In this paper we continue the analysis, initiated in the paper *-VRJP I, of the *-Vertex Reinforced Jump Process (*-VRJP), which is a non reversible generalization of the Vertex Reinforced Jump Process (VRJP). More precisely, we give a representation of the *-VRJP in terms of a random Schr\"odinger operator. The corresponding representation for the classical VRJP has proved to be very useful in the understanding of its asymptotic behavior. Several new phenomena and difficulties appear in this non reversible case due to the non exchangeability of the *-VRJP, which becomes exchangeable only after some randomization of the initial local times as proved in the companion paper. The construction is based on several new and rather remarkable identities between integrals on the space of *-symmetric and *-antisymmetric functions on vertices. We give a description of the randomized *-VRJP in terms of that random Schr\"odinger operator, which allow us to prove the representation of the randomized *-VRJP as mixture of Markov jump processes in a different and more analytic way. Similarly as for the VRJP, we think that the representation by a random Schr\"odinger operator and the associated identities are key-features of the *-VRJP.