Stabilization of stochastic networks in Markovian environment

Abstract

We establish criteria under which stochastic networks in a Markovian environment stabilize, thus confirming Conjecture 7.2 from Levine-Greco [GL23]. The networks evolve on finite connected graphs $G=(V,E)$, and their dynamics are encoded by $V \times V$ toppling matrices $M$, whose columns record the expected number of topplings when the environment is in stationarity. Stabilization and non-stabilization are characterized by a parameter $\rho$ which depends on the largest eigenvalue of the matrix $M+\alpha I$, with $\alpha=1+\max\{-M(v,v):v\in V\}$. The proofs rely on the toppling random walk, in which toppled vertices are sampled according to the eigenvector associated with the largest eigenvalue of $M$.