The Heat Flow on Metric Random Walk Spaces

TL;DR

This paper develops a unified framework for heat flow on metric random walk spaces, connecting graph, Markov chain, and nonlocal evolution models, and explores their ergodic and geometric properties.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive approach to analyze heat flow on metric random walk spaces, including new characterizations of ergodicity and curvature conditions.

Findings

Positive Ollivier-Ricci curvature implies ergodicity.

Established Cheeger and Poincaré inequalities in this setting.

Linked curvature-dimension conditions with functional inequalities.

Abstract

In this paper we study the Heat Flow on Metric Random Walk Spaces, which unifies into a broad framework the heat flow on locally finite weighted connected graphs, the heat flow determined by finite Markov chains and some nonlocal evolution problems. We give different characterizations of the ergodicity and prove that a metric random walk space with positive Ollivier-Ricci curvature is ergodic. Furthermore, we prove a Cheeger inequality and, as a consequence, we show that a Poincar\'{e} inequality holds if, and only if, an isoperimetric inequality holds. We also study the Bakry-\'{E}mery curvature-dimension condition and its relation with functional inequalities like the Poincar\'{e} inequality and the transport-information inequalities.