Stopping Times of Random Walks on a Hypercube

Abstract: A random walk on a $N$-dimensional hypercube is a discrete time stochastic process whose state space is the set ${-1,+1}<sup>{N}$, which has uniform probability of reaching any neighbour state, and probability zero of reaching a non-neighbour state, in one step. This random walk is often studied as a process associated with the Ehrenfest Urn Model. This paper aims to present results about the time that such random walk takes to self-intersect and to return to a set of states. We also present results about the time that the random walk on a hypercube takes to visit a given set and a random set of states. Asymptotic distributions and bounds are presented for these times. The coupling of random walks is widely used as a tool to prove the results.