Markov property

Memoryless property of a stochastic process / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:

Can you list the top facts and stats about Markov property?

Summarize this article for a 10 years old

SHOW ALL QUESTIONS

In simple terms, the Markov property states that the future states of a stochastic process are influenced only by the present, not the past, meaning that the past can be disregarded once the present is known.

Wiener_process_3d.png
A single realisation of three-dimensional Brownian motion for times 0 ≤ t ≤ 2. Brownian motion has the Markov property, as the displacement of the particle does not depend on its past displacements.


In probability theory and statistics, the term Markov property refers to the memoryless property of a stochastic process. It is named after the Russian mathematician Andrey Markov.[1] The term strong Markov property is similar to the Markov property, except that the meaning of "present" is defined in terms of a random variable known as a stopping time.

The term Markov assumption is used to describe a model where the Markov property is assumed to hold, such as a hidden Markov model.

A Markov random field extends this property to two or more dimensions or to random variables defined for an interconnected network of items.[2] An example of a model for such a field is the Ising model.

A discrete-time stochastic process satisfying the Markov property is known as a Markov chain.