Improved mixing time bounds for the Thorp shuffle and \(L\)-reversal chain (Q1019085)

The author proves a theorem that reduces bounding the mixing time of a card shuffle to verifying a condition that involves only pairs of cards. It is then used to obtain improved bounds for two previously studied models. The first one was introduced by \textit{E. O. Thorp} [J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 68, 842--847 (1973; Zbl 0274.90086)] as follows. Suppose the number of cards \(n\) is even. Cut the deck into two equal piles. Drop the first card from the left pile or from the right pile according to the outcome of a fair coin flip. Then drop from the other pile. Continue this way until both piles are empty. The present author obtains a mixing time bound of \(O\left( \log ^{4}n\right) \). Previously, the best known bound was \(O\left( \log ^{29}n\right) \) and previous proofs were only valid for \(n\) a power of \(2\). The second model, called the \(L\)-\textit{reversal chain},was introduced by \textit{R. Durrett} [J. Theor. Probab. 16, No. 3, 725--750 (2003; Zbl 1047.92020)]. There are \(n\) cards arrayed in a circle. Each step, an interval of cards of length at most \(L\) is chosen uniformly at random and its order is reversed. Durrett has conjectured that the mixing time if \(O\left( \max \left( n,~\displaystyle \frac{n^{3}}{_{L^{3}}}\right) \log n\right) .\) The present author obtains a bound that is within a factor \(O\left( \log ^{2}n\right) \) of this, the first bound within a poly log factor of the conjecture.