Finite approximations of infinite nonnegative matrices and the convergence of equilibrium distributions (Q1377978)

The aim of this note is to show how the properties of an infinite nonnegative matrix manifest themselves in the behavior of ``finite'' objects that correspond to this matrix, in particular, in the behavior of the sequences of finite submatrices of ascending order of this matrix and the equilibrium distributions that are defined by these submatrices. We concentrate on the stronger property of positive recurrence, which is equivalent to the existence of a translation-invariant equilibrium distribution.