Superposition of spatially interacting aggregated continuous time Markov chains (Q1577413)

This work continues the long-standing interest of the authors in Markov models for ion channel data. Aggregated finite state space Markov chains have been firmly established as models of the electrical behaviour of single ion channels (pores in cellular membranes that can selectively allow ions to cross that membrane), and more recent work has addressed data where independence of several channels (in a single patch-clamp experiment) is not a tenable assumption. This paper discussed a general co-operative scheme for an interacting multi-channel system. Consider an experiment with \(N\) interacting time-reversible continuous-time Markov chains, \(X_i(t)\), and where the state space of each process is partitionned into conducting and non-conducting states. Let \(S(t)\) denote the (observable) count of the number of processes in a conducting state at time \(t\). The transition rates of a single channel, \(X_i(t)\), are allowed to depend on the configuration of the conducting states of its neighbours. Section 3 provides expressions for the mean and density of sojourns of \(S\) at different levels when dealing with time-reversible processes. Necessary and sufficient conditions for time reversibility of a general cooperative system are given in section 5. The paper examines a circular nearest-neighbour interaction model in greater detail.