The random walk on upper triangular matrices over \(\mathbb{Z} / m\mathbb{Z}\) (Q6070361)

The authors study a natural random walk on the \(n\times n\) uni-upper triangular matrices, with entries in \(\mathbb{Z}/m\mathbb{Z}\), generated by steps which add or subtract a uniformly random row to the row above. It is proved that the mixing time of this random walk is \(O(m^2 n \log n +n^2m^{o(1)})\). The strategy is to study how fast the first row mixes and then to proceed by induction on \(n\). The authors do so by considering this situation with the first two rows as a random sum with the second row taken at random times. It is important to understand the values that the second row takes to understand how well mixed this random sum becomes. This is easier to do in the case where \(m\) is a prime, according to the previous results of \textit{P. Diaconis} and \textit{R. Hough} in this direction [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 54, No. 3, 587--625 (2021; Zbl 1490.60106)]. As preliminary considerations, the continuous version of the random walk is studied.