The Dirichlet random walk (Q6159735)

This paper studies a discrete time stochastic process called Dirichlet random walk. For a given compact manifold, one finds an independent, identically distributed sequence of points in it, connects subsequent points via geodesics, and lifts them to a Galois cover into a piecewise geodesic path. The paper shows that the growth rate of the random walk is positive if and only if the deck group is nonamenable. Moreover it describes the behavior when the deck group is hyperbolic, like almost sure convergence and a central limit theorem for the growth rate, which is analogous to other types of random walks on hyperbolic groups.