Lifted TASEP: a Bethe ansatz integrable paradigm for non-reversible Markov chains

Abstract: Markov-chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), the field of stochastic algorithms built on the concept of sampling, has countless applications in science and technology. The overwhelming majority of MCMC algorithms are time-reversible and satisfy the detailed-balance condition, just like physical systems in thermal equilibrium. The underlying Markov chains typically display diffusive dynamics, which leads to a slow exploration of sample space. Significant speed-ups can be achieved by non-reversible MCMC algorithms exhibiting non-equilibrium dynamics, whose steady states exactly reproduce the target equilibrium states of reversible Markov chains. Such algorithms have had successes in applications but are generally difficult to analyze, resulting in a scarcity of exact results. Here, we introduce the "lifted" TASEP (totally asymmetric simple exclusion process) as a paradigm for lifted non-reversible Markov chains. Our model can be viewed as a second-generation lifting of the reversible Metropolis algorithm on a one-dimensional lattice and is exactly solvable by an unusual kind of coordinate Bethe ansatz. We establish the integrability of the model and present strong evidence that the lifting leads to faster relaxation than in the KPZ universality class.