Average Entropy of the Ranges for Simple Random Walks on Discrete Groups

Abstract

Inspired by Benjamini et al (Ann. Inst. H. Poincar\'{e} Probab. Stat. 2010) and Windisch (Electron. J. Probab. 2010), we consider the entropy of the random walk range formed by a simple random walk on a discrete group. It is shown in this setting the existence of a quantity which we call the average entropy of the ranges. Some equivalent conditions for the vanishing of the average entropy of the ranges are given. Particularly, the average entropy of the ranges vanishes if and only if the random walk is recurrent or escaping to negative infinity without left jump. In order to characterize the recurrence further, we study the average entropy of the weighted digraphs formed by the random walk. We show that the random walk is recurrent if and only if the average entropy of the weighted digraphs vanishes.