Eigentime identity for transient Markov chains ✩

An eigentime identity is proved for transient symmetrizable Markov chains. For general Markov chains, if the trace of Green matrix is finite, then the expectation of first leap time is uniformly bounded, both of which are proved to be equivalent for single birth processes. For birth–death processes, the explicit formulas are presented. As an application, we give the bounds of exponential convergence rates of (sub-) Markov semigroup Pt from l∞ to l∞.  2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.