Markov process
- noun
- /ˈmɑrkɒf ˈproʊsɛs/
- Specialized
:
proceso de Markov
- The scientist used a Markov process to predict weather patterns based solely on current conditions.
Examples
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Assuming a Markov process, Frydman developed methods for a three-state unidirectional model and an illness-death model where the time of death and the state from which death was entered are known.
Academic text (2010) -
In a Markov process, the next state only depends on the current state and not on the past states.
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It's called a Markov process, and then you average over this.
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When you cut off everything going beyond here, what you get is just this Markov process shown here.
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By applying a Markov process, analysts can simplify complex systems by focusing on current states.
Synonyms
A random system where what happens next depends only on the present, not on the past
A system where each next step depends only on the current step
Surface Forms
Morphology
Markov + process
The element 'Markov' is a proper name with no lexical meaning for a B1 learner, so knowing 'Markov' + 'process' only signals that this is a named kind of process. The crucial technical meaning (the memoryless/stochastic property) cannot be derived from the constituents without prior domain knowledge, so the expression is not transparently compositional.
Etymology
Markov process comes from the Russian mathematician Andrey Markov. He studied situations that move one step at a time, like walking on stones and choosing the next stone only from the one you are on now, not from the stones you stepped on before. That picture shows why a Markov process means the future 'depends only on the present'.
