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Linear AlgebraChallengeMarkov Chains & Long-Run Behavior

Markov Chains & Long-Run Behavior · Challenge problem

A buffer holds at most 22 jobs. Each time step, independently, a new job arrives with probability 1/21/2, and, if the buffer was non-empty at the start of the step, one job finishes with probability 1/21/2. A job arriving when the buffer is full and no job finishes in that step is lost; if a job finishes and one arrives in the same step, the count is unchanged. In the long run, what fraction of time steps start with a full buffer? Express your answer as a common fraction.