Asymptotics for the Length of the Longest Increasing Subsequence of Binary Markov Random Word

Christian Houdré, Trevis J. Litherland

Published 2011-10-06, updated 2012-08-23Version 2

Let $(X_n)_{n\ge 0}$ be an irreducible, aperiodic, and homogeneous binary Markov chain and let $LI_n$ be the length of the longest (weakly) increasing subsequence of $(X_k)_{1\le k \le n}$. Using combinatorial constructions and weak invariance principles, we present elementary arguments leading to a new proof that (after proper centering and scaling) the limiting law of $LI_n$ is the maximal eigenvalue of a $2 \times 2$ Gaussian random matrix. In fact, the limiting shape of the RSK Young diagrams associated with the binary Markov random word is the spectrum of this random matrix.