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where the sum over independent paths could be empty for certain $\xi_1$. Now we replace this last sum by a sum over \emph{all} paths $\xi_2\in\paths{b_2}$. This will change the sum but only for terms where $\xi_1,\xi_2$ are dependent. For those terms we already know that $\mathbb{P}[\xi_1]\mathbb{P}[\xi_2]$ contains a factor $p^k$ and hence we have 

\begin{align*}

    \sum_{\mathclap{\substack{\xi_{1,2}\in\paths{b_{1,2}}\\ \mathrm{independent}}}} \mathbb{P}[\xi_2]\mathbb{P}[\xi_1]|\xi_1|

    &= \sum_{\xi_1\in\paths{b_1}} \sum_{\xi_2\in\paths{b_2}} \mathbb{P}[\xi_2]\mathbb{P}[\xi_1]|\xi_1| + \mathcal{O}(p^k) \\

    &= \sum_{\xi_1\in\paths{b_1}} \mathbb{P}[\xi_1]|\xi_1| + \mathcal{O}(p^k) \\

    &= R_{b_1} + \mathcal{O}(p^k)

\end{align*}

we can do the same with the second term and this proves the claim.

\end{proof}

~\\

\textbf{Proof of claim \ref{claim:weakcancel}}: We can assume $C$ consists of a group on the left with $l$ slots and a group on the right with $r$ slots (so $r+l=|C|$), with a gap of size $k=\mathrm{gap}(C)$ between these groups. Then on the left we have strings in $\{0,1'\}^l$ as possibilities and on the right we have strings in $\{0,1'\}^r$. The combined configuration can be described by strings $f=(a,b)\in\{0,1'\}^{l+r}$. The initial probability of such a state $C(a,b)$ is $\rho_{C(a,b)} = (-1)^{|a|+|b|} p^{r+l}$ and by claim \ref{claim:expectationsum} we know $R_{C(a,b)} = R_{C(a)} + R_{C(b)} + \mathcal{O}(p^k)$ where $C(a)$ indicates that only the left slots have been filled by $a$ and the other slots are filled with $1$s. The total contribution of these configurations is therefore

\begin{align*}

    \sum_{f\in\{0,1'\}^{|C|}} \rho_{C(f)} R_{C(f)}

    &= \sum_{a\in\{0,1'\}^l} \sum_{b\in\{0,1'\}^r} (-1)^{|a|+|b|}p^{r+l} \left( R_{C(a)} + R_{C(b)} + \mathcal{O}(p^k) \right) \\

    &=\;\;\; p^{r+l}\sum_{a\in\{0,1'\}^l} (-1)^{|a|} R_{C(a)} \sum_{b\in\{0,1'\}^r} (-1)^{|b|} \\

    &\quad + p^{r+l}\sum_{b\in\{0,1'\}^r} (-1)^{|b|} R_{C(b)} \sum_{a\in\{0,1'\}^l} (-1)^{|a|}

        + \mathcal{O}(p^{r+l+k})\\

    &= 0 + \mathcal{O}(p^{|C|+k})

\end{align*}

where we used the identity $\sum_{a\in\{0,1\}^l} (-1)^{|a|} = 0$.

\newpage

\section{Proving the strong cancellation claim}

It is useful to introduce some new notation. We will consider variations of the Markov Chains:

\begin{itemize}

    \item $\P^{(n)}$ refers to the original process on the length-$n$ cycle.

    \item $\P^{[a,b]}$ or $\P^{[n]}$ refers to a similar Markov Chain but on a finite chain ($[a,b]$ or $[1,n]$).

\end{itemize}

The process on the finite chain has the following modification at the boundary: if a boundary site is resampled, it can not resample one of its neighbors so it ignores it and only draws two new bits.

%Note that an \emph{event} is a subset of all possible paths of the Markov Chain.

\begin{definition}[Events conditioned on starting state] \label{def:conditionedevents}

    For any state $b\in\{0,1\}^n$, define $\start{b}$ as the event that the starting state of the chain is the state $b$. For any event $A$, define

    \begin{align*}

        \P^{(n)}_b(A) &= \P^{(n)}(A \;|\; \start{b}) %\\

        %R_{b,A} &= \mathbb{E}( \#resamples \;|\; A \; , \; \start{b})

    \end{align*}

    Furthermore, for the Markov Chain on the finite chain, define

    \begin{align*}

        \P^{[n]}_{\partial=1}(A) &= \P^{[n]}(A \;|\; \text{boundary is initialized to }1)

    \end{align*}

    where the boundary of $[n]$ is site $1$ and site $n$, and the boundary of $[a,b]$ are $a$ and $b$.

\end{definition}

%Note that we have $\P^{(n)}(\start{b}) = (1-p)^{|b|}p^{n-|b|}$ by definition of our Markov Chain.

\begin{definition}[Vertex visiting event] \label{def:visitingResamplings}

    Denote by $\mathrm{Z}^{(v)}$ the event that site $v$ becomes zero at any point in time before the Markov Chain terminates. Denote the complement by $\mathrm{NZ}^{(v)}$, i.e. the event that site $v$ does \emph{not} become zero before it terminates. Furthermore define $\mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)} := \mathrm{NZ}^{(v)} \cap \mathrm{NZ}^{(w)}$, i.e. the event that \emph{both} $v$ and $w$ do not become zero before termination.

\end{definition}

    \includegraphics{diagram_groups.pdf}

    Let $b=b_1\land b_2\in\{0,1\}^n$ be a state with two groups of zeroes that are separated by at least one site inbetween, as in Figure \ref{fig:separatedgroups}. Let $v$, $w$ be any indices inbetween the groups, such that $b_1$ lies on one side of them and $b_2$ on the other, as shown in the figure. Furthermore, let $A_1$ be any event that depends only on the sites ``on the $b_1$ side of $v,w$'', and similar for $A_2$ (for example $\mathrm{Z}^{(i)}$ for an $i$ on the correct side). Then we have

    \begin{align*}

        \P^{(n)}_b(\mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)}, A_1, A_2)

        &=

        \P^{(n)}_{b_1}(\mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)}, A_1)

        \; \cdot \;

        \P^{(n)}_{b_2}(\mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)}, A_2) \\

        \P^{(n)}_b(A_1, A_2 \mid \mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)})

        &=

        \P^{(n)}_{b_1}(A_1 \mid \mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)})

        \; \cdot \;

        \P^{(n)}_{b_2}(A_2 \mid \mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)}) .%\\

        %R_{b,\mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)},A_1,A_2}

        %&=

        %R_{b_1,\mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)},A_1}

        %\; + \;

        %R_{b_2,\mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)},A_2}

    \end{align*}

    %up to any order in $p$.

\end{lemma}

\begin{proof}

    From any path $\xi\in\start{b} \cap \mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)}$ we can construct paths $\xi_1\in\start{b_1}\cap \mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)}$ and $\xi_2\in\start{b_2}\cap\mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)}$ as follows. Let us write the path $\xi$ as

    $$\xi=\left( (\text{initialize }b), (z_1, s_1, r_1), (z_2, s_2, r_2), ..., (z_{|\xi|}, s_{|\xi|}, r_{|\xi|}) \right)$$

    where $z_i\in[n]$ denotes the number of zeroes in the state before the $i$th step, $s_i\in [n]$ denotes the site that was resampled and $r_i\in \{0,1\}^3$ is the result of the three resampled bits. We have

    \begin{align*}

        \P^{(n)}_b[\xi] &= \P(\text{pick }s_1 | z_1) \P(r_1) \P(\text{pick }s_2 | z_2) \P(r_2) \cdots \P(\text{pick }s_{|\xi|} | z_{|\xi|}) \P(r_{|\xi|}) \\

                &= \frac{1}{z_1} \P(r_1) \frac{1}{z_2} \P(r_2) \cdots \frac{1}{z_{|\xi|}} \P(r_{|\xi|}) .

    \end{align*}

    To construct $\xi_1$ and $\xi_2$, start with $\xi_1 = \left( (\text{initialize }b_1) \right)$ and $\xi_2 = \left( (\text{initialize }b_2) \right)$. For each step $(z_i,s_i,r_i)$ in $\xi$ do the following: if $s_i$ is ``on the $b_1$ side of $v,w$'' then append $(z^{(1)}_i,s_i,r_i)$ to $\xi_1$ and if its ``on the $b_2$ side of $v,w$'' then append $(z^{(2)}_i,s_i,r_i)$ to $\xi_2$. Here $z^{(1)}_i$ is the number of zeroes that were on the $b_1$ side and $z^{(2)}_i$ is the number of zeroes on the $b_2$ side so we have $z_i = z^{(1)}_i + z^{(2)}_i$.

    %Let the resulting paths be

    %\begin{align*}

    %    \xi_1 &= \left( (z^{(1)}_{a_1}, s_{a_1}, r_{a_1}), (z^{(1)}_{a_2}, s_{a_2}, r_{a_2}), ..., (z^{(1)}_{a_{|\xi_1|}}, s_{a_{|\xi_1|}}, r_{a_{|\xi_1|}}) \right) \\

    %    \xi_2 &= \left( (z^{(2)}_{b_1}, s_{b_1}, r_{b_1}), (z^{(2)}_{b_2}, s_{b_2}, r_{b_2}), ..., (z^{(2)}_{b_{|\xi_1|}}, s_{b_{|\xi_1|}}, r_{b_{|\xi_1|}}) \right)

    %\end{align*}

    Now $\xi_1$ is a valid (terminating) path from $b_1$ to $\mathbf{1}$, because in the original path $\xi$, all zeroes ``on the $b_1$ side'' have been resampled by resamplings ``on the $b_1$ side''. Since the sites $v,w$ inbetween never become zero, there can not be any zero ``on the $b_1$ side'' that was resampled by a resampling ``on the $b_2$ side''.

    Vice versa, any two paths $\xi_1\in\start{b_1}\cap \mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)}$ and $\xi_2\in\start{b_2}\cap\mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)}$ also induce a path $\xi\in\start{b} \cap \mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)}$ by simply interleaving the resampling positions. Note that $\xi_1,\xi_2$ actually induce $\binom{|\xi_1|+|\xi_2|}{|\xi_1|}$ paths $\xi$ because of the possible orderings of interleaving the resamplings in $\xi_1$ and $\xi_2$.

    For a fixed $\xi_1,\xi_2$ we will now show the following:

    \begin{align*}

        \sum_{\substack{\xi\in\start{b} \cap \mathrm{NZ}^{(v,w)} \text{ s.t.}\\ \xi \text{ decomposes into } \xi_1,\xi_2 }} \P^{(n)}_b[\xi] &=

        \sum_{\text{interleavings of }\xi_1,\xi_2} \P(\text{interleaving}) \cdot \P^{(n)}_{b_1}[\xi_1] \cdot \P^{(n)}_{b_2}[\xi_2] \\

        &= \P^{(n)}_{b_1}[\xi_1] \cdot \P^{(n)}_{b_2}[\xi_2]

    \end{align*}

    where both sums are over $\binom{|\xi_1|+|\xi_2|}{|\xi_1|}$ terms.

    This is best explained by an example. Lets consider the following fixed $\xi_1,\xi_2$ and an example interleaving where we choose steps from $\xi_2,\xi_1,\xi_1,\xi_2,\cdots$:

    \begin{align*}

        \xi_1 &= \left( (z_1, s_1, r_1), (z_2, s_2, r_2), (z_3, s_3, r_3), (z_4, s_4, r_4),\cdots  \right) \\

        \xi_2 &= \left( (z_1', s_1', r_1'), (z_2', s_2', r_2'), (z_3', s_3', r_3'), (z_4', s_4', r_4'),\cdots  \right) \\

        \xi   &= \left( (z_1 + z_1', s_1', r_1'), (z_1+z_2', s_1, r_1), (z_2+z_2', s_2, r_2), (z_3+z_2', s_2', r_2'), \cdots \right)

    \end{align*}

    The probability of $\xi_1$, started from $b_1$, is given by

    \begin{align*}

        \P^{(n)}_{b_1}[\xi_1] &= \P(\text{pick }s_1|z_1) \P(r_1) \P(\text{pick }s_2|z_2) \P(r_2) \cdots \P(\text{pick }s_{|\xi_1|}|z_{|\xi_1|}) \P(r_{|\xi_1|}) \\

                &= \frac{1}{z_1} \P(r_1) \frac{1}{z_2} \P(r_2) \cdots \frac{1}{z_{|\xi_1|}} \P(r_{|\xi_1|}) .

    \end{align*}

    and similar for $\xi_2$ but with primes.

    The following diagram illustrates all possible interleavings, and the red line corresponds to the particular interleaving $\xi$ in the example above.

    \begin{center}

        \includegraphics{diagram_paths2.pdf}

    \end{center}

    For the labels shown within the grid, define $p_{ij} = \frac{z_i}{z_i + z_j'}$.

    The probability of $\xi$ is given by

    \begin{align*}

        \P^{(n)}_b[\xi] &= \frac{1}{z_1+z_1'} \P(r_1') \frac{1}{z_1+z_2'} \P(r_1) \frac{1}{z_2+z_2'} \P(r_2) \frac{1}{z_3+z_2'} \P(r_2') \cdots \tag{by definition}\\

        &=

        \frac{z_1'}{z_1+z_1'} \frac{1}{z_1'} \P(r_1') \;

        \frac{z_1 }{z_1+z_2'} \frac{1}{z_1 } \P(r_1 ) \;

        \frac{z_2 }{z_2+z_2'} \frac{1}{z_2 } \P(r_2 ) \;