A Markov process named after the Russian mathematician Andrey Markov is a stochastic process that satisfies the Markov property which is sometimes characterized as "memorylessness". The adjective Markovian is used to describe something that is related to a Markov process. Furthermore Markov processes are the basis for general stochastic simulation methods known as Gibbs sampling or Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) used for simulating random objects with specific probability distributions.
Markov chains offer a wide range of applications. Markov chains have been applied as statistical models for real-world processes e.g. in the analysis of queues or lines of customers arriving at an airport. The algorithm known as PageRank which was originally proposed for the internet search engine Google is based on a Markov process. In addition to computer science Markov chains are commonly used in a variety of disciplines such as statistics and social sciences.
This text is adapted from a Wikipedia article Markov chain. This text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.