The Metropolis algorithm

For large \( n \) we require that \( {\cal P}^{(n\rightarrow \infty)}_i = p_i \), the desired probability distribution. Taking this limit, gives the balance requirement $$ \sum_j \left [ p_jT_{j\rightarrow i} A_{j\rightarrow i} -p_iT_{i\rightarrow j}A_{i\rightarrow j} \right ] = 0 \,. $$ The balance requirement is very weak. Typically the much stronger detailed balance requirement is enforced, that is rather than the sum being set to zero, we set each term separately to zero and use this to determine the acceptance probabilities. Rearranging, the result is $$ \frac{ A_{j\rightarrow i}}{A_{i\rightarrow j}} = \frac{p_iT_{i\rightarrow j}}{ p_jT_{j\rightarrow i}} \,. $$