Markov chain intersections andtheloop-erased walk

L etX and Y be independent transient Markov chains on the same state space that have the same transition probabilities. Let L denote the "loop-erased path" obtained from the path of X by erasing cycles when they are created. We prove that if the paths of X and Y have infinitely many intersections a.s., then L and Y also have infinitely many intersections a.s.  2003 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS MSC: primary 60J10; secondary 60G17