/code></h2>
<p>The chain identifier argument is used in conjunction with the <code>random seed</code> argument when running multiple Markov chains for sampling. The chain identifier is used to advance the random number generator a very large number of random variates so that two chains with the same seed and different identifiers draw from non-overlapping subsequences of the random-number sequence determined by the seed. Together, the seed and chain identifier determine the behavior of the random number gen