In this paper we study a continuum version of the Potts model. Particles are points in R^d, with a spin which may take S possible values, S being at least 3. Particles with different spins repel each other via a Kac pair potential. In mean field, for any inverse temperature there is a value of the chemical potential at which S+1 distinct phases coexist. For each mean field pure phase, we introduce a restricted ensemble which is defined so that the empirical particles densities are close to the mean field values. Then, in the spirit of the Dobrushin Shlosman theory, we get uniqueness and exponential decay of correlations when the range of the interaction is large enough. In a second paper, we will use such a result to implement the Pirogov-Sinai scheme proving coexistence of S+1 extremal DLR measures.
The paper concerns the $q$-state Potts model (i.e., with spin values in $\{1,\dots,q\}$) on a Cayley tree $\mathbb{T}^k$ of degree $k\geq 2$ (i.e., with $k+1$ edges emanating from each vertex) in an external (possibly random) field. We construct the so-called splitting Gibbs measures (SGM) using generalized boundary conditions on a sequence of expanding balls, subject to a suitable compatibility criterion. Hence, the problem of existence/uniqueness of SGM is reduced to solvability of the corresponding functional equation on the tree. In particular, we introduce the notion of translation-invari…
We show that the $4$-state anti-ferromagnetic Potts model with interaction parameter $w\in(0,1)$ on the infinite $(d+1)$-regular tree has a unique Gibbs measure if $w\geq 1-\frac{4}{d+1}$ for all $d\geq 4$. This is tight since it is known that there are multiple Gibbs measures when $0\leq w<1-\frac{4}{d+1}$ and $d\geq 4$. We moreover give a new proof of the uniqueness of the Gibbs measure for the $3$-state Potts model on the $(d+1)$-regular tree for $w\geq 1-\frac{3}{d+1}$ when $d\geq 3$ and for $w\in (0,1)$ when $d=2$.
The antiferromagnetic $q$-state Potts model is perhaps the most canonical model for which the uniqueness threshold on the tree is not yet understood, largely because of the absence of monotonicities. Jonasson established the uniqueness threshold in the zero-temperature case, which corresponds to the $q$-colourings model. In the permissive case (where the temperature is positive), the Potts model has an extra parameter $β\in(0,1)$, which makes the task of analysing the uniqueness threshold even harder and much less is known. In this paper, we focus on the case $q=3$ and give a detailed analysis…
This work is concerned with the theory of Graphical Representation for the Ising and Potts Models over general lattices with non-translation invariant external field. We explicitly describe in terms of the Random Cluster Representation the distribution function and, consequently, the expected value of a single spin for the Ising and $q$-states Potts Models with general external fields. We also consider the Gibbs States for the Edwards-Sokal Representation of the Potts Model with non-translation invariant magnetic field and prove a version of the FKG Inequality for the so called General Random …
We consider the problem of sampling from the Potts model on random regular graphs. It is conjectured that sampling is possible when the temperature of the model is in the uniqueness regime of the regular tree, but positive algorithmic results have been for the most part elusive. In this paper, for all integers $q\geq 3$ and $Δ\geq 3$, we develop algorithms that produce samples within error $o(1)$ from the $q$-state Potts model on random $Δ$-regular graphs, whenever the temperature is in uniqueness, for both the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic cases. The algorithm for the antiferromagnetic …
We develop a new pressure representation theorem for nearest-neighbour Gibbs interactions and apply this to obtain the existence of efficient algorithms for approximating the pressure in the $2$-dimensional ferromagnetic Potts, multi-type Widom-Rowlinson and hard-core models. For Potts, our results apply to every inverse temperature but the critical. For Widom-Rowlinson and hard-core, they apply to certain subsets of both the subcritical and supercritical regions. The main novelty of our work is in the latter.
We present a proof of the power law decay of magnetic moment for the $q$-state antiferromagnetic Potts model on the regular tree at the critical temperature, and also justify that the exact exponent is $\frac{1}{2}$. Our proof relies on the assumption of the uniqueness at the critical temperature, which has been established for $q=3,4$, and for $q \ge 5$ with large degree. An iterative contraction inequality is developed for independent interests.
We study the performance of Markov chains for the $q$-state ferromagnetic Potts model on random regular graphs. It is conjectured that their performance is dictated by metastability phenomena, i.e., the presence of "phases" (clusters) in the sample space where Markov chains with local update rules, such as the Glauber dynamics, are bound to take exponential time to escape. The phases that are believed to drive these metastability phenomena in the case of the Potts model emerge as local, rather than global, maxima of the so-called Bethe functional, and previous approaches of analysing these pha…
We study Glauber dynamics for the mean-field (Curie-Weiss) Potts model with $q\geq 3$ states and show that it undergoes a critical slowdown at an inverse-temperature $β_s(q)$ strictly lower than the critical $β_c(q)$ for uniqueness of the thermodynamic limit. The dynamical critical $β_s(q)$ is the spinodal point marking the onset of metastability. We prove that when $β<β_s(q)$ the mixing time is asymptotically $C(β, q) n \log n$ and the dynamics exhibits the cutoff phenomena, a sharp transition in mixing, with a window of order $n$. At $β=β_s(q)$ the dynamics no longer exhibits cutoff and its …
Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）；Georgia Institute of Technology（佐治亚理工学院）；University of Rochester（罗切斯特大学）
We study identity testing for restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs), and more generally for undirected graphical models. Given sample access to the Gibbs distribution corresponding to an unknown or hidden model $M^*$ and given an explicit model $M$, can we distinguish if either $M = M^*$ or if they are (statistically) far apart? Daskalakis et al. (2018) presented a polynomial-time algorithm for identity testing for the ferromagnetic (attractive) Ising model. In contrast, for the antiferromagnetic (repulsive) Ising model, Bezáková et al. (2019) proved that unless $RP=NP$ there is no identity tes…
This article studies the planar Potts model and its random-cluster representation. We show that the phase transition of the nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic $q$-state Potts model on $\mathbb Z^2$ is continuous for $q\in\{2,3,4\}$, in the sense that there exists a unique Gibbs state, or equivalently that there is no ordering for the critical Gibbs states with monochromatic boundary conditions. The proof uses the random-cluster model with cluster-weight $q\ge1$ (note that $q$ is not necessarily an integer) and is based on two ingredients: 1. The fact that the two-point function for the free state …
Recent results establish for 2-spin antiferromagnetic systems that the computational complexity of approximating the partition function on graphs of maximum degree D undergoes a phase transition that coincides with the uniqueness phase transition on the infinite D-regular tree. For the ferromagnetic Potts model we investigate whether analogous hardness results hold. Goldberg and Jerrum showed that approximating the partition function of the ferromagnetic Potts model is at least as hard as approximating the number of independent sets in bipartite graphs (#BIS-hardness). We improve this hardness…
We prove that random-cluster models with q larger than 1 on a variety of planar lattices have a sharp phase transition, that is that there exists some parameter p_c below which the model exhibits exponential decay and above which there exists a.s. an infinite cluster. The result may be extended to the Potts model via the Edwards-Sokal coupling. Our method is based on sharp threshold techniques and certain symmetries of the lattice; in particular it makes no use of self-duality. Part of the argument is not restricted to planar models and may be of some interest for the understanding of random-c…
The class of random-cluster models is a unification of a variety of stochastic processes of significance for probability and statistical physics, including percolation, Ising, and Potts models; in addition, their study has impact on the theory of certain random combinatorial structures, and of electrical networks. Much (but not all) of the physical theory of Ising/Potts models is best implemented in the context of the random-cluster representation. This systematic summary of random-cluster models includes accounts of the fundamental methods and inequalities, the uniqueness and specification of…
In this paper we obtain restricted Markov uniqueness of the generator and uniqueness of probabilistically weak solutions for the stochastic quantization problem in both the finite and infinite volume case by clarifying the precise relation between the solutions to the stochastic quantization problem obtained by the Dirichlet form approach and those obtained in [DD03] and in [MW15]. We prove that the solution $X-Z$, where $X$ is obtained by the Dirichlet form approach in [AR91] and $Z$ is the corresponding O-U process, satisfies the corresponding shifted equation (see (1.4) below). Moreover, we…
A remarkable connection has been established for antiferromagnetic 2-spin systems, including the Ising and hard-core models, showing that the computational complexity of approximating the partition function for graphs with maximum degree D undergoes a phase transition that coincides with the statistical physics uniqueness/non-uniqueness phase transition on the infinite D-regular tree. Despite this clear picture for 2-spin systems, there is little known for multi-spin systems. We present the first analog of the above inapproximability results for multi-spin systems. The main difficulty in previ…
We study several statistical mechanical models on a general tree. Particular attention is devoted to the classical Heisenberg models, where the state space is the d-dimensional unit sphere and the interactions are proportional to the cosines of the angles between neighboring spins. The phenomenon of interest here is the classification of phase transition (non-uniqueness of the Gibbs state) according to whether it is robust. In many cases, including all of the Heisenberg and Potts models, occurrence of robust phase transition is determined by the geometry (branching number) of the tree in a way…
