Comparison of Swendsen‐Wang and heat‐bath dynamics

We prove that the spectral gap of the Swendsen‐Wang process for the Potts model on graphs with bounded degree is bounded from below by some constant times the spectral gap of any single‐spin dynamics. This implies rapid mixing for the two‐dimensional Potts model at all temperatures above the critical one, as well as rapid mixing at the critical temperature for the Ising model. After this we introduce a modified version of the Swendsen‐Wang algorithm for planar graphs and prove rapid mixing for the two‐dimensional Potts models at all non‐critical temperatures. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 42, 520–535, 2013     

Swendsen‐Wang algorithm on the mean‐field Potts model

We study the q‐state ferromagnetic Potts model on the n‐vertex complete graph known as the mean‐field (Curie‐Weiss) model. We analyze the Swendsen‐Wang algorithm which is a Markov chain that utilizes the random cluster representation for the ferromagnetic Potts model to recolor large sets of vertices in one step and potentially overcomes obstacles that inhibit single‐site Glauber dynamics. Long et al. studied the case q = 2, the Swendsen‐Wang algorithm for the mean‐field ferromagnetic Ising model, and showed that the mixing time satisfies: (i) for , (ii) for , (iii) for , where β_c is the critical temperature for the ordered/disordered phase transition. In contrast, for there are two critical temperatures that are relevant. We prove that the mixing time of the Swendsen‐Wang algorithm for the ferromagnetic Potts model on the n‐vertex complete graph satisfies: (i) for , (ii) for , (iii) for , and (iv) for . These results complement refined results of Cuff et al. on the mixing time of the Glauber dynamics for the ferromagnetic Potts model.     

Spatial mixing and nonlocal Markov chains

We consider spin systems with nearest‐neighbor interactions on an n‐vertex d‐dimensional cube of the integer lattice graph . We study the effects that the strong spatial mixing condition (SSM) has on the rate of convergence to equilibrium of nonlocal Markov chains. We prove that when SSM holds, the relaxation time (i.e., the inverse spectral gap) of general block dynamics is O(r), where r is the number of blocks. As a second application of our technology, it is established that SSM implies an O(1) bound for the relaxation time of the Swendsen‐Wang dynamics for the ferromagnetic Ising and Potts models. We also prove that for monotone spin systems SSM implies that the mixing time of systematic scan dynamics is . Our proofs use a variety of techniques for the analysis of Markov chains including coupling, functional analysis and linear algebra.     

High‐resolution relaxation scheme for the two‐dimensional Riemann problems in gas dynamics

We present a new relaxation method for the numerical approximation of the two‐dimensional Riemann problems in gas dynamics. The novel feature of the technique proposed here is that it does not require either a Riemann solver or a characteristics decomposition. The high resolution of the method is achieved by using a third‐order reconstruction for the space discretization and a third‐order TVD Runge‐Kutta scheme for the time integration. Numerical experiments, using several configurations of Riemann problems in gas dynamics, are included to confirm the high resolution of the new relaxation scheme. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2006     

Tunneling of the hard‐core model on finite triangular lattices

We consider the hard‐core model on finite triangular lattices with Metropolis dynamics. Under suitable conditions on the triangular lattice sizes, this interacting particle system has 3 maximum‐occupancy configurations and we investigate its high‐fugacity behavior by studying tunneling times, that is, the first hitting times between these maximum‐occupancy configurations, and the mixing time. The proof method relies on the analysis of the corresponding state space using geometrical and combinatorial properties of the hard‐core configurations on finite triangular lattices, in combination with known results for first hitting times of Metropolis Markov chains in the equivalent zero‐temperature limit. In particular, we show how the order of magnitude of the expected tunneling times depends on the triangular lattice sizes in the low‐temperature regime and prove the asymptotic exponentiality of the rescaled tunneling time leveraging the intrinsic symmetry of the state space.     

Mixing of the Glauber dynamics for the ferromagnetic Potts model

We present several results on the mixing time of the Glauber dynamics for sampling from the Gibbs distribution in the ferromagnetic Potts model. At a fixed temperature and interaction strength, we study the interplay between the maximum degree (Δ) of the underlying graph and the number of colours or spins (q) in determining whether the dynamics mixes rapidly or not. We find a lower bound L on the number of colours such that Glauber dynamics is rapidly mixing if at least L colours are used. We give a closely‐matching upper bound U on the number of colours such that with probability that tends to 1, the Glauber dynamics mixes slowly on random Δ‐regular graphs when at most U colours are used. We show that our bounds can be improved if we restrict attention to certain types of graphs of maximum degree Δ, e.g. toroidal grids for Δ = 4. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 48, 21–52, 2016     

The mixing time of Glauber dynamics for coloring regular trees

We consider Metropolis Glauber dynamics for sampling proper q‐colorings of the n‐vertex complete b‐ary tree when 3 ≤ q ≤ b/(2lnb). We give both upper and lower bounds on the mixing time. Our upper bound is n^{O(b/ log b)} and our lower bound is n^{Ω(b/(q log b))}, where the constants implicit in the O() and Ω() notation do not depend upon n, q or b. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2010     

Asymmetric 2‐colorings of graphs

We show that the edges of every 3‐connected planar graph except K₄ can be colored with two colors in such a way that the graph has no color‐preserving automorphisms. Also, we characterize all graphs that have the property that their edges can be 2‐colored so that no matter how the graph is embedded in any orientable surface, there is no homeomorphism of the surface that induces a nontrivial color‐preserving automorphism of the graph.     

Torpid mixing of the Wang–Swendsen–Kotecký algorithm for sampling colorings

We study the problem of sampling uniformly at random from the set of k-colorings of a graph with maximum degree Δ. We focus attention on the Markov chain Monte Carlo method, particularly on a popular Markov chain for this problem, the Wang–Swendsen–Kotecký (WSK) algorithm. The second author recently proved that the WSK algorithm quickly converges to the desired distribution when k11Δ/6. We study how far these positive results can be extended in general. In this note we prove the first non-trivial results on when the WSK algorithm takes exponentially long to reach the stationary distribution and is thus called torpidly mixing. In particular, we show that the WSK algorithm is torpidly mixing on a family of bipartite graphs when 3k<Δ/(20logΔ), and on a family of planar graphs for any number of colors. We also give a family of graphs for which, despite their small chromatic number, the WSK algorithm is not ergodic when kΔ/2, provided k is larger than some absolute constant k₀.     

Quasi‐polynomial mixing of critical two‐dimensional random cluster models

We study the Glauber dynamics for the random cluster (FK) model on the torus with parameters (p,q), for q ∈ (1,4] and p the critical point p_c. The dynamics is believed to undergo a critical slowdown, with its continuous‐time mixing time transitioning from for p ≠ p_c to a power‐law in n at p = p_c. This was verified at p ≠ p_c by Blanca and Sinclair, whereas at the critical p = p_c, with the exception of the special integer points q = 2,3,4 (where the model corresponds to the Ising/Potts models) the best‐known upper bound on mixing was exponential in n. Here we prove an upper bound of at p = p_c for all q ∈ (1,4], where a key ingredient is bounding the number of nested long‐range crossings at criticality.     

Relaxation‐time limit of the three‐dimensional hydrodynamic model with boundary effects

In this paper, we study three‐dimensional (3D) unipolar and bipolar hydrodynamic models and corresponding drift‐diffusion models from semiconductor devices on bounded domain. Based on the asymptotic behavior of the solutions to the initial boundary value problems with slip boundary condition, we investigate the relation between the 3D hydrodynamic semiconductor models and the corresponding drift‐diffusion models. That is, we discuss the relation‐time limit from the 3D hydrodynamic semiconductor models to the corresponding drift‐diffusion models by comparing the large‐time behavior of these two models. These results can be showed by energy arguments. Copyrightcopyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A consistent numerical scheme for self‐gravitating fluid dynamics

In this article, we present a numerical scheme for the 3‐D system of self‐gravitating fluid dynamics in the collisional case as well as in the non‐collisional case. Consistency in the sense of distributions is proved in 1‐D and in absence of pressure. In the other cases consistency is proved under the numerical assumptions of boundedness of the velocity field in the CFL condition and of boundedness of the gradient of the gravitation potential. In 2‐D and 3‐D, concentrations of matter in strings and points can cause a theoretical difficulty in the pressureless case although one observes that the scheme still works. The initial data are L^∞ functions in velocity and L¹ functions in density. Applications are given to numerical simulations of the role of dark matter and gravitational collapse in cosmology as well as Jeans theory. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2013     

Critical graphs for subpancyclicity of 3‐connected claw‐free graphs

Let be the family of graphs G such that all sufficiently large k ‐connected claw‐free graphs which contain no induced copies of G are subpancyclic. We show that for every k≥3 the family is infinite and make the first step toward the complete characterization of the family . © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 62, 263–278, 2009     

On uniqueness and time regularity of flows of power‐law like non‐Newtonian fluids

Large class of non‐Newtonian fluids can be characterized by index p, which gives the growth of the constitutively determined part of the Cauchy stress tensor. In this paper, the uniqueness and the time regularity of flows of these fluids in an open bounded three‐dimensional domain is established for subcritical ps, i.e. for p>11/5. Our method works for ‘all’ physically relevant boundary conditions, the Cauchy stress need not be potential and it may depend explicitly on spatial and time variable. As a simple consequence of time regularity, pressure can be introduced as an integrable function even for Dirichlet boundary conditions. Moreover, these results allow us to define a dynamical system corresponding to the problem and to establish the existence of an exponential attractor. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Packing k‐edge trees in graphs of restricted vertex degrees

Let denote the set of graphs with each vertex of degree at least r and at most s, v(G) the number of vertices, and τ_k (G) the maximum number of disjoint k‐edge trees in G. In this paper we show that

• (a1) if G ∈ and s ≥ 4, then τ₂(G) ≥ v(G)/(s + 1),
• (a2) if G ∈ and G has no 5‐vertex components, then τ₂(G) ≥ v(G)4,
• (a3) if G ∈ and G has no k‐vertex component, where k ≥ 2 and s ≥ 3, then τ_k(G) ≥ (v(G) ‐k)/(sk ‐ k + 1), and
• (a4) the above bounds are attained for infinitely many connected graphs.

Our proofs provide polynomial time algorithms for finding the corresponding packings in a graph. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 55: 306–324, 2007     

Slow mixing of Glauber dynamics for the hard‐core model on regular bipartite graphs

Let ∑ = (V,E) be a finite, d‐regular bipartite graph. For any λ > 0 let π_λ be the probability measure on the independent sets of ∑ in which the set I is chosen with probability proportional to λ^|I| (π_λ is the hard‐core measure with activity λ on ∑). We study the Glauber dynamics, or single‐site update Markov chain, whose stationary distribution is π_λ. We show that when λ is large enough (as a function of d and the expansion of subsets of single‐parity of V) then the convergence to stationarity is exponentially slow in |V(∑)|. In particular, if ∑ is the d‐dimensional hypercube {0,1}^d we show that for values of λ tending to 0 as d grows, the convergence to stationarity is exponentially slow in the volume of the cube. The proof combines a conductance argument with combinatorial enumeration methods. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2006     

Arboricity and spanning‐tree packing in random graphs

We study the arboricity and the maximum number of edge‐disjoint spanning trees of the classical random graph . For all , we show that, with high probability, is precisely the minimum of and , where is the minimum degree of the graph and denotes the number of edges. Moreover, we explicitly determine a sharp threshold value for such that the following holds. Above this threshold, equals and equals . Below this threshold, equals , and we give a two‐value concentration result for the arboricity in that range. Finally, we include a stronger version of these results in the context of the random graph process where the edges are randomly added one by one. A direct application of our result gives a sharp threshold for the maximum load being at most in the two‐choice load balancing problem, where .     

Density of the circular chromatic numbers of series‐parallel graphs

In this paper we show that every simple cubic graph on n vertices has a set of at least ? n/4 ? disjoint 2‐edge paths and that this bound is sharp. Our proof provides a polynomial time algorithm for finding such a set in a simple cubic graph. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 45: 57–79, 2003     

Randomly coloring planar graphs with fewer colors than the maximum degree

We study Markov chains for randomly sampling k‐colorings of a graph with maximum degree Δ. Our main result is a polynomial upper bound on the mixing time of the single‐site update chain known as the Glauber dynamics for planar graphs when . Our results can be partially extended to the more general case where the maximum eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of the graph is at most , for fixed . The main challenge when is the possibility of “frozen” vertices, that is, vertices for which only one color is possible, conditioned on the colors of its neighbors. Indeed, when , even a typical coloring can have a constant fraction of the vertices frozen. Our proofs rely on recent advances in techniques for bounding mixing time using “local uniformity” properties. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 47, 731–759, 2015     

T‐joins intersecting small edge‐cuts in graphs

In an earlier paper 3 , we studied cycles in graphs that intersect all edge‐cuts of prescribed sizes. Passing to a more general setting, we examine the existence of T‐joins in grafts that intersect all edge‐cuts whose size is in a given set A ?{1,2,3}. In particular, we characterize all the contraction‐minimal grafts admitting no T‐joins that intersect all edge‐cuts of size 1 and 2. We also show that every 3‐edge‐connected graft admits a T‐join intersecting all 3‐edge‐cuts. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 56: 64–71, 2007