Optimal mixing for two-state anti-ferromagnetic spin systems

Abstract

We prove an optimal O(n-1) lower bound for modified log-Sobolev (MLS) constant of the Glauber dynamics for anti-ferromagnetic two-spin systems with n vertices in the tree uniqueness regime. Specifically, this optimal MLS bound holds for the following classes of two-spin systems in the tree uniqueness regime: (1) all strictly anti-ferromagnetic two-spin systems (where both edge parameters ß, ? = 1), which cover the hardcore models and the anti-ferromagnetic Ising models; (2) general antiferromagnetic two-spin systems on regular graphs. Consequently, an optimal O(n log n) mixing time holds for these anti-ferromagnetic two-spin systems when the uniqueness condition is satisfied. These MLS and mixing time bounds hold for any bounded or unbounded maximum degree, and the constant factors in the bounds depend only on the gap to the uniqueness threshold. We prove this by showing a boosting theorem for MLS constant for distributions satisfying certain spectral independence and marginal stability properties.