Random-cluster dynamics in ${\mathbb{Z}}^2$: rapid mixing with general boundary conditions

Abstract

The random-cluster model with parameters $(p,q)$ is a random graph model that generalizes bond percolation ($q=1$) and the Ising and Potts models ($q\ge 2$). We study its Glauber dynamics on $n\times n$ boxes ${\Lambda }_n$ of the integer lattice graph ${\mathbb{Z}}^2$, where the model exhibits a sharp phase transition at $p=p_c(q)$. Unlike traditional spin systems like the Ising and Potts models, the random-cluster model has non-local interactions. Long-range interactions can be imposed as external connections in the boundary of ${\Lambda }_n$, known as boundary conditions. For select boundary conditions that do not carry long-range information (namely, wired and free), Blanca and Sinclair proved that when $q>1$ and $p\ne p_c(q)$, the Glauber dynamics on ${\Lambda }_n$ mixes in optimal $O(n^2\log n)$ time. In this paper, we prove that this mixing time is polynomial in $n$ for every boundary condition that is realizable as a configuration on ${\mathbb{Z}}^2\setminus {\Lambda }_n$. We then use this to prove near-optimal $\tilde{O}(n^2)$ mixing time for "typical'' boundary conditions. As a complementary result, we construct classes of non-realizable (non-planar) boundary conditions inducing slow (stretched-exponential) mixing at $p\ll p_c(q)$.

40 pages, 6 figures