Decay of Correlations for the Hardcore Model on the $d$-regular Random Graph

Abstract

A key insight from statistical physics about spin systems on random graphs is the central role played by Gibbs measures on trees. We determine the local weak limit of the hardcore model on random regular graphs asymptotically until just below its condensation threshold, showing that it converges in probability locally in a strong sense to the free boundary condition Gibbs measure on the tree. As a consequence we show that the reconstruction threshold on the random graph, indicative of the onset of point to set spatial correlations, is equal to the reconstruction threshold on the $d$-regular tree for which we determine precise asymptotics. We expect that our methods will generalize to a wide range of spin systems for which the second moment method holds.