arXiv subjects

Christopher Hoffman

Publications and source records attributed to Christopher Hoffman.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Spectral gaps of random graphs and applications

We study the spectral gap of the Erdős--Rényi random graph through the connectivity threshold. In particular, we show that for any fixed $δ> 0$ if $$p \ge \frac{(1/2 + δ) \log n}{n},$$ then the normalized graph Laplacian of an Erdős--Rényi graph has all of its nonzero eigenvalues tightly concentrated around $1$. We estimate both the decay rate of the spectral gap to $1$ and the failure probability, up to a constant factor. We also show that the $1/2$ in the above is optimal, and that if $p = \frac{c \log n}{n}$ for $c < 1/2,$ then there are eigenvalues of the Laplacian restricted to the giant component that are separated from $1.$ We then describe several applications of our spectral gap results to stochastic topology and geometric group theory. These all depend on Garland's "p-adic curvature" method, a kind of spectral geometry for simplicial complexes. These can all be considered to be high-dimensional expander properties.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

The two-type Richardson model in the half-plane

The two-type Richardson model describes the growth of two competing infection types on the two or higher dimensional integer lattice. For types that spread with the same intensity, it is known that there is a positive probability for infinite coexistence, while for types with different intensities, it is conjectured that infinite coexistence is not possible. In this paper we study the two-type Richardson model in the upper half-plane $\mathbb{Z}\times\mathbb{Z}_+$, and prove that coexistence of two types starting on the horizontal axis has positive probability if and only if the types have the same intensity.

math.PR↗

arXiv2018

Activated Random Walk on a cycle

We consider Activated Random Walk (ARW), a particle system with mass conservation, on the cycle $\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$. One starts with a mass density $μ>0$ of initially active particles, each of which performs a simple symmetric random walk at rate one and falls asleep at rate $λ>0.$ Sleepy particles become active on coming in contact with other active particles. There have been several recent results concerning fixation/non-fixation of the ARW dynamics on infinite systems depending on the parameters $μ$ and $λ$. On the finite graph $\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$, unless there are more than $n$ particles, the process fixates (reaches an absorbing state) almost surely in finite time. We show that the number of steps the process takes to fixate is linear in $n$ (up to poly-logarithmic terms), when the density is sufficiently low compared to the sleep rate, and exponential in $n$ when the sleep rate is sufficiently small compared to the density, reflecting the fixation/non-fixation phase transition in the corresponding infinite system as established by Rolla, Sidoravicius (2012).

math.PR↗

arXiv2017

Non-fixation for conservative stochastic dynamics on the line

We consider Activated Random Walk (ARW), a model which generalizes the Stochastic Sandpile, one of the canonical examples of self organized criticality. Informally ARW is a particle system on $\mathbb{Z}$ with mass conservation. One starts with a mass density $μ>0$ of initially active particles, each of which performs a symmetric random walk at rate one and falls asleep at rate $λ>0$. Sleepy particles become active on coming in contact with other active particles. We investigate the question of fixation/non-fixation of the process, and show for small enough $λ$, the critical mass density for fixation is strictly less than one. Moreover, the critical density goes to zero as $λ$ tends to zero. This settles a long standing open question.

math.PR↗

arXiv2016

Fixed points of 321-avoiding permutations

We describe the distribution of the number and location of the fixed points of permu- tations that avoid the pattern 321 via a bijection with rooted plane trees on n + 1 vertices. Using the local limit theorem for Galton-Watson trees, we are able to give an explicit description of the limit of this distribution.

math.CO↗

arXiv2016

From transience to recurrence with Poisson tree frogs

Consider the following interacting particle system on the $d$-ary tree, known as the frog model: Initially, one particle is awake at the root and i.i.d. Poisson many particles are sleeping at every other vertex. Particles that are awake perform simple random walks, awakening any sleeping particles they encounter. We prove that there is a phase transition between transience and recurrence as the initial density of particles increases, and we give the order of the transition up to a logarithmic factor.

math.PR↗

arXiv2016

Recurrence and transience for the frog model on trees

The frog model is a growing system of random walks where a particle is added whenever a new site is visited. A longstanding open question is how often the root is visited on the infinite $d$-ary tree. We prove the model undergoes a phase transition, finding it recurrent for $d=2$ and transient for $d\geq 5$. Simulations suggest strong recurrence for $d=2$, weak recurrence for $d=3$, and transience for $d\geq 4$. Additionally, we prove a 0-1 law for all $d$-ary trees, and we exhibit a graph on which a 0-1 law does not hold. To prove recurrence when $d=2$, we construct a recursive distributional equation for the number of visits to the root in a smaller process and show the unique solution must be infinity a.s. The proof of transience when $d=5$ relies on computer calculations for the transition probabilities of a large Markov chain. We also include the proof for $d \geq 6$, which uses similar techniques but does not require computer assistance.

math.PR↗

arXiv2015

Random mass splitting and a quenched invariance principle

We will investigate a random mass splitting model and the closely related random walk in a random environment (RWRE). The heat kernel for the RWRE at time t is the mass splitting distribution at t. We prove a quenched invariance principle for the RWRE which gives us a quenched central limit theorem for the mass splitting model. Our RWRE has an environment which is changing with time. We follow the outline for proving a quenched invariant process for a random walk in a space-time random environment laid out by Rassoul-Agha and Seppäläinen which in turn was based on the work of Kipnis and Varadhan and others.

math.PR↗

arXiv2015

Pattern-avoiding permutations and Brownian excursion Part I: Shapes and fluctuations

Permutations that avoid given patterns are among the most classical objects in combinatorics and have strong connections to many fields of mathematics, computer science and biology. In this paper we study the scaling limits of a random permutation avoiding a pattern of length 3 and their relations to Brownian excursion. Exploring this connection to Brownian excursion allows us to strengthen the recent results of Madras and Pehlivan, and Miner and Pak as well as to understand many of the interesting phenomena that had previously gone unexplained.

math.PR↗

arXiv2015

Pattern-avoiding permutations and Brownian excursion, Part II: Fixed points

Permutations that avoid given patterns are among the most classical objects in combinatorics and have strong connections to many fields of mathematics, computer science and biology. In this paper we study fixed points of both 123- and 231-avoiding permutations. We find an exact description for a scaling limit of the empirical distribution of fixed points in term of Brownian excursion. This builds on the connections between pattern-avoiding permutations and Brownian excursion developed in Part I of this series and strengthens the recent results of Elizalde (2012) and Miner and Pak (2014) on fixed points of pattern-avoiding permutations.

math.PR↗

arXiv2015

Bootstrap percolation on the Hamming torus

The Hamming torus of dimension $d$ is the graph with vertices $\{1,\dots,n\}^d$ and an edge between any two vertices that differ in a single coordinate. Bootstrap percolation with threshold $θ$ starts with a random set of open vertices, to which every vertex belongs independently with probability $p$, and at each time step the open set grows by adjoining every vertex with at least $θ$ open neighbors. We assume that $n$ is large and that $p$ scales as $n^{-α}$ for some $α>1$, and study the probability that an $i$-dimensional subgraph ever becomes open. For large $θ$, we prove that the critical exponent $α$ is about $1+d/θ$ for $i=1$, and about $1+2/θ+Θ(θ^{-3/2})$ for $i\ge2$. Our small $θ$ results are mostly limited to $d=3$, where we identify the critical $α$ in many cases and, when $θ=3$, compute exactly the critical probability that the entire graph is eventually open.

math.PR↗

arXiv2014

Oil and water: a two-type internal aggregation model

We introduce a two-type internal DLA model which is an example of a non-unary abelian network. Starting with n "oil" and n "water" particles at the origin, the particles diffuse in Z according to the following rule: whenever some site x has at least 1 oil and at least 1 water particle present, it "fires" by sending 1 oil particle and 1 water particle each to an independent random neighbor x+1 or x-1. Firing continues until every site has at most one type of particles. We establish the correct order for several statistics of this model and identify the scaling limit under assumption of existence.

math.PR↗

arXiv2014

The threshold for integer homology in random d-complexes

Let Y ~ Y_d(n,p) denote the Bernoulli random d-dimensional simplicial complex. We answer a question of Linial and Meshulam from 2003, showing that the threshold for vanishing of homology H_{d-1}(Y; Z) is less than 80d log n / n. This bound is tight, up to a constant factor.

math.AT↗

arXiv2012

Subshifts of finite type which have completely positive entropy

Domino tilings have been studied extensively for both their statistical properties and their dynamical properties. We construct a subshift of finite type using matching rules for several types of dominos. We combine the previous results about domino tilings to show that our subshift of finite type has a measure of maximal entropy with which the subshift has completely positive entropy but is not isomorphic to a Bernoulli shift.

math.DS↗

arXiv2011

The fundamental group of random 2-complexes

We study Linial-Meshulam random 2-complexes, which are two-dimensional analogues of Erdős-Rényi random graphs. We find the threshold for simple connectivity to be p = n^{-1/2}. This is in contrast to the threshold for vanishing of the first homology group, which was shown earlier by Linial and Meshulam to be p = 2 log(n)/n. We use a variant of Gromov's local-to-global theorem for linear isoperimetric inequalities to show that when p = O(n^{-1/2 -ε}) the fundamental group is word hyperbolic. Along the way we classify the homotopy types of sparse 2-dimensional simplicial complexes and establish isoperimetric inequalities for such complexes. These intermediate results do not involve randomness and may be of independent interest.

math.CO↗

arXiv2011

The fundamental group of random 2-complexes

math.GR↗

arXiv2007

Geodesics in First Passage Percolation

We consider a wide class of ergodic first passage percolation processes on Z^2 and prove that there exist at least four one-sided geodesics a.s. We also show that coexistence is possible with positive probability in a four color Richardson's growth model. This improves earlier results of Haggstrom and Pemantle, Garet and Marchand, and Hoffman who proved that first passage percolation has at least two geodesics and that coexistence is possible in a two color Richardson's growth model.

math.PR↗

arXiv2007

Exponential clogging time for a one dimensional DLA

When considering DLA on a cylinder it is natural to ask how many particles it takes to clog the cylinder, e.g. modeling clogging of arteries. In this note we formulate a very simple DLA clogging model and establish an exponential lower bound on the number of particles arriving before clogging appears.

math.PR↗