arXiv subjects

Cristina Toninelli

Publications and source records attributed to Cristina Toninelli.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Peierls bounds from Toom contours

For deterministic monotone cellular automata on the $d$-dimensional integer lattice, Toom has given necessary and sufficient conditions for the all-one fixed point to be stable against small random perturbations. The proof of sufficiency is based on an intricate Peierls argument. We present a simplified version of this Peierls argument. Our main motivation is the open problem of determining stability of monotone cellular automata with intrinsic randomness, in which for the unperturbed evolution the local update rules at different space-time points are chosen in an i.i.d. fashion according to some fixed law. We apply Toom's Peierls argument to prove stability of a class of cellular automata with intrinsic randomness and also derive lower bounds on the critical parameter for some deterministic cellular automata.

math.PR↗

arXiv2025

Long time behaviour of one facilitated kinetically constrained models: results and open problems

Kinetically constrained models (KCMs) are interacting particle systems introduced in the '80s by physicists to have accessible stochastic models with glassy-type dynamics. The key mechanism behind the complex evolution of these otherwise simple models is the so-called dynamical facilitation, a feature embedded into the models via appropriate kinetic constraints. KCMs are reversible with respect to a Bernoulli product measure, and the analysis of their stationary evolution has witnessed significant progress in the last decade. Unfortunately, in the interesting regime when the equilibrium density of the facilitating vertices is small, many fundamental questions concerning the non-stationary evolution of even the simplest models remain unsolved. In this paper, we discuss some of these questions, along with partial new results and conjectures, for the one facilitated model and its variants, as well as for the biased annihilating branching process.

math.PR↗

arXiv2025

Velocity trapping in the lifted TASEP and the true self-avoiding random walk

We discuss non-reversible Markov-chain Monte Carlo algorithms that, for particle systems, rigorously sample the positional Boltzmann distribution and that have faster than physical dynamics. These algorithms all feature a non-thermal velocity distribution. They are exemplified by the lifted TASEP (totally asymmetric simple exclusion process), a one-dimensional lattice reduction of event-chain Monte Carlo. We analyze its dynamics in terms of a velocity trapping that arises from correlations between the local density and the particle velocities. This allows us to formulate a conjecture for its out-of-equilibrium mixing time scale, and to rationalize its equilibrium superdiffusive time scale. Both scales are faster than for the (unlifted) TASEP. They are further justified by our analysis of the lifted TASEP in terms of many-particle realizations of true self-avoiding random walks. We discuss velocity trapping beyond the case of one-dimensional lattice models and in more than one physical dimensions. Possible applications beyond physics are pointed out.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2025

Peierls bounds from random Toom contours

For deterministic monotone cellular automata on the $d$-dimensional integer lattice, Toom (1980) has given necessary and sufficient conditions for the all-one fixed point to be stable against small random perturbations. We are interested in the open problem of extending Toom's result to monotone cellular automata with intrinsic randomness, where the unperturbed evolution is random with i.i.d. update rules attached to the space-time points. For some applications it is also desirable to consider a more general graph structure, so we assume that the underlying lattice is an arbitrary countable group. Toom's proof of stability is based on a Peierls argument. In previous work, we demonstrated that this Peierls argument can also be used to prove stability for cellular automata with intrinsic randomness, but in this case estimating the Peierls sum becomes much harder than in the deterministic case. In the present paper, we develop a method based on random contours to estimate the Peierls sum and apply it to prove new stability results for monotone cellular automata with intrisic randomness. We also demonstrate the limitations of the method by constructing an example where the Peierls sum is infinite for arbitrary small perturbations even though stability is believed to hold.

math.PR↗

arXiv2024

Kinetically constrained models

The goal of this book is to provide an introduction to the mathematical theory of Kinetically constrained models developed in the last twenty years, intended for both mathematicians and physicists.

math.HO↗

arXiv2022

Sharp threshold for the FA-2f kinetically constrained model

The Fredrickson-Andersen 2-spin facilitated model on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ (FA-2f) is a paradigmatic interacting particle system with kinetic constraints (KCM) featuring dynamical facilitation, an important mechanism in condensed matter physics. In FA-2f a site may change its state only if at least two of its nearest neighbours are empty. Although the process is reversible w.r.t. a product Bernoulli measure, it is not attractive and features degenerate jump rates and anomalous divergence of characteristic time scales as the density $q$ of empty sites tends to $0$. A natural random variable encoding the above features is $τ_0$, the first time at which the origin becomes empty for the stationary process. Our main result is the sharp threshold \[τ_0=\exp\Big(\frac{d\cdotλ(d,2)+o(1)}{q^{1/(d-1)}}\Big)\quad \text{w.h.p.}\] with $λ(d,2)$ the sharp threshold constant for 2-neighbour bootstrap percolation on $\mathbb{Z}^d$, the monotone deterministic automaton counterpart of FA-2f. This is the first sharp result for a critical KCM and it compares with Holroyd's 2003 result on bootstrap percolation and its subsequent improvements. It also settles various controversies accumulated in the physics literature over the last four decades. Furthermore, our novel techniques enable completing the recent ambitious program on the universality phenomenon for critical KCM and establishing sharp thresholds for other two-dimensional KCM.

math.PR↗

arXiv2022

Fredrickson--Andersen model in two dimensions

The present expository article overviews recent mathematical advances on the Fredrickson--Andersen kinetically constrained spin model in two dimensions. It was introduced in physics as a toy model for recovering the glassy phenomenology in supercooled liquids close to the glass transition via dynamic constraints as opposed to static interactions.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2021

Coalescing and branching simple symmetric exclusion process

Motivated by kinetically constrained interacting particle systems (KCM), we consider a reversible coalescing and branching simple exclusion process on a general finite graph $G=(V,E)$ dual to the biased voter model on $G$. Our main goal are tight bounds on its logarithmic Sobolev constant and relaxation time, with particular focus on the delicate slightly supercritical regime in which the equilibrium density of particles tends to zero as $|V|\rightarrow \infty$. Our results allow us to recover very directly and improve to $\ell^p$-mixing, $p\ge 2$, and to more general graphs, the mixing time results of Pillai and Smith for the Fredrickson-Andersen one spin facilitated (FA-$1$f) KCM on the discrete $d$-dimensional torus. In view of applications to the more complex FA-$j$f KCM, $j>1$, we also extend part of the analysis to an analogous process with a more general product state space.

math.PR↗

arXiv2020

Universality for critical KCM: finite number of stable directions

In this paper we consider kinetically constrained models (KCM) on $\mathbb Z^2$ with general update families $\mathcal U$. For $\mathcal U$ belonging to the so-called "critical class" our focus is on the divergence of the infection time of the origin for the equilibrium process as the density of the facilitating sites vanishes. In a recent paper Marêché and two of the present authors proved that if $\mathcal U$ has an infinite number of "stable directions", then on a doubly logarithmic scale the above divergence is twice the one in the corresponding $\mathcal U$-bootstrap percolation. Here we prove instead that, contrary to previous conjectures, in the complementary case the two divergences are the same. In particular, we establish the full universality partition for critical $\mathcal U$. The main novel contribution is the identification of the leading mechanism governing the motion of infected critical droplets. It consists of a peculiar hierarchical combination of mesoscopic East-like motions.

math.PR↗

arXiv2020

Universality for critical KCM: infinite number of stable directions

Kinetically constrained models (KCM) are reversible interacting particle systems on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ with continuous-time constrained Glauber dynamics. They are a natural non-monotone stochastic version of the family of cellular automata with random initial state known as $\mathcal{U}$-bootstrap percolation. KCM have an interest in their own right, owing to their use for modelling the liquid-glass transition in condensed matter physics. In two dimensions there are three classes of models with qualitatively different scaling of the infection time of the origin as the density of infected sites vanishes. Here we study in full generality the class termed `critical'. Together with the companion paper by Martinelli and two of the authors we establish the universality classes of critical KCM and determine within each class the critical exponent of the infection time as well as of the spectral gap. In this work we prove that for critical models with an infinite number of stable directions this exponent is twice the one of their bootstrap percolation counterpart. This is due to the occurrence of `energy barriers', which determine the dominant behaviour for these KCM but which do not matter for the monotone bootstrap dynamics. Our result confirms the conjecture of Martinelli, Morris and the last author, who proved a matching upper bound.

math.PR↗

arXiv2019

Diffusive scaling of the Kob-Andersen model in $\mathbb{Z}^d$

We consider the Kob-Andersen model, a cooperative lattice gas with kinetic constraints which has been widely analyzed in the physics literature in connection with the study of the liquid/glass transition. We consider the model in a finite box of linear size $L$ with sources at the boundary. Our result, which holds in any dimension and significantly improves upon previous ones, establishes for any positive vacancy density $q$ a purely diffusive scaling of the relaxation time $T_{\rm rel}$ of the system. Furthermore, as $q\downarrow 0$ we prove upper and lower bounds on $L^{-2} T_{\rm rel} (q,L)$ which agree with the physicists belief that the dominant equilibration mechanism is a cooperative motion of rare large droplets of vacancies. The main tools combine a recent set of ideas and techniques developed to establish universality results for kinetically constrained spin models, with methods from bootstrap percolation, oriented percolation and canonical flows for Markov chains.

math.PR↗

arXiv2018

Front evolution of the Fredrickson-Andersen one spin facilitated model

The Fredrickson-Andersen one spin facilitated model (FA-1f) on Z belongs to the class of kinetically constrained spin models (KCM). Each site refreshes with rate one its occupation variable to empty (respectively occupied) with probability q (respectively $p = 1 - q$), provided at least one nearest neighbor is empty. Here, we study the non equilibrium dynamics of FA-1f started from a configuration entirely occupied on the left half-line and focus on the evolution of the front, namely the position of the leftmost zero. We prove, for q larger than a threshold $\bar{q} < 1$, a law of large numbers and a central limit theorem for the front, as well as the convergence to an invariant measure of the law of the process seen from the front.

math.PR↗

arXiv2018

Towards a universality picture for the relaxation to equilibrium of kinetically constrained models

Recent years have seen a great deal of progress in our understanding of bootstrap percolation models, a particular class of monotone cellular automata. In the two dimensional lattice there is now a quite satisfactory understanding of their evolution starting from a random initial condition, with a strikingly beautiful universality picture for their critical behaviour. Much less is known for their non-monotone stochastic counterpart, namely kinetically constrained models (KCM). In KCM each vertex is resampled (independently) at rate one by tossing a p-coin iff it can be infected in the next step by the bootstrap model. In particular infection can also heal, hence the non-monotonicity. Besides the connection with bootstrap percolation, KCM have an interest in their own as they feature some of the most striking features of the liquid/glass transition, a major and still largely open problem in condensed matter physics. In this paper we pave the way towards proving universality results for KCM similar to those for bootstrap percolation. Our novel and general approach establishes a close connection between the critical scaling of characteristic time scales for KCM and the scaling of the critical length in critical bootstrap models. Although the full proof of universality for KCM is deferred to a forthcoming paper, here we apply our general method to the Friedrickson-Andersen k-facilitated models, amongst the most studied KCM, and to the Gravner-Griffeath model. In both cases our results are close to optimal.

math.PR↗

arXiv2018

Exact asymptotics for Duarte and supercritical rooted kinetically constrained models

Kinetically constrained models (KCM) are reversible interacting particle systems on $\mathbb Z^d$ with continuous time Markov dynamics of Glauber type, which represent a natural stochastic (and non-monotone) counterpart of the family of cellular automata known as $\mathcal U$-bootstrap percolation. Furthermore, KCM have an interest in their own since they display some of the most striking features of the liquid-glass transition, a major and longstanding open problem in condensed matter physics. A key issue for KCM is to identify the scaling of the characteristic time scales when the equilibrium density of empty sites, $q$, goes to zero. In [19,20] a general scheme was devised to determine a sharp upper bound for these time scales. Our paper is devoted to developing a (very different) technique which allows to prove matching lower bounds. We analyse the class of two-dimensional supercritical rooted KCM and the Duarte KCM, the most studied critical $1$-rooted model. We prove that the relaxation time and the mean infection time diverge for supercritical rooted KCM as $e^{Θ((\log q)^2)}$ and for Duarte KCM as $e^{Θ((\log q)^4/q^2)}$ when $q\downarrow 0$. These results prove the conjectures put forward in [20,22], and establish that the time scales for these KCM diverge much faster than for the corresponding $\mathcal U$-bootstrap processes, the main reason being the occurrence of energy barriers which determine the dominant behaviour for KCM, but which do not matter for the bootstrap dynamics.

math.PR↗

arXiv2018

Universality results for kinetically constrained spin models in two dimensions

Kinetically constrained models (KCM) are reversible interacting particle systems on $\mathbb Z^d$ with continuous time Markov dynamics of Glauber type, which represent a natural stochastic (and non-monotone) counterpart of the family of cellular automata known as $\mathcal U$-bootstrap percolation. KCM also display some of the peculiar features of the so-called "glassy dynamics", and as such they are extensively used in the physics literature to model the liquid-glass transition, a major and longstanding open problem in condensed matter physics. We consider two-dimensional KCM with update rule $\mathcal U$, and focus on proving universality results for the mean infection time of the origin, in the same spirit as those recently established in the setting of $\mathcal U$-bootstrap percolation. We first identify what we believe are the correct universality classes, which turn out to be different from those of $\mathcal U$-bootstrap percolation. We then prove universal upper bounds on the mean infection time within each class, which we conjecture to be sharp up to logarithmic corrections. In certain cases, including all supercritical models, and the well-known Duarte model, our conjecture has recently been confirmed in [MMT]. In fact, in these cases our upper bound is sharp up to a constant factor in the exponent. For certain classes of update rules, it turns out that the infection time of the KCM diverges much faster than for the corresponding $\mathcal U$-bootstrap process when the equilibrium density of infected sites goes to zero. This is due to the occurrence of energy barriers which determine the dominant behaviour for KCM, but which do not matter for the monotone bootstrap dynamics.

math.PR↗

arXiv2017

Phase transition for a non-attractive infection process in heterogeneous environment

We consider a non-attractive three state contact process on $\mathbb Z$ and prove that there exists a regime of survival as well as a regime of extinction. In more detail, the process can be regarded as an infection process in a dynamic environment, where non-infected sites are either healthy or passive. Infected sites can recover only if they have a healthy site nearby, whereas non-infected sites may become infected only if there is no healthy and at least one infected site nearby. The transition probabilities are governed by a global parameter $q$: for large $q$, the infection dies out, and for small enough $q$, we observe its survival. The result is obtained by a coupling to a discrete time Markov chain, using its drift properties in the respective regimes.

math.PR↗

arXiv2017

Kinetically constrained lattice gases: tagged particle diffusion

Kinetically constrained lattice gases (KCLG) are interacting particle systems on the integer lattice $\mathbb Z^d$ with hard core exclusion and Kawasaki type dynamics. Their peculiarity is that jumps are allowed only if the configuration satisfies a constraint which asks for enough empty sites in a certain local neighborhood. KCLG have been introduced and extensively studied in physics literature as models of glassy dynamics. We focus on the most studied class of KCLG, the Kob Andersen (KA) models. We analyze the behavior of a tracer (i.e. a tagged particle) at equilibrium. We prove that for all dimensions $d\geq 2$ and for any equilibrium particle density, under diffusive rescaling the motion of the tracer converges to a $d$-dimensional Brownian motion with non-degenerate diffusion matrix. Therefore we disprove the occurrence of a diffusive/non diffusive transition which had been conjectured in physics literature. Our technique is flexible enough and can be extended to analyse the tracer behavior for other choices of constraints.

math.PR↗

arXiv2014

Is there a fractional breakdown of the Stokes-Einstein relation in Kinetically Constrained Models at low temperature?

We study the motion of a tracer particle injected in facilitated models which are used to model supercooled liquids in the vicinity of the glass transition. We consider the East model, FA1f model and a more general class of non-cooperative models. For East previous works had identified a fractional violation of the Stokes-Einstein relation with a decoupling between diffusion and viscosity of the form $D\simτ^{-ξ}$ with $ξ\sim 0.73$. We present rigorous results proving that instead $\log(D)=-\log(τ)+O(\log(1/q))$, which implies at leading order $\log(D)/\log(τ)\sim -1$ for very large time-scales. Our results do not exclude the possibility of SE breakdown, albeit non fractional. Indeed extended numerical simulations by other authors show the occurrence of this violation and our result suggests $Dτ\sim 1/q^α$, where $q$ is the density of excitations. For FA1f we prove fractional Stokes Einstein in dimension $1$, and $D\simτ^{-1}$ in dimension $2$ and higher, confirming previous works. Our results extend to a larger class of non-cooperative models.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗