arXiv subjects

Jonathan Hermon

Publications and source records attributed to Jonathan Hermon.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Some inequalities for reversible Markov chains and branching random walks via spectral optimization

We present results relating mixing times to the intersection time of branching random walk (BRW) in which the logarithm of the expected number of particles grows at rate of the spectral-gap $\mathrm{gap}$ . This is a finite state space analog of a critical branching process. Namely, we show that the maximal expected hitting time of a state by such a BRW is up to a universal constant larger than the $L_{\infty}$ mixing-time, whereas under transitivity the same is true for the intersection time of two independent such BRWs. Using the same methodology, we show that for a sequence of reversible Markov chains, the $L_{\infty}$ mixing-times $t_{\mathrm{mix}}^{(\infty)} $ are of smaller order than the maximal hitting times $t_{\mathrm{hit}}$ iff the product of the spectral-gap and $t_{\mathrm{hit}}$ diverges, by establishing the inequality $t_{\mathrm{mix}}^{(\infty)} \le \frac{1}{\mathrm{gap}}\log(et_{\mathrm{hit}} \cdot \mathrm{gap}) $. This resolves a conjecture of Aldous and Fill (Reversible Markov chains and random walks on graphs, Open Problem 14.12) asserting that under transitivity the condition that $ t_{\mathrm{hit}} \gg \frac{1}{\mathrm{gap}} $ implies mean-field behavior for the coalescing time of coalescing random walks.

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arXiv2021

A direct comparison between the mixing time of the interchange process with "few" particles and independent random walks

We consider the interchange process with $k$ particles (${\rm IP}(k)$) on $n$-vertex hypergraphs in which each hyperedge $e$ rings at rate $r_e$. When $e$ rings, the particles occupying it are permuted according to a random permutation from some arbitrary law, where our only assumption is that ${\rm IP}(2)$ has uniform stationary distribution. We show that $t_{\rm mix}^{{\rm IP}(k)}(ε)=O_{b}(t_{\rm mix}^{{\rm IP}(2)}(ε/k))$, where $t_{\rm mix}^{{\rm IP}(i)}(ε)$ is the $ε$ total-variation mixing time of ${\rm IP}(i)$, provided that $kn^{-2}Rt_{\rm mix}^{{\rm IP}(2)}(ε/k)=O((ε/k)^b)$ for some $b>0$, where $R=\sum_e r_e|e|(|e|-1)$ is $n(n-1)$ times the particle-particle interaction rate at equilibrium. This has some consequences concerning the validity in this regime of conjectures of Oliveira about comparison of the $ε$ mixing time of ${\rm IP}(k)$ to that of $k$ independent particles, each evolving according to ${\rm IP}(1)$, denoted ${\rm RW}(k)$, and of Caputo about comparison of the spectral-gap of ${\rm IP}(k)$ to that of a single particle ${\rm IP}(1)={\rm RW}(1)$. We also show that $t_{\rm mix}^{\mathrm{IP}(k)}(ε) \asymp t_{\rm mix}^{{\rm RW}(1)}(ε)\asymp t_{\rm mix}^{{\rm RW}(k)}(εk/4)$ for all $k\lesssim n^{1-Ω(1)}$ and all $ε\le\frac 1k\wedge\frac 14$ for vertex-transitive graphs of constant degree, as well as for general graphs satisfying a mild ("transience-like") heat-kernel condition. In the case where the particles occupying a hyperedge $e$ are permuted uniformly at random when $e$ rings we obtain results bounding the spectral gap of ${\rm IP}(k)$ in terms of that ${\rm RW}(1)$. The proof does not use Morris' chameleon process. It can be seen as a rigorous and direct way of arguing that when the number of particles is fairly small, the system behaves similarly to $k$ independent particles.

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arXiv2021

Universality of cutoff for graphs with an added random matching

We establish universality of cutoff for simple random walk on a class of random graphs defined as follows. Given a finite graph $G=(V,E)$ with $|V|$ even we define a random graph $ G^*=(V,E \cup E')$ obtained by picking $E'$ to be the (unordered) pairs of a random perfect matching of $V$. We show that for a sequence of such graphs $G_n$ of diverging sizes and of uniformly bounded degree, if the minimal size of a connected component of $G_n$ is at least 3 for all $n$, then the random walk on $G_n^*$ exhibits cutoff w.h.p. This provides a simple generic operation of adding some randomness to a given graph, which results in cutoff.

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arXiv2021

Supplementary Material for Random Cayley Graphs Project

This document contains supplementary material for the main articles in our Random Cayley Graphs project. We prove refined results about simple random walks on the integers and on the cycle. We are primarily interested in the entropy of these random walks at certain times and how this entropy changes when the time changes slightly. Additionally, we prove some large deviation and exit time estimates. We prove some results on the size of discrete lattice balls and how this size changes when the radius changes slightly. We do this in a general $L_q$ norm, with $q \in [1,\infty]$. We also prove some other technical results deferred from the main papers. We hope that some of the results, particularly the simple random walk estimates, will be useful in their own right for other researchers.

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arXiv2021

Cutoff for Random Walks on Upper Triangular Matrices

Consider the random Cayley graph of a finite group $G$ with respect to $k$ generators chosen uniformly at random, with $1 \ll \log k \ll \log |G|$ (ie $1 \ll k = |G|^{o(1)}$). A conjecture of Aldous and Diaconis (1985) asserts, for $k\gg\log|G|$, that the random walk on this graph exhibits cutoff. When $\log k \lesssim \log\log|G|$ (ie $k = (\log |G|)^{\mathcal O(1)}$), the only example of a non-Abelian group for which cutoff has been established is the dihedral group. We establish cutoff (as $p\to infty$) for the group of $d \times d$ unit upper triangular matrices with integer entries modulo $p$ (prime), which we denote $U_{p,d}$, for fixed $d$ or $d$ diverging sufficiently slowly. We allow $1 \ll k \lesssim \log |U_{p,d}|$ as well as $k\gg\log|U_{p,d}|$. The cutoff time is $\max\{\log_k |U_{p,d}|, \: s_0 k\}$, where $s_0$ is the time at which the entropy of the random walk on $\mathbb Z$ reaches $(\log |U_{p,d}^\mathrm{ab}|)/k$, where $U_{p,d}^\mathrm{ab} \cong \mathbb Z_p^{d-1}$ is the Abelianisation of $U_{p,d}$. When $1 \ll k \ll \log |U_{p,d}^\mathrm{ab}|$ and $d \asymp 1$, we find the limit profile. We also prove highly related results for the $d$-dimensional Heisenberg group over $\mathbb Z_p$. The Aldous--Diaconis conjecture also asserts, for $k gg\log |G|$, that the cutoff time should depend only on $k$ and $|G|$. This was verified for all Abelian groups. Our result shows that this is not the case for $U_{p,d}$: the cutoff time depends on $k$, $|U_{p,d}| = p^{d(d-1)/2}$ and $|U_{p,d}^\mathrm{ab}|=p^{d-1}$. We also show that all but $o(|U_{p,d}|)$ of the elements of $U_{p,d}$ lie at graph distance $M \pm o(M)$ from the identity, where $M$ is the minimal radius of a ball in $\mathbb Z^k$ of cardinality $|U_{p,d}^\mathrm{ab}| = p^{d-1}$. Finally, we show that the diameter is also asymptotically $M$ when $k \gtrsim \log |U_{p,d}^\textrm{ab}|$ and $d\asymp1$.

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arXiv2021

Further Results and Discussions on Random Cayley Graphs

Consider the random Cayley graph of a finite group $G$ with respect to $k$ generators chosen uniformly at random, with $1 \ll k \lesssim \log |G|$. The results of this article supplement those in the three main papers on random Cayley graphs. The majority of the results are inspired by a `universality' conjecture of Aldous and Diaconis (1985). To start, we study the limit profile of cutoff for the simple random walk on this random graph, as well as a detailed investigation into mixing properties when $G = \mathbb Z_p^d$ with $p$ prime. We then exposit a proof of Diaconis and Saloff-Coste (1994) establishing lack of cutoff when $k \asymp 1$. We move onto discussing material from our companion paper on matrix groups. We then study distance of a typical element of $G$ from the identity in an $L_q$-type graph distance in the Abelian set-up. Finally, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for $k$ independent uniform elements of $G$ to generate $G$, ie for the random Cayley graph to be connected, based on work of Pomerance (2001). The aforementioned results all hold with high probability over the random Cayley graph.

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arXiv2021

The interchange process on high-dimensional products

We resolve a long-standing conjecture of Wilson (2004), reiterated by Oliveira (2016), asserting that the mixing-time of the unit-rate Interchange Process on the $n$-dimensional hypercube is of order $n$. This follows from a sharp inequality established at the level of Dirichlet forms, from which we also deduce that macroscopic cycles emerge in constant time, and that the log-Sobolev constant of the exclusion process is of order $1$. Beyond the hypercube, our results apply to cartesian products of arbitrary graphs of fixed size, shedding light on a broad conjecture of Oliveira (2013).

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arXiv2020

Supercritical percolation on nonamenable graphs: Isoperimetry, analyticity, and exponential decay of the cluster size distribution

Let $G$ be a connected, locally finite, transitive graph, and consider Bernoulli bond percolation on $G$. We prove that if $G$ is nonamenable and $p > p_c(G)$ then there exists a positive constant $c_p$ such that \[\mathbf{P}_p(n \leq |K| < \infty) \leq e^{-c_p n}\] for every $n\geq 1$, where $K$ is the cluster of the origin. We deduce the following two corollaries: 1. Every infinite cluster in supercritical percolation on a transitive nonamenable graph has anchored expansion almost surely. This answers positively a question of Benjamini, Lyons, and Schramm (1997). 2. For transitive nonamenable graphs, various observables including the percolation probability, the truncated susceptibility, and the truncated two-point function are analytic functions of $p$ throughout the supercritical phase.

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arXiv2020

The exclusion process mixes (almost) faster than independent particles

Oliveira conjectured that the order of the mixing time of the exclusion process with $k$-particles on an arbitrary $n$-vertex graph is at most that of the mixing-time of $k$ independent particles. We verify this up to a constant factor for $d$-regular graphs when each edge rings at rate $1/d$ in various cases: (1) when $d = Ω( \log_{n/k} n)$, (2) when $\mathrm{gap}:=$ the spectral-gap of a single walk is $ O ( 1/\log^4 n) $ and $k \ge n^{Ω(1)}$, (3) when $k \asymp n^{a}$ for some constant $0<a<1$. In these cases our analysis yields a probabilistic proof of a weaker version of Aldous' famous spectral-gap conjecture (resolved by Caputo et al.). We also prove a general bound of $O(\log n \log \log n / \mathrm{gap})$, which is within a $\log \log n$ factor from Oliveira's conjecture when $k \ge n^{Ω(1)}$. As applications we get new mixing bounds: (a) $O(\log n \log \log n)$ for expanders, (b) order $ d\log (dk) $ for the hypercube $\{0,1\}^d$, (c) order $(\mathrm{Diameter})^2 \log k $ for vertex-transitive graphs of moderate growth and for supercritical percolation on a fixed dimensional torus.

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arXiv2020

Modified log-Sobolev inequalities for strong-Rayleigh measures

We establish universal modified log-Sobolev inequalities for reversible Markov chains on the boolean lattice $\{0,1\}^n$, under the only assumption that the invariant law $π$ satisfies a form of negative dependence known as the stochastic covering property. This condition is strictly weaker than the strong Rayleigh property, and is satisfied in particular by all determinantal measures, as well as any product measure over the set of bases of a balanced matroid. In the special case where $π$ is $k-$homogeneous, our results imply the celebrated concentration inequality for Lipschitz functions due to Pemantle & Peres (2014). As another application, we deduce that the natural Monte-Carlo Markov Chain used to sample from $π$ has mixing time at most $kn\log\log\frac{1}{π(x)}$ when initialized in state $x$. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work relating negative dependence and modified log-Sobolev inequalities.

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arXiv2020

A comparison principle for random walk on dynamical percolation

We consider the model of random walk on dynamical percolation introduced by Peres, Stauffer and Steif (2015). We obtain comparison results for this model for hitting and mixing times and for the spectral-gap and log-Sobolev constant with the corresponding quantities for simple random walk on the underlying graph $G$, for general graphs. When $G$ is the torus $\mathbb{Z}_n^d$, we recover the results of Peres et al. and we also extend them to the critical case. We also obtain bounds in the cases where $G$ is a transitive graph of moderate growth and also when it is the hypercube.

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arXiv2019

Rapid Mixing of Hypergraph Independent Set

We prove that the the mixing time of the Glauber dynamics for sampling independent sets on $n$-vertex $k$-uniform hypergraphs is $O(n\log n)$ when the maximum degree $Δ$ satisfies $Δ\leq c 2^{k/2}$, improving on the previous bound [BDK06] of $Δ\leq k-2$. This result brings the algorithmic bound to within a constant factor of the hardness bound of [BGG+16] which showed that it is NP-hard to approximately count independent sets on hypergraphs when $Δ\geq 5 \cdot 2^{k/2}$.

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arXiv2019

A spectral characterization for concentration of the cover time

We prove that for a sequence of finite vertex-transitive graphs of increasing sizes, the cover times are asymptotically concentrated if and only if the product of the spectral-gap and the expected cover time diverges. In fact, we prove this for general reversible Markov chains under the much weaker assumption (than transitivity) that the maximal hitting time of a state is of the same order as the average hitting time.

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arXiv2019

No percolation at criticality on certain groups of intermediate growth

We prove that critical percolation has no infinite clusters almost surely on any unimodular quasi-transitive graph satisfying a return probability upper bound of the form $p_n(v,v) \leq \exp\left[-Ω(n^γ)\right]$ for some $γ>1/2$. The result is new in the case that the graph is of intermediate volume growth.

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arXiv2019

The social network model on infinite graphs

Given an infinite connected regular graph $G=(V,E)$, place at each vertex Pois($λ$) walkers performing independent lazy simple random walks on $G$ simultaneously. When two walkers visit the same vertex at the same time they are declared to be acquainted. We show that when $G$ is vertex-transitive and amenable, for all $λ>0$ a.s. any pair of walkers will eventually have a path of acquaintances between them. In contrast, we show that when $G$ is non-amenable (not necessarily transitive) there is always a phase transition at some $λ_{c}(G)>0$. We give general bounds on $λ_{c}(G)$ and study the case that $G$ is the $d$-regular tree in more details. Finally, we show that in the non-amenable setup, for every $λ$ there exists a finite time $t_λ(G)$ such that a.s. there exists an infinite set of walkers having a path of acquaintances between them by time $t_λ(G)$.

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arXiv2019

Rapid social connectivity

Given a graph $G=(V,E)$, consider Poisson($ |V|$) walkers performing independent lazy simple random walks on $G$ simultaneously, where the initial position of each walker is chosen independently with probability proportional to the degrees. When two walkers visit the same vertex at the same time they are declared to be acquainted. The social connectivity time $\mathrm{SC}(G)$ is defined as the first time in which there is a path of acquaintances between every pair of walkers. It is shown that when the average degree of $G$ is $d$, with high probability \[ c\log |V| \le \mathrm{SC}(G) \le C d^{1+5 \cdot 1_{G \text{ is not regular}} } \log^3 |V|.\] When $G$ is regular the lower bound is improved to $\mathrm{SC}(G) \ge \log |V| -6 \log \log |V| $, with high probability. We determine $\mathrm{SC}(G)$ up to a constant factor in the cases that $G$ is an expander and when it is the $n$-cycle.

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arXiv2019

Entropy dissipation estimates for inhomogeneous zero-range processes

Introduced by Lu and Yau (CMP, 1993), the martingale decomposition method is a powerful recursive strategy that has produced sharp log-Sobolev inequalities for homogeneous particle systems. However, the intractability of certain covariance terms has so far precluded applications to heterogeneous models. Here we demonstrate that the existence of an appropriate coupling can be exploited to bypass this limitation effortlessly. Our main result is a dimension-free modified log-Sobolev inequality for zero-range processes on the complete graph, under the only requirement that all rate increments lie in a compact subset of $(0,\infty)$. This settles an open problem raised by Caputo and Posta (PTRF, 2007) and reiterated by Caputo, Dai Pra and Posta (AIHP, 2009). We believe that our approach is simple enough to be applicable to many systems.

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arXiv2019

Recurrence of Markov chain traces

It is shown that transient graphs for the simple random walk do not admit a nearest neighbor transient Markov chain (not necessarily a reversible one), that crosses all edges with positive probability, while there is such chain for the square grid $\mathbb{Z}^2$. In particular, the $d$-dimensional grid $\mathbb{Z}^d$ admits such a Markov chain only when $d=2$. For $d=2$ we present a relevant example due to Gady Kozma, while the general statement for transient graphs is obtained by proving that for every transient irreducible Markov chain on a countable state space, which admits a stationary measure, its trace is a.s. recurrent for simple random walk. The case that the Markov chain is reversible is due to Gurel-Gurevich, Lyons and the first named author (2007). We exploit recent results in potential theory of non-reversible Markov chains in order to extend their result to the non-reversible setup.

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