arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Xiongxin Yang.
In this note, we give a simple analysis of a non-adaptive simulated annealing algorithm for estimating the partition function of Gibbs distributions. This yields the most efficient reduction of this kind so far. We also establish lower bounds for both general and non-adaptive algorithms, showing that our algorithm is optimal over a broad range of parameters.
We give an FPRAS for the permanent of an $n\times n$ $0/1$ matrix with running time $\widetilde{O}(n^{3.5}\varepsilon^{-2})$. Our algorithm extends to a strongly polynomial FPRAS for arbitrary nonnegative matrices, as in previous works. Jerrum, Sinclair, and Vigoda (2004) gave the first FPRAS for the permanent of a nonnegative matrix. The running time was subsequently improved to $\widetilde{O}(n^7)$ by Bezáková, Štefankovič, Vazirani, and Vigoda (2008), and recently to $\widetilde{O}(n^6)$ by Chen, Vigoda, and Yang (2026). We introduce a multicommodity-flow bound inspired by electrical flows, replacing the usual path-length factor by routing energy. For a boosted version of the classical JSV chain, we prove a relaxation-time bound of $O(n^3\log n)$ and show that stationary trajectories of this length estimate all stationary hole-pattern probabilities, yielding an $\widetilde O(n^5)$-time FPRAS algorithm. Our new hole-weighted slide (HWS) chain improves both bounds to $O(n^2\log n)$, yielding an $\widetilde O(n^4)$-time algorithm. Finally, we obtain the claimed $\widetilde O(n^{3.5})$ running time by using a subset of $\widetilde{O}(\sqrt{n})$ checkpoint temperatures in an iterated sequence of warm-starts to obtain initializations at every temperature.
The permanent of an $n\times n$ $0/1$ matrix $A$ equals the number of perfect matchings in the bipartite graph with edges defined by $A$. Jerrum, Sinclair, and Vigoda (2004) presented an FPRAS for approximating the permanent of any nonnegative matrix using a novel simulated-annealing algorithm. The running time was improved by Bezáková, Štefankovič, Vazirani, and Vigoda (2008) to $O(n^7\log^4 n)$ for $0/1$ matrices, for any fixed approximation and success parameters. We present the first asymptotic improvement over this running time bound, obtaining an $O(n^6\log^5 n)$-time algorithm. As in the previous works, our algorithm extends to arbitrary nonnegative matrices. The analysis of Bezáková et al. yields an $O(n^4)$ relaxation time bound for the JSV Markov chain on perfect and near-perfect matchings with ideal hole weights, under which each hole pattern (the unmatched vertices, if any) is equally likely in the stationary distribution. We introduce a restricted Poincaré inequality for the partition into hole patterns and prove an $O(n^3)$ bound on the corresponding restricted relaxation time. Our proof uses a coupled multicommodity flow argument inspired by a recent transport-flow argument of Chen et al.~(2025) for the Jerrum-Sinclair chain on all matchings.
We present a construction of a family of $0/1$-polytopes whose edge expansion decreases exponentially with the dimension, which disproves the Mihail-Vazirani conjecture that the graph of every $0/1$-polytope has edge expansion at least one.
The problem of learning constant-depth circuits holds profound implications for computational learning theory. In a seminal result, by introducing the low-degree algorithm, Linial, Mansour, and Nisan (J. ACM 1993) presented a quasipolynomial-time learner for $\mathsf{AC}^0$ under the uniform distribution. However, obtaining comparable learning guarantees for broader classes of correlated distributions has remained a longstanding challenge. Recently, Chandrasekaran, Gaitonde, Moitra, and Vasilyan (arXiv 2026) extended these guarantees to Gibbs distributions on bounded-degree graphical models with both strong spatial mixing and polynomial growth. In this paper, we give a quasipolynomial-time learner for $\mathsf{AC}^0$ under graphical models that admit efficient local samplers, circumventing the polynomial-growth requirement in prior work. The key ingredient is a new low-degree approximation for Gibbs distributions, established by simulating and suitably truncating the classical Glauber dynamics. As applications, this framework yields learners for two-spin systems, including the hard-core model and Ising model, on arbitrary bounded-degree graphs, in regimes approaching their respective sampling thresholds.
We study the problem of learning a $n$-variables $k$-CNF formula $Φ$ from its i.i.d. uniform random solutions, which is equivalent to learning a Boolean Markov random field (MRF) with $k$-wise hard constraints. Revisiting Valiant's algorithm (Commun. ACM'84), we show that it can exactly learn (1) $k$-CNFs with bounded clause intersection size under Lovász local lemma type conditions, from $O(\log n)$ samples; and (2) random $k$-CNFs near the satisfiability threshold, from $\widetilde{O}(n^{\exp(-\sqrt{k})})$ samples. These results significantly improve the previous $O(n^k)$ sample complexity. We further establish new information-theoretic lower bounds on sample complexity for both exact and approximate learning from i.i.d. uniform random solutions.
We study how to establish $\textit{spectral independence}$, a key concept in sampling, without relying on total influence bounds, by applying an $\textit{approximate inverse}$ of the influence matrix. Our method gives constant upper bounds on spectral independence for two foundational Gibbs distributions known to have unbounded total influences: $\bullet$ The monomer-dimer model on graphs with large girth (including trees). Prior to our work, such results were only known for graphs with constant maximum degrees or infinite regular trees, as shown by Chen, Liu, and Vigoda (STOC '21). $\bullet$ The hardcore model on trees with fugacity $λ< \mathrm{e}^2$. This remarkably surpasses the well-known $λ_r>\mathrm{e}-1$ lower bound for the reconstruction threshold on trees, significantly improving upon the current threshold $λ< 1.3$, established in a prior work by Efthymiou, Hayes, Štefankovič, and Vigoda (RANDOM '23). Consequently, we establish optimal $Ω(n^{-1})$ spectral gaps of the Glauber dynamics for these models on arbitrary trees, regardless of the maximum degree $Δ$.
We study the approximability of the four-vertex model, a special case of the six-vertex model.We prove that, despite being NP-hard to approximate in the worst case, the four-vertex model admits a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme (FPRAS) when the input satisfies certain linear equation system over GF(2).The FPRAS is given by a Markov chain known as the worm process, whose state space and rapid mixing rely on the solution of the linear equation system. This is the first attempt to design an FPRAS for the six-vertex model with unwindable constraint functions.Additionally, we explore the applications of this technique on planar graphs, providing efficient sampling algorithms.
The six-vertex model is an important model in statistical physics and has deep connections with counting problems. There have been some fully polynomial randomized approximation schemes (FPRAS) for the six-vertex model [30, 10], which all require that the constraint functions are windable. In the present paper, we give an FPRAS for the six-vertex model with an unwindable constraint function by Markov Chain Monte Carlo method (MCMC). Different from [10], we use the Glauber dynamics to design the Markov Chain depending on a circuit decomposition of the underlying graph. Moreover, we prove the rapid mixing of the Markov Chain by coupling, instead of canonical paths in [10].