Coalescing and branching simple symmetric exclusion process

TL;DR

This paper studies a reversible coalescing and branching exclusion process on finite graphs, providing bounds on its mixing properties, especially in the regime where particle density approaches zero, with implications for kinetically constrained models.

Contribution

It offers tight bounds on the logarithmic Sobolev constant and relaxation time for the process, extending results to more general graphs and related kinetically constrained models.

Findings

Derived bounds on mixing times and relaxation times.

Extended analysis to more general graphs and models.

Improved understanding of the supercritical regime in particle systems.

Abstract

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.