How to clean a dirty floor: Probabilistic potential theory and the Dobrushin uniqueness theorem

Authors Thierry de la Rue, Roberto Fernandez, Alan D. Sokal

Publication date 29 September 2008

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0704.3156

balayage cleaning operator Dobrushin uniqueness theorem Nonnegative matrix probabilistic potential theory spectral radius

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Positive matrices and their generalizations; cones of matrices (15B48) Generalizations of potential theory (31C99) Normal analytic spaces (32C20) Markov chains (discrete-time Markov processes on discrete state spaces) (60J10) Probabilistic potential theory (60J45) Markov processes (60J99) Lattice systems (Ising, dimer, Potts, etc.) and systems on graphs arising in equilibrium statistical mechanics (82B20)

Abstract: Motivated by the Dobrushin uniqueness theorem in statistical mechanics, we consider the following situation: Let alpha be a nonnegative matrix over a finite or countably infinite index set X, and define the "cleaning operators" �eta_h = I_{1-h} + I_h alpha for h: X o [0,1] (here I_f denotes the diagonal matrix with entries f). We ask: For which "cleaning sequences" h_1, h_2, ... do we have c �eta_{h_1} ... �eta_{h_n} o 0 for a suitable class of "dirt vectors" c? We show, under a modest condition on alpha, that this occurs whenever sum_i h_i = infty everywhere on X. More generally, we analyze the cleaning of subsets Lambda subseteq X and the final distribution of dirt on the complement of Lambda. We show that when supp(h_i) subseteq Lambda with sum_i h_i = infty everywhere on Lambda, the operators �eta_{h_1} ... �eta_{h_n} converge as n o infty to the "balayage operator" Pi_Lambda = sum_{k=0}^infty (I_Lambda alpha)^k I_{Lambda^c). These results are obtained in two ways: by a fairly simple matrix formalism, and by a more powerful tree formalism that corresponds to working with formal power series in which the matrix elements of alpha are treated as noncommuting indeterminates.

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