Is it possible to mine empty block without downloading entire blockchain? As far as I can understand, whole blockchain is required for verifying and discarding double-spend transactions. Also, mining empty block is accepted by bitcoin's blockchain protocol.

When we want to mine empty block, we don't need to validate transactions, because there are no transactions (except block reward) in our empty block. Is it mean, we don't need to download entire blockchain for mining empty block?
Yes. The only things you need to create a block are:


Hash of topmost block
It's height