Gibbs sampling also known as Glauber dynamics is a popular technique for sampling high dimensional distributions defined on graphs. Of special interest is the behavior of Gibbs sampling on the Erd o s-R 'enyi random graph G(n,d n). While the average degree in G(n,d n) is d(1-o(1)), it contains many nodes of degree of order @math . The existence of nodes of almost logarithmic degrees implies that for many natural distributions defined on G(n,p) such as uniform coloring or the Ising model, the mixing time of Gibbs sampling is at least @math . High degree nodes pose a technical challenge in proving polynomial time mixing of the dynamics for many models including coloring. In this work consider sampling q-colorings and show that for every $d 1 where the number of colors does not depend on n. They extend to much more general families of graphs which are sparse in some average sense and to much more general interactions. The results also generalize to the hard-core model at low fugacity and to general models of soft constraints at high temperatures.
@cite_5: Consider a collection of random variables attached to the vertices of a graph. The reconstruction problem requires to estimate one of them given far away' observations. Several theoretical results (and simple algorithms) are available when their joint probability distribution is Markov with respect to a tree. In this paper we consider the case of sequences of random graphs that converge locally to trees. In particular, we develop a sufficient condition for the tree and graph reconstruction problem to coincide. We apply such condition to colorings of random graphs. Further, we characterize the behavior of Ising models on such graphs, both with attractive and random interactions (respectively, ferromagnetic' and spin glass').
@cite_9: We analyze Markov chains for generating a random k-coloring of a random graph Gn,d n. When the average degree d is constant, a random graph has maximum degree Θ(log n log log n), with high probability. We show that, with high probability, an efficient procedure can generate an almost uniformly random k-coloring when k = Θ(log log n log log log n), i.e., with many fewer colors than the maximum degree. Previous results hold for a more general class of graphs, but always require more colors than the maximum degree. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2006
@cite_10: We consider local Markov chain Monte–Carlo algorithms for sampling from the weighted distribution of independent sets with activity λ, where the weight of an independent set I is λ|I|. A recent result has established that Gibbs sampling is rapidly mixing in sampling the distribution for graphs of maximum degree d and λ λ c it is NP-hard to approximate the above weighted sum over independent sets to within a factor polynomial in the size of the graph.
@cite_20: In this work we show that for every @math , such that for all @math where the parameters of the model do not depend on @math . They also provide a rare example where one can prove a polynomial time mixing of Gibbs sampler in a situation where the actual mixing time is slower than @math . Our proof exploits in novel ways the local treelike structure of Erd o s-R 'enyi random graphs, comparison and block dynamics arguments and a recent result of Weitz. Our results extend to much more general families of graphs which are sparse in some average sense and to much more general interactions. In particular, they apply to any graph for which every vertex @math of the graph has a neighborhood @math of radius @math in which the induced sub-graph is a tree union at most @math edges and where for each simple path in @math the sum of the vertex degrees along the path is @math . Moreover, our result apply also in the case of arbitrary external fields and provide the first FPRAS for sampling the Ising distribution in this case. We finally present a non Markov Chain algorithm for sampling the distribution which is effective for a wider range of parameters. In particular, for @math it applies for all external fields and @math , where @math is the critical point for decay of correlation for the Ising model on @math .
We note that for all @math and all @math the mixing time of Gibbs sampling on @math is with high probability at least @math , see @cite_9 @cite_20 for details. It is an important challenge to find the critical @math for rapid mixing. In particular, the question is if the threshold can be formulated in terms of the coloring model on a branching process tree with @math degree distribution. One would expect rapid mixing for in the uniqueness phase'', but perhaps even beyond it, see @cite_10 @cite_20 @cite_5 .