How quickly can we sample a uniform domino tiling of the 2L x 2L square via Glauber dynamics?

TThe prototypical problem we study here is the following. Given a $2L\times 2L$ square, there are approximately $\exp(4KL^2/\pi )$ ways to tile it with dominos, i.e. with horizontal or vertical $2\times 1$ rectangles, where $K\approx 0.916$ is Catalan's constant [Kasteleyn '61, Temperley-Fisher '61]. A conceptually simple (even if computationally not the most efficient) way of sampling uniformly one among so many tilings is to introduce a Markov Chain algorithm (Glauber dynamics) where, with rate $1$, two adjacent horizontal dominos are flipped to vertical dominos, or vice-versa. The unique invariant measure is the uniform one and a classical question [Wilson 2004,Luby-Randall-Sinclair 2001] is to estimate the time $T_{mix}$ it takes to approach equilibrium (i.e. the running time of the algorithm). In [Luby-Randall-Sinclair 2001, Randall-Tetali 2000], fast mixin was proven: $T_{mix}=O(L^C)$ for some finite $C$. Here, we go much beyond and show that $c L^2\le T_{mix}\le L^{2+o(1)}$. Our result applies to rather general domain shapes (not just the $2L\times 2L$ square), provided that the typical height function associated to the tiling is macroscopically planar in the large $L$ limit, under the uniform measure (this is the case for instance for the Temperley-type boundary conditions considered in [Kenyon 2000]). Also, our method extends to some other types of tilings of the plane, for instance the tilings associated to dimer coverings of the hexagon or square-hexagon lattices.Comment: to appear on PTRF; 42 pages, 9 figures; v2: typos corrected, references adde

Quantum Crystals and Spin Chains

In this note, we discuss the quantum version of the melting crystal corner in one, two, and three dimensions, generalizing the treatment for the quantum dimer model. Using a mapping to spin chains we find that the two--dimensional case (growth of random partitions) is integrable and leads directly to the Hamiltonian of the Heisenberg XXZ ferromagnet. The three--dimensional case of the melting crystal corner is described in terms of a system of coupled XXZ spin chains. We give a conjecture for its mass gap and analyze the system numerically.Comment: 34 pages, 26 picture

Number of Matchings of Low Order in (4,6)-Fullerene Graphs

We obtain the formulae for the numbers of 4-matchings and 5-matchings in terms of the number of hexagonal faces in (4, 6)-fullerene graphs by studying structural classification of 6-cycles and some local structural properties, which correct the corresponding wrong results published. Furthermore, we obtain a formula for the number of 6-matchings in tubular (4, 6)-fullerenes in terms of the number of hexagonal faces, and a formula for the number of 6-matchings in the other (4,6)-fullerenes in terms of the numbers of hexagonal faces and dual-squares.Comment: This article was already published in 2017 in MATCH Commun. Math. Comput. Chem. We are uploading it to arXiv for readers' convenienc

Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage-like protocols for amplitude transfer generalize to many bipartite graphs

Adiabatic passage techniques, used to drive a system from one quantum state into another, find widespread application in physics and chemistry. We focus on techniques to spatially transport a quantum amplitude over a strongly coupled system, such as STImulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) and Coherent Tunnelling by Adiabatic Passage (CTAP). Previous results were shown to work on certain graphs, such as linear chains, square and triangular lattices, and branched chains. We prove that similar protocols work much more generally, in a large class of (semi-)bipartite graphs. In particular, under random couplings, adiabatic transfer is possible on graphs that admit a perfect matching both when the sender is removed and when the receiver is removed. Many of the favorable stability properties of STIRAP/CTAP are inherited, and our results readily apply to transfer between multiple potential senders and receivers. We numerically test transfer between the leaves of a tree, and find surprisingly accurate transfer, especially when straddling is used. Our results may find applications in short-distance communication between multiple quantum computers, and open up a new question in graph theory about the spectral gap around the value 0.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. v2 is made more mathematical and precise than v