Tunneling of the hard-core model on finite triangular lattices
A hard-core configuration on a finite triangular lattice
Abstract
We consider the hard-core model on finite triangular lattices with Metropolis dynamics. Under suitable conditions on the triangular lattice sizes, this interacting particle system has ${3}$ maximum-occupancy configurations and we investigate its high-fugacity behavior by studying tunneling times, that is, the first hitting times between these maximum-occupancy configurations, and the mixing time. The proof method relies on the analysis of the corresponding state space using geometrical and combinatorial properties of the hard-core configurations on finite triangular lattices, in combination with known results for first hitting times of Metropolis Markov chains in the equivalent zero-temperature limit. In particular, we show how the order of magnitude of the expected tunneling times depends on the triangular lattice sizes in the low-temperature regime and prove the asymptotic exponentiality of the rescaled tunneling time leveraging the intrinsic symmetry of the state space.
