The repulsive lattice gas is an important model in equilibrium statistical mechanics, and has been studied extensively by mathematical physicists. In the special case of a hard-core nearest-neighbor exclusion (i.e. no pair of adjacent sites can be simultaneously occupied), the partition function of the lattice gas on a graph coincides with the independent-set polynomial. Much effort has been devoted to finding regions in the complex plane in which this function is nonvanishing
The Lovasz Local Lemma is a valuable tool in probabilistic combinatorics for estimating the probability that none of a collection of "bad" events occurs. It applies when dependence between events can be controlled by a "dependency graph", and is useful when the graph is very sparse.
In this talk, which presents joint work with Alan Sokal, I will examine a connection between these two apparently disparate subjects. I will discuss closely related results of Shearer in probabilistic combinatorics and of Dobrushin in mathematical physics, as well as a "soft" generalization of the Lovasz Local Lemma.
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