Algorithms for #BIS-hard problems on expander graphs

Abstract

We give an FPTAS and an efficient sampling algorithm for the high-fugacity hard-core model on bounded-degree bipartite expander graphs and the low-temperature ferromagnetic Potts model on bounded-degree expander graphs. The results apply, for example, to random (bipartite) ∆-regular graphs, for which no efficient algorithms were known for these problems (with the exception of the Ising model) in the non-uniqueness regime of the infinite ∆-regular tree.