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First page of Approximate Counting for Mixed $p$-Spin Glasses in Weak External Fields via Cluster Expansion

Approximate Counting for Mixed $p$-Spin Glasses in Weak External Fields via Cluster Expansion

Qiang Wu

math.PR Oct 27, 2026 · v1 cond-mat.dis-nn cs.DS
The authors developed a companion Lean formalization of the work, assisted by Codex and posted on GitHub.
We give algorithms for approximating the partition function $Z_N$ of the Sherrington–Kirkpatrick (SK) model and finite mixed Ising $p$-spin models with $p\ge 3$. The algorithms apply at a fixed margin below the second-moment threshold $β_{\mathrm f}$ with homogeneous weak external fields $|h|\leqρ_0N^{-1/4}$, for fixed $ρ_0>0$. For any accuracy $\varepsilon\in(0,1)$ and failure parameter $δ\in(0,1)$, they approximate $\log Z_N$ to additive error $\varepsilon$. The number of exact operations is polynomial jointly in $N$, $\varepsilon^{-1}$, and $δ^{-1}$. The disorder variables have i.i.d symmetric distribution with unit variance. The failure probability is at most $δ$ plus an explicit disorder tail bound. This tail bound tends to zero under a finite fourth moment condition. Our approach builds on the cluster expansions of Aizenman–Lebowitz–Ruelle \cite{ALR87} and Dey–Wu \cites{DW23,DW26}. For higher-order mixtures, we retain hypergraphs using few vertices and evaluate their total weight deterministically through local spin averages and inclusion–exclusion. For SK, we impose cutoffs on the number of vertices of degree at least three and on the total number of edges. We estimate the retained sum using randomized color coding \cite{AYZ95}. A lower tail control based on reverse hypercontractivity \cite{MOS13} converts the mean-square approximation of the normalized partition function into logarithmic accuracy.

Approximating the partition function of the Sherrington–Kirkpatrick model and finite mixed Ising p-spin glasses (p ≥ 3) in polynomial time, at inverse temperatures a fixed margin below the second-moment threshold and with weak homogeneous external fields |h| ≤ ρ0 N^{-1/4}.

The method uses the cluster expansions of Aizenman–Lebowitz–Ruelle and Dey–Wu, writing the normalized partition function as a sum of graph or hypergraph weights. For higher-order mixtures, hypergraphs with few vertices are kept and their weight is computed deterministically through local spin averages and inclusion–exclusion. For SK, cutoffs are placed on the number of branching vertices and on the number of edges, and the retained sum is estimated with randomized color coding. A lower-tail bound based on reverse hypercontractivity converts mean-square accuracy into accuracy for log Z_N. A companion Lean formalization was posted on GitHub.

The algorithms approximate log Z_N to additive error ε using a number of operations polynomial in N, 1/ε and 1/δ. The failure probability is at most δ plus an explicit disorder tail bound, which tends to zero under a finite fourth moment condition.