The Simple Exclusion Process on the Circle has a diffusive Cutoff Window

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the mixing time of the simple exclusion process on the circle with $N$ sites, with a number of particle $k(N)$ tending to infinity, both from the worst initial condition and from a typical initial condition. We show that the worst-case mixing time is asymptotically equivalent to $(8\pi^2)^{-1}N^2\log k$, while the cutoff window, is identified to be $N^2$. Starting from a typical condition, we show that there is no cutoff and that the mixing time is of order $N^2$.