Cutoff Phenomenon for Inhomogeneous Nonlinear Recombination in Arbitrary Finite Product Spaces

Abstract

In this article, we prove the cutoff phenomenon for a general class of the discrete-time nonlinear recombination models. This system models the evolution of a probability measure on a finite product space $S^n$ representing the state of spins on $n$ sites. Although its stationary distribution has a product structure, and its evolution is Markovian, the dynamics of the model is nonlinear. Consequently, the estimation of the mixing time becomes a highly non-trivial task. The special case with two spins and homogeneous stationary measure was considered in Caputo, Labb\'e, and Lacoin [The Annals of Applied Probability 35:1164-1197, 2025], where the cutoff phenomenon for the mixing behavior has been verified. In this article, we extend this result to the general case with finite spins and inhomogeneous stationary measure by developing a novel algebraic representation for the density fluctuation of the system with respect to its stationary state.