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Does the cutoff phenomenon for systematic scan Glauber dynamics on the mean-field Potts model persist at the critical temperature, and if so, what is the precise window width?

Related: Aldous-Diaconis cutoff conjecture, Peres cutoff criterion for reversible chains, Berger-Kenyon-Mossel-Peres spectral gap results for Glauber dynamics

Resolving this question would provide a template for understanding mixing at criticality more broadly, a regime largely absent from the rigorous cutoff literature. It would clarify whether algorithmic choices like scan order matter for the sharpness of convergence near phase transitions, which is directly relevant to the practical efficiency of systematic scan MCMC in statistical physics and Bayesian computation. It would also likely require new techniques connecting spectral theory of non-reversible chains, renormalization group ideas near criticality, and precise large deviation estimates, advances that would have independent value across probability theory and the theory of algorithms.

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