Is breaking of ensemble equivalence monotone in the number of constraints?

Abstract

Breaking of ensemble equivalence between the microcanonical ensemble and the canonical ensemble may occur for random graphs whose size tends to infinity, and is signaled by a non-zero specific relative entropy between the two ensembles. In Garlaschelli et al. (2017) and Garlaschelli et al. (0000) it was shown that breaking occurs when the constraint is put on the degree sequence (configuration model). It is not known what is the effect on the relative entropy when the number of constraints is reduced, i.e., when only part of the nodes are constrained in their degree (and the remaining nodes are left unconstrained). Intuitively, the relative entropy is expected to decrease. However, this is not a trivial issue because when constraints are removed both the microcanonical ensemble and the canonical ensemble change. In this paper a formula for the relative entropy valid for generic discrete random structures, recently formulated by Squartini and Garlaschelli, is used to prove that the relative entropy is monotone in the number of constraints when the constraint is on the degrees of the nodes. It is further shown that the expression for the relative entropy corresponds, in the dense regime, to the degrees in the microcanonical ensemble being asymptotically multivariate Dirac and in the canonical ensemble being asymptotically Gaussian.