Spectral gaps for mean-field Coulomb gases

Abstract

We prove a Poincar\'e inequality, uniform in the particle number, for repulsive (one-component) Coulomb gases in dimensions $d\ge3$, with inverse temperature $\beta_N$ that is allowed to depend on $N$. We assume a weak-coupling condition expressed in terms of the effective interaction strength $\Theta_N$ seen by a single particle. This yields exponential relaxation for the associated overdamped Langevin dynamics. The main ingredient is a one-site Poincar\'e inequality uniform in the number and positions of the Coulomb poles, including coincident poles. A moving-pole estimate and Dobrushin-Wu tensorization yield the many-particle lower bound, while the center-of-mass coordinate gives the matching upper bound.