Partition function expansion on region graphs and message-passing equations

Disordered and frustrated graphical systems are ubiquitous in physics, biology, and information science. For models on complete graphs or random graphs, deep understanding has been achieved through the mean-field replica and cavity methods. But finite-dimensional 'real' systems remain very challenging because of the abundance of short loops and strong local correlations. A statistical mechanics theory is constructed in this paper for finite-dimensional models based on the mathematical framework of the partition function expansion and the concept of region graphs. Rigorous expressions for the free energy and grand free energy are derived. Message-passing equations on the region graph, such as belief propagation and survey propagation, are also derived rigorously.