Block factorization of the relative entropy via spatial mixing

We consider spin systems in the $d$-dimensional lattice $Z^d$ satisfying the so-called strong spatial mixing condition. We show that the relative entropy functional of the corresponding Gibbs measure satisfies a family of inequalities which control the entropy on a given region $V\subset Z^d$ in terms of a weighted sum of the entropies on blocks $A\subset V$ when each $A$ is given an arbitrary nonnegative weight $\alpha_A$. These inequalities generalize the well known logarithmic Sobolev inequality for the Glauber dynamics. Moreover, they provide a natural extension of the classical Shearer inequality satisfied by the Shannon entropy. Finally, they imply a family of modified logarithmic Sobolev inequalities which give quantitative control on the convergence to equilibrium of arbitrary weighted block dynamics of heat bath type.