Modified log-Sobolev inequalities, Beckner inequalities and moment estimates

Abstract: We prove that in the context of general Markov semigroups Beckner inequalities with constants separated from zero as $p\to 1^+$ are equivalent to the modified log Sobolev inequality (previously only one implication was known to hold in this generality). Further, by adapting an argument by Boucheron et al. we derive Sobolev type moment estimates which hold under these functional inequalities. We illustrate our results with applications to concentration of measure estimates (also of higher order, beyond the case of Lipschitz functions) for various stochastic models, including random permutations, zero-range processes, strong Rayleigh measures, exponential random graphs, and geometric functionals on the Poisson path space.