  We consider dense wireless random-access networks, modeled as systems of
particles with hard-core interaction. The particles represent the network users
that try to become active after an exponential back-off time, and stay active
for an exponential transmission time. Due to wireless interference, active
users prevent other nearby users from simultaneous activity, which we describe
as hard-core interaction on a conflict graph. We show that dense networks with
aggressive back-off schemes lead to extremely slow transitions between dominant
states, and inevitably cause long mixing times and starvation effects.
