  We prove that the spectral gap of the Swendsen-Wang process for the Potts
model on graphs with bounded degree is bounded from below by some constant
times the spectral gap of any single-spin dynamics. This implies rapid mixing
of the Swendsen-Wang process for the two-dimensional Potts model at all
temperatures above the critical one, as well as rapid mixing at the critical
temperature for the Ising model. After this we introduce a modified version of
the Swendsen-Wang algorithm for planar graphs and prove rapid mixing for the
two-dimensional Potts models at all non-critical temperatures.
