  Scaling behavior is studied of several dominant eigenvalues of spectra of
Markov matrices and the associated correlation times governing critical slowing
down in models in the universality class of the two-dimensional Ising model. A
scheme is developed to optimize variational approximants of progressively
rapid, independent relaxation modes. These approximants are used to reduce the
variance of results obtained by means of an adaptation of a quantum Monte Carlo
method to compute eigenvalues subject to errors predominantly of statistical
nature. The resulting spectra and correlation times are found to be universal
up to a single, non-universal time scale for each model.
