A Course On Large Deviations With An Introduction To Gibbs Measures

This is an introductory course on the methods of computing asymptotics of probabilities of rare events: the theory of large deviations. The book combines large deviation theory with basic statistical mechanics, namely Gibbs measures with their variational characterization and the phase transition of the Ising model, in a text intended for a one semester or quarter course. The book begins with a straightforward approach to the key ideas and results of large deviation theory in the context of independent identically distributed random variables. This includes Cramér's theorem, relative entropy, Sanov's theorem, process level large deviations, convex duality, and change of measure arguments. Dependence is introduced through the interactions potentials of equilibrium statistical mechanics. The phase transition of the Ising model is proved in two different ways: first in the classical way with the Peierls argument, Dobrushin's uniqueness condition, and correlation inequalities and then a second time through the percolation approach. Beyond the large deviations of independent variables and Gibbs measures, later parts of the book treat large deviations of Markov chains, the Gärtner-Ellis theorem, and a large deviation theorem of Baxter and Jain that is then applied to a nonstationary process and a random walk in a dynamical random environment. The book has been used with students from mathematics, statistics, engineering, and the sciences and has been written for a broad audience with advanced technical training. Appendixes review basic material from analysis and probability theory and also prove some of the technical results used in the text.

This book studies the large deviations for empirical measures and vector-valued additive functionals of Markov chains with general state space. Under suitable recurrence conditions, the ergodic theorem for additive functionals of a Markov chain asserts the almost sure convergence of the averages of a real or vector-valued function of the chain to the mean of the function with respect to the invariant distribution. In the case of empirical measures, the ergodic theorem states the almost sure convergence in a suitable sense to the invariant distribution. The large deviation theorems provide precise asymptotic estimates at logarithmic level of the probabilities of deviating from the preponderant behavior asserted by the ergodic theorems.

This is the second printing of the book first published in 1988. The first four chapters of the volume are based on lectures given by Stroock at MIT in 1987. They form an introduction to the basic ideas of the theory of large deviations and make a suitable package on which to base a semester-length course for advanced graduate students with a strong background in analysis and some probability theory. A large selection of exercises presents important material and many applications. The last two chapters present various non-uniform results (Chapter 5) and outline the analytic approach that allows one to test and compare techniques used in previous chapters (Chapter 6).

The aim of this monograph is to present a general method of proving continuity of Lyapunov exponents of linear cocycles. The method uses an inductive procedure based on a general, geometric version of the Avalanche Principle. The main assumption required by this method is the availability of appropriate large deviation type estimates for quantities related to the iterates of the base and fiber dynamics associated with the linear cocycle. We establish such estimates for various models of random and quasi-periodic cocycles. Our method has its origins in a paper of M. Goldstein and W. Schlag. Our present work expands upon their approach in both depth and breadth. We conclude this monograph with a list of related open problems, some of which may be treated using a similar approach.

A self-contained, mathematical introduction to the driving ideas in equilibrium statistical mechanics, studying important models in detail.

This book provides a self contained, thorough introduction to the analytic and probabilistic methods of number theory. The prerequisites being reduced to classical contents of undergraduate courses, it offers to students and young researchers a systematic and consistent account on the subject. It is also a convenient tool for professional mathematicians, who may use it for basic references concerning many fundamental topics. Deliberately placing the methods before the results, the book will be of use beyond the particular material addressed directly. Each chapter is complemented with bibliographic notes, useful for descriptions of alternative viewpoints, and detailed exercises, often leading to research problems. This third edition of a text that has become classical offers a renewed and considerably enhanced content, being expanded by more than 50 percent. Important new developments are included, along with original points of view on many essential branches of arithmetic and an accurate perspective on up-to-date bibliography. The author has made important contributions to number theory and his mastery of the material is reflected in the exposition, which is lucid, elegant, and accurate. --Mathematical Reviews

This book is about differentiation of functions. It is divided into two parts, which can be used as different textbooks, one for an advanced undergraduate course in functions of one variable and one for a graduate course on Sobolev functions. The first part develops the theory of monotone, absolutely continuous, and bounded variation functions of one variable and their relationship with Lebesgue–Stieltjes measures and Sobolev functions. It also studies decreasing rearrangement and curves. The second edition includes a chapter on functions mapping time into Banach spaces. The second part of the book studies functions of several variables. It begins with an overview of classical results such as Rademacher's and Stepanoff's differentiability theorems, Whitney's extension theorem, Brouwer's fixed point theorem, and the divergence theorem for Lipschitz domains. It then moves to distributions, Fourier transforms and tempered distributions. The remaining chapters are a treatise on Sobolev functions. The second edition focuses more on higher order derivatives and it includes the interpolation theorems of Gagliardo and Nirenberg. It studies embedding theorems, extension domains, chain rule, superposition, Poincaré's inequalities and traces. A major change compared to the first edition is the chapter on Besov spaces, which are now treated using interpolation theory.

Offers an introduction to large deviations. This book is divided into two parts: theory and applications. It presents basic large deviation theorems for i i d sequences, Markov sequences, and sequences with moderate dependence. It also includes an outline of general definitions and theorems.