Dirichlet Forms And Related Topics

This conference proceeding contains 27 peer-reviewed invited papers from leading experts as well as young researchers all over the world in the related fields that Professor Fukushima has made important contributions to. These 27 papers cover a wide range of topics in probability theory, ranging from Dirichlet form theory, Markov processes, heat kernel estimates, entropy on Wiener spaces, analysis on fractal spaces, random spanning tree and Poissonian loop ensemble, random Riemannian geometry, SLE, space-time partial differential equations of higher order, infinite particle systems, Dyson model, functional inequalities, branching process, to machine learning and Hermitizable problems for complex matrices. Researchers and graduate students interested in these areas will find this book appealing.

This conference proceeding contains 27 peer-reviewed invited papers from leading experts as well as young researchers all over the world in the related fields that Professor Fukushima has made important contributions to. These 27 papers cover a wide range of topics in probability theory, ranging from Dirichlet form theory, Markov processes, heat kernel estimates, entropy on Wiener spaces, analysis on fractal spaces, random spanning tree and Poissonian loop ensemble, random Riemannian geometry, SLE, space-time partial differential equations of higher order, infinite particle systems, Dyson model, functional inequalities, branching process, to machine learning and Hermitizable problems for complex matrices. Researchers and graduate students interested in these areas will find this book appealing. Professor Masatoshi Fukushima is well known for his fundamental contributions to the theory of Dirichlet forms and symmetric Markov processes.

The theory of Dirichlet forms brings together methods and insights from the calculus of variations, sotchastic analysis, partial differential and difference equations, potential theory, Riemannian geometry and more. This book features contributions by leading experts and provides up-to-date, authoritative accounts on exciting developments in the field and on new research perspectives. Topics covered include the following: stochastic analysis on configuration spaces, specifically a mathematically rigorous approach to the stochastic dynamics of Gibbs measures and infinite interacting particle systems; subelliptic PDE, homogenization, and fractals; geometric aspects of Dirichlet forms on metric spaces and function theory on such spaces; generalized harmonic maps as nonlinear analogues of Dirichlet forms, with an emphasis on non-locally compact situations; and a stochastic approach based on Brownian motion to harmonic maps and their regularity. Various new connections between the topics are featured, and it is demonstarted that the theory of Dirichlet forms provides the proper framework for exploring these connections. Titles in this series are co-published with International Press, Cambridge, MA.

The subject of this book is analysis on Wiener space by means of Dirichlet forms and Malliavin calculus. There are already several literature on this topic, but this book has some different viewpoints. First the authors review the theory of Dirichlet forms, but they observe only functional analytic, potential theoretical and algebraic properties. They do not mention the relation with Markov processes or stochastic calculus as discussed in usual books (e.g. Fukushima’s book). Even on analytic properties, instead of mentioning the Beuring-Deny formula, they discuss “carré du champ” operators introduced by Meyer and Bakry very carefully. Although they discuss when this “carré du champ” operator exists in general situation, the conditions they gave are rather hard to verify, and so they verify them in the case of Ornstein-Uhlenbeck operator in Wiener space later. (It should be noticed that one can easily show the existence of “carré du champ” operator in this case by using Shigekawa’s H-derivative.) In the part on Malliavin calculus, the authors mainly discuss the absolute continuity of the probability law of Wiener functionals. The Dirichlet form corresponds to the first derivative only, and so it is not easy to consider higher order derivatives in this framework. This is the reason why they discuss only the first step of Malliavin calculus. On the other hand, they succeeded to deal with some delicate problems (the absolute continuity of the probability law of the solution to stochastic differential equations with Lipschitz continuous coefficients, the domain of stochastic integrals (Itô-Ramer-Skorokhod integrals), etc.). This book focuses on the abstract structure of Dirichlet forms and Malliavin calculus rather than their applications. However, the authors give a lot of exercises and references and they may help the reader to study other topics which are not discussed in this book. Zentralblatt Math, Reviewer: S.Kusuoka (Hongo)

The volume is dedicated to Professor David Elworthy to celebrate his fundamental contribution and exceptional influence on stochastic analysis and related fields. Stochastic analysis has been profoundly developed as a vital fundamental research area in mathematics in recent decades. It has been discovered to have intrinsic connections with many other areas of mathematics such as partial differential equations, functional analysis, topology, differential geometry, dynamical systems, etc. Mathematicians developed many mathematical tools in stochastic analysis to understand and model random phenomena in physics, biology, finance, fluid, environment science, etc. This volume contains 12 comprehensive review/new articles written by world leading researchers (by invitation) and their collaborators. It covers stochastic analysis on manifolds, rough paths, Dirichlet forms, stochastic partial differential equations, stochastic dynamical systems, infinite dimensional analysis, stochastic flows, quantum stochastic analysis and stochastic Hamilton Jacobi theory. Articles contain cutting edge research methodology, results and ideas in relevant fields. They are of interest to research mathematicians and postgraduate students in stochastic analysis, probability, partial differential equations, dynamical systems, mathematical physics, as well as to physicists, financial mathematicians, engineers, etc.

The spectral geometry of infinite graphs deals with three major themes and their interplay: the spectral theory of the Laplacian, the geometry of the underlying graph, and the heat flow with its probabilistic aspects. In this book, all three themes are brought together coherently under the perspective of Dirichlet forms, providing a powerful and unified approach. The book gives a complete account of key topics of infinite graphs, such as essential self-adjointness, Markov uniqueness, spectral estimates, recurrence, and stochastic completeness. A major feature of the book is the use of intrinsic metrics to capture the geometry of graphs. As for manifolds, Dirichlet forms in the graph setting offer a structural understanding of the interaction between spectral theory, geometry and probability. For graphs, however, the presentation is much more accessible and inviting thanks to the discreteness of the underlying space, laying bare the main concepts while preserving the deep insights of the manifold case. Graphs and Discrete Dirichlet Spaces offers a comprehensive treatment of the spectral geometry of graphs, from the very basics to deep and thorough explorations of advanced topics. With modest prerequisites, the book can serve as a basis for a number of topics courses, starting at the undergraduate level.

The theory of Dirichlet forms has witnessed recently some very important developments both in theoretical foundations and in applications (stochasticprocesses, quantum field theory, composite materials,...). It was therefore felt timely to have on this subject a CIME school, in which leading experts in the field would present both the basic foundations of the theory and some of the recent applications. The six courses covered the basic theory and applications to: - Stochastic processes and potential theory (M. Fukushima and M. Roeckner) - Regularity problems for solutions to elliptic equations in general domains (E. Fabes and C. Kenig) - Hypercontractivity of semigroups, logarithmic Sobolev inequalities and relation to statistical mechanics (L. Gross and D. Stroock). The School had a constant and active participation of young researchers, both from Italy and abroad.

The series is aimed specifically at publishing peer reviewed reviews and contributions presented at workshops and conferences. Each volume is associated with a particular conference, symposium or workshop. These events cover various topics within pure and applied mathematics and provide up-to-date coverage of new developments, methods and applications.