Genealogies Of Interacting Particle Systems

"Interacting particle systems are Markov processes involving infinitely many interacting components. Since their introduction in the 1970s, researchers have found many applications in statistical physics and population biology. Genealogies, which follow the origin of the state of a site backwards in time, play an important role in their studies, especially for the biologically motivated systems. The program Genealogies of Interacting Particle Systems held at the Institute for Mathematical Sciences, National University of Singapore, from 17 July to 18 Aug 2017, brought together experts and young researchers interested in this modern topic. Central to the program were learning sessions where lecturers presented work outside of their own research, as well as a normal workshop "--Publisher's website.

At what point in the development of a new field should a book be written about it? This question is seldom easy to answer. In the case of interacting particle systems, important progress continues to be made at a substantial pace. A number of problems which are nearly as old as the subject itself remain open, and new problem areas continue to arise and develop. Thus one might argue that the time is not yet ripe for a book on this subject. On the other hand, this field is now about fifteen years old. Many important of several basic models is problems have been solved and the analysis almost complete. The papers written on this subject number in the hundreds. It has become increasingly difficult for newcomers to master the proliferating literature, and for workers in allied areas to make effective use of it. Thus I have concluded that this is an appropriate time to pause and take stock of the progress made to date. It is my hope that this book will not only provide a useful account of much of this progress, but that it will also help stimulate the future vigorous development of this field.

This book has been long awaited in the "interacting particle systems" community. Begun by Claude Kipnis before his untimely death, it was completed by Claudio Landim, his most brilliant student and collaborator. It presents the techniques used in the proof of the hydrodynamic behavior of interacting particle systems.

This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications HYDRODYNAMIC BEHAVIOR AND INTERACTING PARTICLE SYSTEMS is in part the proceedings of a workshop which was an integral part of the 1985-86 IMA program on STOCHASTIC DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS. We are grateful to the Scientific Committee: Daniel Stroock (Chairman) Wendell Fleming Theodore Harris Pierre-Louis Lions Steven Orey George Papanicolaou for planning and implementing an exciting and stimulating year-long program. We especially thank the Program Organizer, George Papanicolaou for orga nizing a workshop which brought together scientists and mathematicians in a variety of areas for a fruitful exchange of ideas. George R. Sell Hans Weinberger PREFACE A workshop on the hydrodynamic behavior of interacting particle systems was held at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications at the University of Minnesota during the week of March 17, 1986. Fifteen papers presented at the workshop are collected in this volume. They contain research in several different directions that are currently being pursued. The paper of Chaikin, Dozier and Lindsay is concerned with experimental results on suspensions in regimes where modern mathematical methods could be useful. The paper of Fritz gives an introduction to these methods as does the paper of Spohn. Analytical methods currently used by in the physics and chemistry literature are presented in the paper of Freed, Wang and Douglas. The paper of Caflisch deals with time dependent effects in sedimentation.

From the reviews "This book presents a complete treatment of a new class of random processes, which have been studied intensively during the last fifteen years. None of this material has ever appeared in book form before. The high quality of this work [...] makes a fascinating subject and its open problem as accessible as possible." Mathematical Reviews