Random Graphs Phase Transitions And The Gaussian Free Field

The 2017 PIMS-CRM Summer School in Probability was held at the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, during June 5-30, 2017. It had 125 participants from 20 different countries, and featured two main courses, three mini-courses, and twenty-nine lectures. The lecture notes contained in this volume provide introductory accounts of three of the most active and fascinating areas of research in modern probability theory, especially designed for graduate students entering research: Scaling limits of random trees and random graphs (Christina Goldschmidt) Lectures on the Ising and Potts models on the hypercubic lattice (Hugo Duminil-Copin) Extrema of the two-dimensional discrete Gaussian free field (Marek Biskup) Each of these contributions provides a thorough introduction that will be of value to beginners and experts alike.

This book gives a self-contained introduction to the theory of random interlacements. The intended reader of the book is a graduate student with a background in probability theory who wants to learn about the fundamental results and methods of this rapidly emerging field of research. The model was introduced by Sznitman in 2007 in order to describe the local picture left by the trace of a random walk on a large discrete torus when it runs up to times proportional to the volume of the torus. Random interlacements is a new percolation model on the d-dimensional lattice. The main results covered by the book include the full proof of the local convergence of random walk trace on the torus to random interlacements and the full proof of the percolation phase transition of the vacant set of random interlacements in all dimensions. The reader will become familiar with the techniques relevant to working with the underlying Poisson Process and the method of multi-scale renormalization, which helps in overcoming the challenges posed by the long-range correlations present in the model. The aim is to engage the reader in the world of random interlacements by means of detailed explanations, exercises and heuristics. Each chapter ends with short survey of related results with up-to date pointers to the literature.

View the abstract.

View the abstract.

This volume presents a collection of courses introducing the reader to the recent progress with attention being paid to laying solid grounds and developing various basic tools. It presents new results on phase transitions for gradient lattice models.

The text covers random graphs from the basic to the advanced, including numerous exercises and recommendations for further reading.

This introduction to some of the principal models in the theory of disordered systems leads the reader through the basics, to the very edge of contemporary research, with the minimum of technical fuss. Topics covered include random walk, percolation, self-avoiding walk, interacting particle systems, uniform spanning tree, random graphs, as well as the Ising, Potts, and random-cluster models for ferromagnetism, and the Lorentz model for motion in a random medium. Schramm–Löwner evolutions (SLE) arise in various contexts. The choice of topics is strongly motivated by modern applications and focuses on areas that merit further research. Special features include a simple account of Smirnov's proof of Cardy's formula for critical percolation, and a fairly full account of the theory of influence and sharp-thresholds. Accessible to a wide audience of mathematicians and physicists, this book can be used as a graduate course text. Each chapter ends with a range of exercises.

This book provides a comprehensive review of the theory of phase transitions and its modern applications, based on the five pillars of the modern theory of phase transitions: the Ising model, mean field, scaling, renormalization group and universality. This expanded second edition includes, along with a description of vortices and high temperature superconductivity, a discussion of phase transitions in chemical reactions and moving systems. The book covers the close connection between phase transitions and small world phenomena as well as scale-free systems such as the stock market and the Internet.