Gordon Slade - Böcker

The self-avoiding walk is a mathematical model with important applications in statistical mechanics and polymer science. This text provides a unified account of the rigorous results for the self-avoiding walk, focusing on its critical behaviour. Topics discussed include: the lace explosion and its application to the self-avoiding walk in more than four dimensions where most issues are now resolved; an introduction to the nonrigorous scaling theory; classical work of Hammersley and others; an exposition of Kesten's pattern theorem and its consequences; a discussion of the decay of the two-point function and its relation to probabilistic renewal theory; and the role of the self-avoiding walk in physical and chemical applications.

The self-avoiding walk is a mathematical model that has important applications in statistical mechanics and polymer science. In spite of its simple definition—a path on a lattice that does not visit the same site more than once—it is difficult to analyze mathematically. The Self-Avoiding Walk provides the first unified account of the known rigorous results for the self-avoiding walk, with particular emphasis on its critical behavior. Its goals are to give an account of the current mathematical understanding of the model, to indicate some of the applications of the concept in physics and in chemistry, and to give an introduction to some of the nonrigorous methods used in those fields.   Topics covered in the book include: the lace expansion and its application to the self-avoiding walk in more than four dimensions where most issues are now resolved; an introduction to the nonrigorous scaling theory; classical work of Hammersley and others; a new exposition of Kesten’s pattern theorem and its consequences; a discussion of the decay of the two-point function and its relation to probabilistic renewal theory; analysis of Monte Carlo methods that have been used to study the self-avoiding walk; the role of the self-avoiding walk in physical and chemical applications. Methods from combinatorics, probability theory, analysis, and mathematical physics play important roles. The book is highly accessible to both professionals and graduate students in mathematics, physics, and chemistry.​

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.

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.

Three series of lectures were given at the 34th Probability Summer School in Saint-Flour (July 6–24, 2004), by the Professors Cerf, Lyons and Slade. We have decided to publish these courses separately. This volume contains the course of Professor Slade. We cordially thank the author for his performance at the summer school, and for the redaction of these notes. 69 participants have attended this school. 35 of them have given a short lecture. The lists of participants and of short lectures are enclosed at the end of the volume. The Saint-Flour Probability Summer School was founded in 1971. Here are the references of Springer volumes which have been published prior to this one. All numbers refer to theLecture Notes in Mathematics series, except S-50 which refers to volume 50 of the Lecture Notes in Statistics series. 1971: vol 307 1980: vol 929 1990: vol 1527 1998: vol 1738 1973: vol 390 1981: vol 976 1991: vol 1541 1999: vol 1781 1974: vol 480 1982: vol 1097 1992: vol 1581 2000: vol 1816 1975: vol 539 1983: vol 1117 1993: vol 1608 2001: vol 1837 & 1851 1976: vol 598 1984: vol 1180 1994: vol 1648 2002: vol 1840 1977: vol 678 1985/86/87: vol 1362 & S-50 1995: vol 1690 2003: vol 1869 1978: vol 774 1988: vol 1427 1996: vol 1665 2004: vol.