Anton Bovier

Frank den Hollander

This monograph provides a concise presentation of a mathematical approach to metastability, a wide-spread phenomenon in the dynamics of non-linear systems - physical, chemical, biological or economic - subject to the action of temporal random forces typically referred to as noise, based on potential theory of reversible Markov processes. The authors shed new light on the metastability phenomenon as a sequence of visits of the path of the process to different metastable sets, and focuses on the precise analysis of the respective hitting probabilities and hitting times of these sets. The theory is illustrated with many examples, ranging from finite-state Markov chains, finite-dimensional diffusions and stochastic partial differential equations, via mean-field dynamics with and without disorder, to stochastic spin-flip and particle-hop dynamics and probabilistic cellular automata, unveiling the common universal features of these systems with respect to their metastable behaviour. The monograph will serve both as comprehensive introduction and as reference for graduate students and researchers interested in metastability.

A Potential-Theoretic Approach

Metastability

Fabio Martinelli

Marek Biskup

Dima Ioffe

Christina Toninelli

Karel Netocný

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. An introductory chapter on lattice spin models is useful as a background for other lectures of the collection. The topics include new results on phase transitions for gradient lattice models (with introduction to the techniques of the reflection positivity), stochastic geometry reformulation of classical and quantum Ising models, the localization/delocalization transition for directed polymers. A general rigorous framework for theory of metastability is presented and particular applications in the context of Glauber and Kawasaki dynamics of lattice models are discussed. A pedagogical account of several recently discussed topics in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics with an emphasis on general principles is followed by a discussion of kinetically constrained spin models that are reflecting important peculiar features of glassy dynamics.

Methods of Contemporary Mathematical Statistical Physics

Frank den Hollander

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