Statistical Mechanics - 9780821846711

One of the main themes of the IAS/Park City Mathematics Institute's July 2007 Graduate Summer School was the theory of 'scaling limits' of two-dimensional statistical mechanics models on increasingly fine lattices approaching the continuum R squared. Five sets of lectures from the seminar, designed for graduate students in mathematics with a strong background in analysis and probability, offer an introduction to recent mathematical progress in the field. Some specific topics covered include renormalization group theory, statistical mechanics and random matrices, fluctuations of random surfaces described by dimers, the Schramm-Loewner evolution, and the two-dimensional critical percolation. Background in physics is not required, but familiarity with martingales, stochastic differential equations, and conformal mappings is helpful. The readership for the book includes graduate students and research mathematicians interested in probability and its applications in mathematics and physics. Sheffield is affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Spencer is affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Study. There is no subject index. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)