Surface order large deviations for high-density percolation

Summary We derive surface order large deviation estimates for the volume of the largest cluster and for the volume of the largest region surrounded by a cluster of a Bernoulli percolation process restricted to a big finite box, with sufficiently large parameter. We also establish a useful version of the isoperimetric inequality, which is the main tool of our proofs.     

Conditional distribution of heavy tailed random variables on large deviations of their sum

It is known that large deviations of sums of subexponential random variables are most likely realised by deviations of a single random variable. In this article we give a detailed picture of how subexponential random variables are distributed when a large deviation of the sum is observed.     

Multidimensional random subshifts of finite type and their large deviations

Summary I introduce random multidimensional subshifts of finite type which generalize models of spin-glasses and establish the “almost sure” large deviations bounds for Gibbs measures there. The paper is sequel to [EKW] where the corresponding results were obtained for deterministic multidimensional subshifts of finite type. Partially supported by US-Israel BSF     

Surface order large deviations for Ising,Potts and percolation models

Summary We derive uniform surface order large deviation estimates for the block magnetization in finite volume Ising (or Potts) models with plus or free (or a combination of both) boundary conditions in the phase coexistence regime ford3. The results are valid up to a limit of slab-thresholds, conjectured to agree with the critical temperature. Our arguments are based on the renormalization of the random cluster model withq1 andd3, and on corresponding large deviation estimates for the occurrence in a box of a largest cluster with density close to the percolation probability. The results are new even for the case of independent percolation (q=1). As a byproduct of our methods, we obtain further results in the FK model concerning semicontinuity (inp andq) of the percolation probability, the second largest cluster in a box and the tail of the finite cluster size distribution.     

Freidlin-Wentzell's large deviations for homeomorphism flows of non-Lipschitz SDEs

We prove a Freidlin-Wentzell large deviation principle for multi-dimensional stochastic differential equations with non-Lipschitz coefficients and apply it to the Brownian motion on the diffeomorphism group of the disc constructed recently by Airault, Malliavin and Thalmaier.     

On large deviations for particle systems associated with spatially homogeneous Boltzmann type equations

Summary We consider a dynamical interacting particle system whose empirical distribution tends to the solution of a spatially homogeneous Boltzmann type equation, as the number of particles tends to infinity. These laws of large numbers were proved for the Maxwellian molecules by H. Tanaka [Tal] and for the hard spheres by A.S. Sznitman [Szl]. In the present paper we investigate the corresponding large deviations: the large deviation upper bound is obtained and, using convex analysis, a non-variational formulation of the rate function is given. Our results hold for Maxwellian molecules with a cutoff potential and for hard spheres.     

Large deviations and the equivalence of ensembles for Gibbsian particle systems with superstable interaction

Summary For Gibbsian systems of particles inR ^d , we investigate large deviations of the translation invariant empirical fields in increasing boxes. The particle interaction is given by a superstable, regular pair potential. The large deviation principle is established for systems with free or periodic boundary conditions and, under a stronger stability hypothesis on the potential, for systems with tempered boundary conditions, and for tempered (infinite-volume) Gibbs measures. As a by-product we obtain the Gibbs variational formula for the pressure. We also prove the asymptotic equivalence of microcanonical and grand canonical Gibbs distributions and establish a variational expression for the thermodynamic entropy density.     

Sample path large deviations for super-Brownian motion

Summary We derive two large deviation principles of Freidlin-Wentzell type for rescaled super-Brownian motion. For one of the appearing rate functions an integral representation is given and interpreted as Kakutani-Hellinger energy. As a tool we develop estimates for the Laplace functionals of (historical) super-Brownian motion and certain maximal inequalities. Also it is shown that the Hölder norm of index <1/2 of the processtf, X _t possesses some finite exponential moments provided the functionf is smooth.This work was supported in part by the Graduiertenkolleg Algebraische, analytische und geometrische Methoden und ihre Wechselwirkung in der modernen Mathematik, Bonn     

Effect of truncation on large deviations for heavy-tailed random vectors

This paper studies the effect of truncation on the large deviations behavior of the partial sum of a triangular array coming from a truncated power law model. Each row of the triangular array consists of i.i.d. random vectors, whose distribution matches a power law on a ball of radius going to infinity, and outside that it has a light-tailed modification. The random vectors are assumed to be R^d-valued. It turns out that there are two regimes depending on the growth rate of the truncating threshold, so that in one regime, much of the heavy tailedness is retained, while in the other regime, the same is lost.     

Large deviations for lattice systems I. Parametrized independent fields

Summary We prove large deviation theorems for empirical measures of independent random fields whose distributions depend measurably on an auxiliary parameter. This dependence respects the action of the shift group, and a large deviation principle holds whenever a certain ergodicity condition is satisfied. We also investigate the entropy functions for these processes, especially in relation to the usual relative entropy.     

Large deviations for Langevin spin glass dynamics

Summary We study the asymptotic behaviour of asymmetrical spin glass dynamics in a Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model as proposed by Sompolinsky-Zippelius. We prove that the annealed law of the empirical measure on path space of these dynamics satisfy a large deviation principle in the high temperature regime. We study the rate function of this large deviation principle and prove that it achieves its minimum value at a unique probability measureQ which is not markovian. We deduce that the quenched law of the empirical measure converges to _Q . Extending then the preceeding results to replicated dynamics, we investigate the quenched behavior of a single spin. We get quenched convergence toQ in the case of a symmetric initial law and even potential for the free spin.     

Dominating points and large deviations for random vectors

Summary We establish a representation formula useful for obtaining precise large deviation probabilities for convex open subsets of a Banach space. These estimates are based on the existence of dominating points in this setting.Dedicated to Peter Ney on the occasion of his 65th birthday.Supported in part by NSF Grant DMS-9503665Supported in part by NSF Grant DMS-9400024     

Hydrostatics and dynamical large deviations of boundary driven gradient symmetric exclusion processes

We prove the hydrostatics of boundary driven gradient exclusion processes, Fick’s law and we present a simple proof of the dynamical large deviations principle which holds in any dimension.     

Compound Poisson approximation for unbounded functions on a group,with application to large deviations

Summary A second order error bound is obtained for approximating h d by h d , where is a convolution of measures andQ a compound Poisson measure on a measurable abelian group, and the functionh is not necessarily bounded. This error bound is more refined than the usual total variation bound in the sense that it contains the functionh. The method used is inspired by Stein's method and hinges on bounding Radon-Nikodym derivatives related to . The approximation theorem is then applied to obtain a large deviation result on groups, which in turn is applied to multivariate Poisson approximation.Research of the second author was supported by Schweizerischer Nationalfonds     

The effect of memory on functional large deviations of infinite moving average processes

The large deviations of an infinite moving average process with exponentially light tails are very similar to those of an i.i.d. sequence as long as the coefficients decay fast enough. If they do not, the large deviations change dramatically. We study this phenomenon in the context of functional large, moderate and huge deviation principles.     

Upper large deviations for the maximal flow in first-passage percolation

We consider the standard first-passage percolation in Z^d${\mathbb{Z}}^d$ for d≥2$d\ge 2$ and we denote by _?nd−1,h(n)${?}_{n^{d-1},h\left(n\right)}$ the maximal flow through the cylinder ]0,n]^d−1×]0,h(n)]${]0,n]}^{d-1}\times ]0,h\left(n\right)]$ from its bottom to its top. Kesten proved a law of large numbers for the maximal flow in dimension 3: under some assumptions, _?nd−1,h(n)/n^d−1${?}_{n^{d-1},h\left(n\right)}/n^{d-1}$ converges towards a constant ν$\nu$. We look now at the probability that _?nd−1,h(n)/n^d−1${?}_{n^{d-1},h\left(n\right)}/n^{d-1}$ is greater than ν+ε$\nu +\epsilon$ for some ε>0$\epsilon >0$, and we show under some assumptions that this probability decays exponentially fast with the volume n^d−1h(n)$n^{d-1}h\left(n\right)$ of the cylinder. Moreover, we prove a large deviation principle for the sequence (_?nd−1,h(n)/n^d−1,n∈N)$({?}_{n^{d-1},h\left(n\right)}/n^{d-1},n\in \mathbb{N})$.     

Multilevel large deviations and interacting diffusions

Summary Let ( ^N ) be a sequence of random variables with values in a topological space which satisfy the large deviation principle. For eachM and eachN, let ^{M, N} denote the empirical measure associated withM independent copies of ^N . As a main result, we show that ( ^{M, N} ) also satisfies the large deviation principle asM,N. We derive several representations of the associated rate function. These results are then applied to empirical measure processes ^{M, N} (t) =M ^–1 _i=1 ^N _i ^N (t) 0tT, where ( ₁ ^N ,..., _M ^N (t)) is a system of weakly interacting diffusions with noise intensity 1/N. This is a continuation of our previous work on the McKean-Vlasov limit and related hierarchical models ([4], [5]).Research partially supported by a Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada operating grant     

Moderate deviations for a risk model based on the customer-arrival process

In this paper, we investigate the moderate deviations for a customer-arrival-based insurance risk model, in which customer’s actual claim sizes are described as independent and identically distributed heavy-tailed random variables multiplying a shot function, and the model can be treated as a Poisson shot noise process.     

Moments, moderate and large deviations for a branching process in a random environment

Let (Z_n) be a supercritical branching process in a random environment ξ, and W be the limit of the normalized population size Z_n/E[Z_n|ξ]. We show large and moderate deviation principles for the sequence logZ_n (with appropriate normalization). For the proof, we calculate the critical value for the existence of harmonic moments of W, and show an equivalence for all the moments of Z_n. Central limit theorems on W−W_n and logZ_n are also established.     

Large deviations and continuum limit in the 2D Ising model

Summary. We study the 2D Ising model in a rectangular box Λ _L of linear size O(L). We determine the exact asymptotic behaviour of the large deviations of the magnetization ∑ _t∈ΛL σ(t) when L→∞ for values of the parameters of the model corresponding to the phase coexistence region, where the order parameter m ^* is strictly positive. We study in particular boundary effects due to an arbitrary real-valued boundary magnetic field. Using the self-duality of the model a large part of the analysis consists in deriving properties of the covariance function <σ(0)σ(t)>, as |t|→∞, at dual values of the parameters of the model. To do this analysis we establish new results about the high-temperature representation of the model. These results are valid for dimensions D≥2 and up to the critical temperature. They give a complete non-perturbative exposition of the high-temperature representation. We then study the Gibbs measure conditioned by {|∑ _t∈ΛL σ(t) −m|Λ _L ||≤|Λ _L |L ^{− c} }, with 0<c<1/4 and −m ^*<m<m ^*. We construct the continuum limit of the model and describe the limit by the solutions of a variational problem of isoperimetric type. Received: 17 October 1996 / In revised form: 7 March 1997