Metastability and the Ising model

We discuss a recent theorem which establishes a precise connection between (i) the approximate degeneracy of the zero eigenvalue for the generator of the Glauber dynamics of the Ising model in a small nonzero field and below the critical temperature, (ii) the existence of a partition of the configuration space into a normal region and a metastable region. This enables us to demonstrate that the recent approach to metastability of Davies and Martin may be viewed as a simple (although in some ways fairly crude) approximation to the conventional approach. We also obtain what appear to be the first results concerning the stability of metastable states under small perturbations.