Interfaces and typical Gibbs configurations for one-dimensional Kac potentials

Summary We consider a one dimensional Ising spin system with a ferromagnetic Kac potential J(|r|),J having compact support. We study the system in the limit, »0, below the Lebowitz-Penrose critical temperature, where there are two distinct thermodynamic phases with different magnetizations. We prove that the empirical spin average in blocks of size ^–1 (for any positive ) converges, as »0, to one of the two thermodynamic magnetizations, uniformly in the intervals of size ^–p , for any given positivep1. We then show that the intervals where the magnetization is approximately constant have lengths of the order of exp(c ^–1),c>0, and that, when normalized, they converge to independent variables with exponential distribution. We show this by proving large deviation estimates and applying the Ventsel and Friedlin methods to Gibbs random fields. Finally, if the temperature is low enough, we characterize the interface, namely the typical magnetization pattern in the region connecting the two phases.The research has been partially supported by CNR, GNFM, GNSM and by grant SC1CT91-0695 of the Commission of European Communities