Particle Systems, Random Media and Large Deviations

This volume covers the proceedings of the 1984 AMS Summer Research Conference. 'The Mathematics of Phase Transitions' provides a handy summary of results from some of the most exciting areas in probability theory today; interacting particle systems, percolation, random media (bulk properties and hydrodynamics), the Ising model and large deviations. Thirty-seven mathematicians, many of them well-known probabilists, collaborated to produce this readable introduction to the main results and unsolved problems in the field. In fact, it is one of the very few collections of articles yet to be published on these topics. To appreciate many of the articles, an undergraduate course in probability is sufficient. The book will be valuable to probabilists, especially those interested in mathematical physics and to physicists interested in statistical mechanics or disordered systems.