Most probability problems involve random variables indexed by space and/or time. These problems almost always have  a version in which space and/or time are taken to be discrete. This volume deals with areas in which the discrete version is more natural than the continuous one, perhaps even the only one than can be formulated without complicated constructions and machinery. The 5 papers of this volume discuss problems in which there has been significant progress in the last few years; they are motivated by, or have been developed in parallel with, statistical physics. They include questions about asymptotic shape for stochastic growth models and for random clusters; existence, location and properties of phase transitions; speed of convergence to equilibrium in Markov chains, and in particular for Markov chains based on models with a phase transition; cut-off phenomena for random walks. The articles can be read independently of each other. Their unifying theme is that of models built on discrete spaces or graphs. Such models are often easy to formulate. Correspondingly, the book requires comparatively little previous knowledge of the machinery of probability.

Most probability problems involve random variables indexed by space and/or time. These problems almost always have a version in which space and/or time are taken to be discrete. This volume deals with areas in which the discrete version is more natural than the continuous one, perhaps even the only one than can be formulated without complicated constructions and machinery. The 5 papers of this volume discuss problems in which there has been significant progress in the last few years; they are motivated by, or have been developed in parallel with, statistical physics. They include questions about asymptotic shape for stochastic growth models and for random clusters; existence, location and properties of phase transitions; speed of convergence to equilibrium in Markov chains, and in particular for Markov chains based on models with a phase transition; cut-off phenomena for random walks. The articles can be read independently of each other. Their unifying theme is that of models built on discrete spaces or graphs. Such models are often easy to formulate. Correspondingly, the book requires comparatively little previous knowledge of the machinery of probability.

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Bakry, Dominique: Hypercontractivity and its Usage in Semigroup Theory.- Ledoux, Michel: Isoperimetry and Gaussian Analysis.- Saloff-Coste, Laurent: Lectures on Finite Markov Chains.

This book focuses on Poincaré, Nash and other Sobolev-type inequalities and their applications to the Laplace and heat diffusion equations on Riemannian manifolds. Applications covered include the ultracontractivity of the heat diffusion semigroup, Gaussian heat kernel bounds, the Rozenblum-Lieb-Cwikel inequality and elliptic and parabolic Harnack inequalities. Emphasis is placed on the role of families of local Poincaré and Sobolev inequalities. The text provides the first self contained account of the equivalence between the uniform parabolic Harnack inequality, on the one hand, and the conjunction of the doubling volume property and Poincaré's inequality on the other.