Stats 350 Probabilistic Concepts in Statistical Physics and Information Theory Winter 2007–2008

Class Times and Locations Monday and Wednesday, 11:00AM-12:15PM in Room: Sequoia 200 Course Description Concentration of measure techniques, transportation inequalities. Mean field models for disordered systems: infinite size limit, computing the free energy. Mean field equations and Stein's method. Ultrametricity, probability cascades and particle systems. Interpolation techniques and infinite size limit in information theory and coding. References Prerequisites STAT310A or equivalent. What is the figure on the right ? Distance matrix among 1024 equilibrium configuration of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spin glass model (big square). Four reorderings of rows/columns with thresholding (small squares).

• Amir Dembo
  • Office: Sequoia 129
  • Office hours: Mondays 12:30-1:30PM
  • email: adembo@stat.stanford.edu

• Andrea Montanari
  • Office: Packard 272
  • Office hours: Tuesdays 3:00PM-4:00PM, Thursdays 2:00-3:00PM
  • email: montanari@stanford.edu

Registered students are invited to form small groups of 2-4 peoples, and study one or more papers in the list below (together with references or further developments if useful). Each of the students will then present a short lecture (20 minutes) based on this material. Lectures by students in the same group should form a coherent sequence.

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