This volume is a synopsis of recent works aiming at a mathematically rigorous justification of the phase coexistence phenomenon, starting from a microscopic model. It is intended to be self-contained. Those proofs that can be found only in research papers have been included, whereas results for which the proofs can be found in classical textbooks are only quoted.

This volume is a synopsis of recent works aiming at a mathematically rigorous justification of the phase coexistence phenomenon, starting from a microscopic model. It is intended to be self-contained. Those proofs that can be found only in research papers have been included, whereas results for which the proofs can be found in classical textbooks are only quoted.

This volume is a synopsis of recent works aiming at a mathematically rigorous justification of the phase coexistence phenomenon, starting from a microscopic model. It is intended to be self-contained. Those proofs that can be found only in research papers have been included, whereas results for which the proofs can be found in classical textbooks are only quoted.

This introduction to some of the principal models in the theory of disordered systems leads the reader through the basics, to the very edge of contemporary research, with the minimum of technical fuss. Topics covered include random walk, percolation, self-avoiding walk, interacting particle systems, uniform spanning tree, random graphs, as well as the Ising, Potts, and random-cluster models for ferromagnetism, and the Lorentz model for motion in a random medium. This new edition features accounts of major recent progress, including the exact value of the connective constant of the hexagonal lattice, and the critical point of the random-cluster model on the square lattice. The choice of topics is strongly motivated by modern applications, and focuses on areas that merit further research. Accessible to a wide audience of mathematicians and physicists, this book can be used as a graduate course text. Each chapter ends with a range of exercises.

"This book is much more than an introduction to the subject of its title. It covers in depth a broad range of topics in the mathematical theory of phase transition in statistical mechanics and as an up to date reference in its chosen topics it is a work of outstanding scholarship. It is in fact one of the author's stated aims that this comprehensive monograph should serve both as an introductory text and as a reference for the expert. In its latter function it informs the reader about the state of the art in several directions. It is introductory in the sense that it does not assume any prior knowledge of statistical mechanics and is accessible to a general readership of mathematicians with a basic knowledge of measure theory and probability. As such it should contribute considerably to the further growth of the already lively interest in statistical mechanics on the part of probabilists and other mathematicians." Fredos Papangelou, Zentralblatt MATH The second edition has been extended by a new section on large deviations and some comments on the more recent developments in the area.