Large Deviations Applied to Classical and Quantum Field Theory

This book deals with a variety of problems in Physics and Engineering where the large deviation principle of probability finds application. Large deviations is a branch of probability theory dealing with approximate computation of the probabilities of rare events. It contains applications of the LDP to pattern recognition problems like analysis of the performance of the EM algorithm for optimal parameter estimation in the presence of weak noise, analysis and control of non-Abelian gauge fields in the presence of noise, and quantum gravity wherein we are concerned with perturbation to the quadratic component of the Einstein-Hilbert Hamiltonian caused by higher order nonlinear terms in the position fields and their effect on the Gibbs statistics and consequently quantum probabilities of events computed using the quantum Gibbs state. The reader will also find in this book applications of LDP to quantum filtering theory as developed by Belavkin based on the celebrated Hudson-Parthasarathy quantum stochastic calculus. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan).