This paper surveys the main results obtained during the period 1992-1999 on three aspects mentioned in the title. The first result is a new and general variational formula for the lower bound of spectral gap (i.e. the...This paper surveys the main results obtained during the period 1992-1999 on three aspects mentioned in the title. The first result is a new and general variational formula for the lower bound of spectral gap (i.e. the first non-trivial eigenvalue) of elliptic operators in Euclidean space, Laplacian on Riemannian manifolds or Markov chains (?). Here, a probabilistic method -coupling method is adopted. The new formula is a dual of the classical variational formula. The last formula is actually equivalent to Poincare inequality. To which, there are closely related logarithmic Sobolev inequality, Nash inequality, Liggett inequality and so on. These inequalities are treated in a unified way by using Cheeger’s method which comes from Riemannian geometry. This consists of ?2. The results on these two aspects are mainly completed by the author joint with F. Y. Wang. Furthermore, a diagram of the inequalities and the traditional three types of ergodicity is presented (?3). The diagram extends the ergodic展开更多
THIS is the last one of a series of three papers. Here, we discuss six topics related to the spectral gap: the gradient estimate, the heat kernel and Harnack inequality, the logarithmic Sobolev inequality, the converg...THIS is the last one of a series of three papers. Here, we discuss six topics related to the spectral gap: the gradient estimate, the heat kernel and Harnack inequality, the logarithmic Sobolev inequality, the convergence in total variation, the algebraic convergence and the infinite-dimensional case. The perturbation of spectral gap and the logarithmic Sobolev constant under a linear transform is given (Theorem 5). A new proof for computing the logarithmic Sobolev constant in a basic case is also presented (Theorem 7).展开更多
THIS is the first of a series of three reviews. They are partially surveys on three aspects: (ⅰ) explaining the main ideas of our recent application of the coupling method to the estimation of spectral gap, (ⅱ) intr...THIS is the first of a series of three reviews. They are partially surveys on three aspects: (ⅰ) explaining the main ideas of our recent application of the coupling method to the estimation of spectral gap, (ⅱ) introducing some more recent progress on the study on some related topics,(ⅲ) collecting some open problems for the further study.展开更多
文摘This paper surveys the main results obtained during the period 1992-1999 on three aspects mentioned in the title. The first result is a new and general variational formula for the lower bound of spectral gap (i.e. the first non-trivial eigenvalue) of elliptic operators in Euclidean space, Laplacian on Riemannian manifolds or Markov chains (?). Here, a probabilistic method -coupling method is adopted. The new formula is a dual of the classical variational formula. The last formula is actually equivalent to Poincare inequality. To which, there are closely related logarithmic Sobolev inequality, Nash inequality, Liggett inequality and so on. These inequalities are treated in a unified way by using Cheeger’s method which comes from Riemannian geometry. This consists of ?2. The results on these two aspects are mainly completed by the author joint with F. Y. Wang. Furthermore, a diagram of the inequalities and the traditional three types of ergodicity is presented (?3). The diagram extends the ergodic
文摘THIS is the last one of a series of three papers. Here, we discuss six topics related to the spectral gap: the gradient estimate, the heat kernel and Harnack inequality, the logarithmic Sobolev inequality, the convergence in total variation, the algebraic convergence and the infinite-dimensional case. The perturbation of spectral gap and the logarithmic Sobolev constant under a linear transform is given (Theorem 5). A new proof for computing the logarithmic Sobolev constant in a basic case is also presented (Theorem 7).
文摘THIS is the first of a series of three reviews. They are partially surveys on three aspects: (ⅰ) explaining the main ideas of our recent application of the coupling method to the estimation of spectral gap, (ⅱ) introducing some more recent progress on the study on some related topics,(ⅲ) collecting some open problems for the further study.
