Abstract polymer models, the cluster expansion, and applications

Abstract

Will introduces abstract polymer models and the cluster expansion from statistical physics. He describes some of the original applications of these tools in statistical physics to understand phase transitions in lattice spin systems, and then he presents applications of these tools in combinatorics (understanding complex zeros of graph polynomials) and computer science (approximate counting problems). The lecture will be accessible to graduate students in combinatorics, probability, and computer science and will include several directions for future work.