Partially observed Markov random fields are variable neighborhood random fields

The present paper has two goals. First to present a natural example of a new class of random fields which are the variable neighborhood random fields. The example we consider is a partially observed nearest neighbor binary Markov random field. The second goal is to establish sufficient conditions ensuring that the variable neighborhoods are almost surely finite. We discuss the relationship between the almost sure finiteness of the interaction neighborhoods and the presence/absence of phase transition of the underlying Markov random field. In the case where the underlying random field has no phase transition we show that the finiteness of neighborhoods depends on a specific relation between the noise level and the minimum values of the one-point specification of the Markov random field. The case in which there is phase transition is addressed in the frame of the ferromagnetic Ising model. We prove that the existence of infinite interaction neighborhoods depends on the phase.Comment: To appear in Journal of Statistical Physic

Highly anisotropic scaling limits

We consider a highly anisotropic $d=2$ Ising spin model whose precise definition can be found at the beginning of Section 2. In this model the spins on a same horizontal line (layer) interact via a $d=1$ Kac potential while the vertical interaction is between nearest neighbors, both interactions being ferromagnetic. The temperature is set equal to 1 which is the mean field critical value, so that the mean field limit for the Kac potential alone does not have a spontaneous magnetization. We compute the phase diagram of the full system in the Lebowitz-Penrose limit showing that due to the vertical interaction it has a spontaneous magnetization. The result is not covered by the Lebowitz-Penrose theory because our Kac potential has support on regions of positive codimension

Renewal properties of the d=1d=1 Ising model

We consider the $d=1$ Ising model with Kac potentials at inverse temperature $\beta>1$ where mean field predicts a phase transition with two possible equilibrium magnetization $\pm m_\beta$, $m_\beta>0$. We show that when the Kac scaling parameter $\gamma$ is sufficiently small typical spin configurations are described (via a coarse graining) by an infinite sequence of successive plus and minus intervals where the empirical magnetization is "close" to $m_\beta$ and respectively $-m_\beta$. We prove that the corresponding marginal of the unique DLR measure is a renewal process

Phase Transitions in Ferromagnetic Ising Models with spatially dependent magnetic fields

In this paper we study the nearest neighbor Ising model with ferromagnetic interactions in the presence of a space dependent magnetic field which vanishes as $|x|^{-\alpha}$, $\alpha >0$, as $|x|\to \infty$. We prove that in dimensions $d\ge 2$ for all $\beta$ large enough if $\alpha>1$ there is a phase transition while if $\alpha<1$ there is a unique DLR state.Comment: to appear in Communications in Mathematical Physic

One-dimensional random field Kac's model: localization of the phases

We study the typical profiles of a one dimensional random field Kac model, for values of the temperature and magnitude of the field in the region of the two absolute minima for the free energy of the corresponding random field Curie Weiss model. We show that, for a set of realizations of the random field of overwhelming probability, the localization of the two phases corresponding to the previous minima is completely determined. Namely, we are able to construct random intervals tagged with a sign, where typically, with respect to the infinite volume Gibbs measure, the profile is rigid and takes, according to the sign, one of the two values corresponding to the previous minima. Moreover, we characterize the transition from one phase to the other

Typical Gibbs configurations for the 1d Random Field Ising Model with long range interaction

We study a one--dimensional Ising spin systems with ferromagnetic, long--range interaction decaying as n^{-2+\a}, \a \in [0,\frac 12], in the presence of external random fields. We assume that the random fields are given by a collection of symmetric, independent, identically distributed real random variables, gaussian or subgaussian with variance $\theta$. We show that for temperature and variance of the randomness small enough, with an overwhelming probability with respect to the random fields, the typical configurations, within volumes centered at the origin whose size grow faster than any power of $\th^{-1}$, % {\bf around the origin} are intervals of $+$ spins followed by intervals of $-$ spins whose typical length is \simeq \th^{-\frac{2}{(1-2\a)}} for 0\le \a<1/2 and $\simeq e^{\frac 1 {\th^{2}}}$ for \a=1/2

Phase Transition in the 1d Random Field ising model with long range interaction

We study the one dimensional Ising model with ferromagnetic, long range interaction which decays as |i-j|^{-2+a}, 1/2< a<1, in the presence of an external random filed. we assume that the random field is given by a collection of independent identically distributed random variables, subgaussian with mean zero. We show that for temperature and strength of the randomness (variance) small enough with P=1 with respect to the distribution of the random fields there are at least two distinct extremal Gibbs measures