Modified empirical CLT's under only pre-Gaussian conditions

We show that a modified Empirical process converges to the limiting Gaussian process whenever the limit is continuous. The modification depends on the properties of the limit via Talagrand's characterization of the continuity of Gaussian processes.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/074921706000000833 in the IMS Lecture Notes Monograph Series (http://www.imstat.org/publications/lecnotes.htm) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Mod-phi convergence I: Normality zones and precise deviations

In this paper, we use the framework of mod-$\phi$ convergence to prove precise large or moderate deviations for quite general sequences of real valued random variables $(X_{n})_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$, which can be lattice or non-lattice distributed. We establish precise estimates of the fluctuations $P[X_{n} \in t_{n}B]$, instead of the usual estimates for the rate of exponential decay $\log( P[X_{n}\in t_{n}B])$. Our approach provides us with a systematic way to characterise the normality zone, that is the zone in which the Gaussian approximation for the tails is still valid. Besides, the residue function measures the extent to which this approximation fails to hold at the edge of the normality zone. The first sections of the article are devoted to a proof of these abstract results and comparisons with existing results. We then propose new examples covered by this theory and coming from various areas of mathematics: classical probability theory, number theory (statistics of additive arithmetic functions), combinatorics (statistics of random permutations), random matrix theory (characteristic polynomials of random matrices in compact Lie groups), graph theory (number of subgraphs in a random Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi graph), and non-commutative probability theory (asymptotics of random character values of symmetric groups). In particular, we complete our theory of precise deviations by a concrete method of cumulants and dependency graphs, which applies to many examples of sums of "weakly dependent" random variables. The large number as well as the variety of examples hint at a universality class for second order fluctuations.Comment: 103 pages. New (final) version: multiple small improvements ; a new section on mod-Gaussian convergence coming from the factorization of the generating function ; the multi-dimensional results have been moved to a forthcoming paper ; and the introduction has been reworke

Weak universality of dynamical Φ34\Phi^4_3: non-Gaussian noise

We consider a class of continuous phase coexistence models in three spatial dimensions. The fluctuations are driven by symmetric stationary random fields with sufficient integrability and mixing conditions, but not necessarily Gaussian. We show that, in the weakly nonlinear regime, if the external potential is a symmetric polynomial and a certain average of it exhibits pitchfork bifurcation, then these models all rescale to $\Phi^4_3$ near their critical point.Comment: 37 pages; updated introduction and reference

Stochastic PDEs, Regularity Structures, and Interacting Particle Systems

These lecture notes grew out of a series of lectures given by the second named author in short courses in Toulouse, Matsumoto, and Darmstadt. The main aim is to explain some aspects of the theory of "Regularity structures" developed recently by Hairer in arXiv:1303.5113 . This theory gives a way to study well-posedness for a class of stochastic PDEs that could not be treated previously. Prominent examples include the KPZ equation as well as the dynamic $\Phi^4_3$ model. Such equations can be expanded into formal perturbative expansions. Roughly speaking the theory of regularity structures provides a way to truncate this expansion after finitely many terms and to solve a fixed point problem for the "remainder". The key ingredient is a new notion of "regularity" which is based on the terms of this expansion.Comment: Fixed typo