Multipliers and centralizers (Banach spaces)

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In mathematics, Laplace's principle is a basic theorem in large deviations theory, similar to Varadhan's lemma. It gives an asymptotic expression for the Lebesgue integral of exp(−θφ(x)) over a fixed set A as θ becomes large. Such expressions can be used, for example, in statistical mechanics to determining the limiting behaviour of a system as the temperature tends to absolute zero.

Statement of the result

Let A be a Lebesgue-measurable subset of d-dimensional Euclidean space Rd and let φ : Rd → R be a measurable function with

∫Ae−φ(x)dx<+∞.

Then

limθ→+∞1θlog⁡∫Ae−θφ(x)dx=−essinfx∈Aφ(x),

where ess inf denotes the essential infimum. Heuristically, this may be read as saying that for large θ,

∫Ae−θφ(x)dx≈exp⁡(−θessinfx∈Aφ(x)).

Application

The Laplace principle can be applied to the family of probability measures Pθ given by

𝐏θ(A)=(∫Ae−θφ(x)dx)/(∫𝐑de−θφ(y)dy)

to give an asymptotic expression for the probability of some set/event A as θ becomes large. For example, if X is a standard normally distributed random variable on R, then

limε↓0εlog⁡𝐏[εX∈A]=−essinfx∈Ax22

for every measurable set A.

References