Professor Ellis studies the asymptotic behavior of random systems using the theory of large deviations, which focuses on the exponential decay of probabilities in those systems. He has applied the theory to a wide range of problems in which detailed information on rare events is required. These include queueing systems as well as systems arising in statistical mechanics, including spin models and models of coherent structures in turbulence. In recent work he has used the theory of large deviations and the theory of convex functions to understand the equivalence and nonequivalence of the microcanonical, canonical, and generalized canonical ensembles both at the thermodynamic level and at the level of equilibrium macrostates. These ensembles are probability distributions used to describe the behavior of particles in statistical mechanical systems.
Articles
Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys Morphology Of Ly Alpha Emitters At Redshift 5.7 in The Cosmos Field (with Y Taniguchi, T Murayama, NZ Scoville, SS Sasaki, T Nagao, Y Shioya, T Saito, Y Ideue, A Nakajima, K Matsuoka, DB Sanders, B Mobasher, H Aussel, P Capak, M Salvato, A Koekemoer, C Carilli, A Cimatti, B Garilli, M Giavalisco, O Ilbert, CD Impey, MG Kitzbichler, O Le Fevre, HJ McCracken, C Scarlata, E Schinnerer, V Smolcic, S Tribiano, and JR Trump), Astrophysical Journal (2009)
During the last decade, a large number of young, star-forming galaxies beyond redshift of z...
Asymptotic behavior of the magnetization near critical and tricritical points via Ginzburg-Landau polynomials (with J Machta and PTH Otto), Journal of Statistical Physics (2008)
The purpose of this paper is to prove connections among the asymptotic behavior of the...
Multiple critical behavior of probabilistic limit theorems in the neighborhood of a tricritical point (with M Costeniuc and PTH Otto), Journal of Statistical Physics (2007)
We derive probabilistic limit theorems that reveal the intricate structure of the phase transitions in...
Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World: The Case of Climate Change (with Marco Verweij, Mary Douglas, Christoph Engel, Frank Hendriks, Susanne Lohmann, Steven Michael Ney, Steve Rayner, and Michael Thompson), Public Administration (2006)
Successful solutions to pressing social ills tend to consist of innovative combinations of a limited...
Generalized canonical ensembles and ensemble equivalence (with M Costeniuc, H Touchette, and B Turkington), Physical Review E (2006)
This paper is a companion piece to our previous work [J. Stat. Phys. 119, 1283...
Other
Global Optimization, the Gaussian Ensemble, and Universal Ensemble Equivalence (with M Costeniuc, H Touchette, and B Turkington), Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series (2006)
Given a constrained minimization problem, under what conditions does there exist a related, unconstrained problem...
Nonequivalent ensembles and metastability (with H Touchett), Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series (2005)
This paper reviews a number of fundamental connections that exist between nonequivalent microcanonical and canonical...