Sabine Jansen

Mathematical Physics and Statistics

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Mathematical Institute

Theresienstr. 39

80333 Munich

+49 / 89 2180 4477

jansen[at]math.lmu.de

Research Website

I love problems that combine physical intuition with mathematical precision and elegance and draw on different styles of reasoning. Eureka moments involve beautiful landscapes of structure emerging after long struggles in understanding, but also being able to pin down subtle nuances in models and reasoning, using mathematical language to bring clarity to interdisciplinary dialogue.

Description

My research within MCQST / MQC focuses on the interplay between probabilistic techniques and analytic tools to understand many-body systems.


Examples of fruitful interplay abound:

  • metastability and the rigorous proof of Arrhenius laws build on the semi-classical limit and WKB expansions;
  • spatial correlations are studied by investigating operators (Stein operators, infinitesimal generators) and their spectral gap, compare the exponential clustering theorem for gapped Hamilton operators;
  • unitary equivalence of Hamilton operators, e.g. based on different representations for algebras of creation and annihilation operators, is closely related to the notion of duality of Markov processes, which might prove helpful in investigating path integrals.


I am especially interested in low-temperature equilibrium states and phase transitions.

Publications

Intertwinings for Continuum Particle Systems: an Algebraic Approach

S. Floreani, S. Jansen, S. Wagner

Symmetry Integrability and Geometry-Methods and Applications 20, 46 (2024).

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We develop the algebraic approach to duality, more precisely to intertwinings, within the context of particle systems in general spaces, focusing on the su (1 , 1) current algebra. We introduce raising, lowering, and neutral operators indexed by test functions and we use them to construct unitary operators, which act as self-intertwiners for some Markov processes having the Pascal process's law as a reversible measure. We show that such unitaries relate to generalized Meixner polynomials. Our primary results are continuum counterparts of results in the discrete setting obtained by Carinci, Franceschini, Giardin`a, Groenevelt, and Redig (2019).

DOI: 10.3842/sigma.2024.046

Intertwining and duality for consistent Markov processes

S. Floreani, S. Jansen, F. Redig, S. Wagner

Electronic Journal of Probability 29, 1-34 (2024).

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In this paper we derive intertwining relations for a broad class of conservative particle systems both in discrete and continuous setting. Using the language of point process theory, we are able to derive a new framework in which duality and intertwining can be formulated for particle systems evolving in general spaces. These new intertwining relations are formulated with respect to factorial and orthogonal polynomials. Our novel approach unites all the previously found self-dualities in the context of discrete consistent particle systems and provides new duality results for several interacting systems in the continuum, such as interacting Brownian motions. We also introduce a process that we call generalized inclusion process, consisting of interacting random walks in the continuum, for which our method applies and yields generalized Meixner polynomials as orthogonal self-intertwiners.

DOI: 10.1214/24-ejp1124

Generalized geometric criteria for the absence of effective many-body interactions in the Asakura-Oosawa model

R. Wittmann, S. Jansen, H. Löwen

Journal of Mathematical Physics 64 (10), 103301 (2023).

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We investigate variants of the Asakura-Oosawa (AO) model for colloid-polymer mixtures, represented by hard classical particles interacting via their excluded volume. The interaction between the polymers is neglected but the colloid-polymer and colloid-colloid interactions are present and can be condensed into an effective depletion interaction among the colloids alone. The original AO model involves hard spherical particles in three spatial dimensions with colloidal radii R and the so-called depletion radius delta of the polymers, such that the minimum possible center-to-center distance between polymers and colloids allowed by the excluded-volume constraints is R + delta. It is common knowledge among physicists that there are only pairwise effective depletion interactions between the colloids if the geometric condition delta/R<2/root 3-1 is fulfilled. In this case, triplet and higher-order many body interactions are vanishing and the equilibrium statistics of the binary mixture can exactly be mapped onto that of an effective one-component system with the effective depletion pair-potential. Here we rigorously prove that the criterion delta/R<2/root 3-1 is both sufficient and necessary to guarantee the absence of triplet and higher-order many body interactions among the colloids. For an external hard wall confining the system, we also include a criterion which guarantees that the system can be exactly mapped onto one with effective external one-body interactions. Our general formulation also accounts for polydisperse mixtures and anisotropic shapes of colloids in any spatial dimension. In those cases where the resulting condition is only sufficient, we further demonstrate how to specify improved bounds.

DOI: 10.1063/5.0125536

Virial inversion and density functionals

S. Jansen, T. Kuna, D. Tsagkarogiannis

Journal of Functional Analysis 284 (1), 109731 (2023).

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We prove a novel inversion theorem for functionals given as power series in infinite-dimensional spaces. This provides a rigorous framework to prove convergence of density functionals for inhomogeneous systems with applications in classical density function theory, liquid crystals, molecules with various shapes or other internal degrees of freedom. The key technical tool is the representation of the inverse via a fixed point equation and a combinatorial identity for trees, which allows us to obtain convergence estimates in situations where Banach inversion fails.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jfa.2022.109731

Cluster Expansions: Necessary and Sufficient Convergence Conditions

S. Jansen, L. Kolesnikov

Journal of Statistical Physics 189 (3), 33 (2022).

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We prove a new convergence condition for the activity expansion of correlation functions in equilibrium statistical mechanics with possibly negative pair potentials. For non-negative pair potentials, the criterion is an if and only if condition. The condition is formulated with a sign-flipped Kirkwood-Salsburg operator and known conditions such as Kotecky-Preiss and Fernandez-Procacci are easily recovered. In addition, we deduce new sufficient convergence conditions for hard-core systems in R-d and Z(d) as well as for abstract polymer systems. The latter improves on the Fernandez-Procacci criterion.

DOI: 10.1007/s10955-022-02992-6

The method of cumulants for the normal approximation

H. Doring, S. Jansen, K. Schubert

Probability Surveys 19, 185-270 (2022).

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"The survey is dedicated to a celebrated series of quantitave results, developed by the Lithuanian school of probability, on the normal approximation for a real-valued random variable. The key ingredient is a bound on cumulants of the type vertical bar kappa(j)(X)vertical bar <= j!(1+gamma)/Delta(j-2), which is weaker than Cramer's condition of finite exponential moments. We give a self-contained proof of some of the ""main lemmas"" in a book by Saulis and StatuleviCius (1989), and an accessible introduction to the Cramer-Petrov series. In addition, we explain relations with heavy-tailed Weibull variables, moderate deviations, and mod-phi convergence. We discuss some methods for bounding cumulants such as summability of mixed cumulants and dependency graphs, and briefly review a few recent applications of the method of cumulants for the normal approximation."

DOI: 10.1214/22-ps7

Lagrange Inversion and Combinatorial Species with Uncountable Color Palette

S. Jansen, T. Kuna, D. Tsagkarogiannis

Annales Henri Poincare 22 (5), 1499-1534 (2021).

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We prove a multivariate Lagrange-Good formula for functionals of uncountably many variables and investigate its relation with inversion formulas using trees. We clarify the cancellations that take place between the two aforementioned formulas and draw connections with similar approaches in a range of applications.

DOI: 10.1007/s00023-020-01013-0

Thermodynamics of a Hierarchical Mixture of Cubes (vol 179, pg 309, 2020)

S. Jansen

Journal of Statistical Physics 183 (1), 1 (2021).

DOI: 10.1007/s10955-021-02742-0

Revisiting Groeneveld's approach to the virial expansion

S. Jansen

Journal of Mathematical Physics 62 (2), 23302 (2021).

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A generalized version of Groeneveld's convergence criterion for the virial expansion and generating functionals for weighted two-connected graphs is proven. This criterion works for inhomogeneous systems and yields bounds for the density expansions of the correlation functions rho (s) (a.k.a. distribution functions or factorial moment measures) of grand-canonical Gibbs measures with pairwise interactions. The proof is based on recurrence relations for graph weights related to the Kirkwood-Salsburg integral equation for correlation functions. The proof does not use an inversion of the density-activity expansion,. however, a Mobius inversion on the lattice of set partitions enters the derivation of the recurrence relations.

DOI: 10.1063/5.0030148

Thermodynamics of a Hierarchical Mixture of Cubes

S. Jansen

Journal of Statistical Physics 179 (2), 309-340 (2020).

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We investigate a toy model for phase transitions in mixtures of incompressible droplets. The model consists of non-overlapping hypercubes in Z(d) of sidelengths 2(j), j is an element of N-0. Cubes belong to an admissible set B such that if two cubes overlap, then one is contained in the other. Cubes of sidelength 2(j) have activity z(j) and density rho(j). We prove explicit formulas for the pressure and entropy, prove a van-der-Waals type equation of state, and invert the density-activity relations. In addition we explore phase transitions for parameter-dependent activities z j (mu) = exp(2(dj)mu - E-j). We prove a sufficient criterion for absence of phase transition, show that constant energies E-j equivalent to lambda lead to a continuous phase transition, and prove a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a first-order phase transition.

DOI: 10.1007/s10955-020-02531-1

Cluster Expansions with Renormalized Activities and Applications to Colloids

S. Jansen, D. Tsagkarogiannis

Annales Henri Poincare 21 (1), 45-79 (2020).

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We consider a binary system of small and large objects in the continuous space interacting via a nonnegative potential. By integrating over the small objects, the effective interaction between the large ones becomes multi-body. We prove convergence of the cluster expansion for the grand canonical ensemble of the effective system of large objects. To perform the combinatorial estimate of hypergraphs (due to the multi-body origin of the interaction), we exploit the underlying structure of the original binary system. Moreover, we obtain a sufficient condition for convergence which involves the surface of the large objects rather than their volume. This amounts to a significant improvement in comparison to a direct application of the known cluster expansion theorems. Our result is valid for the particular case of hard spheres (colloids) for which we rigorously treat the depletion interaction.

DOI: 10.1007/s00023-019-00868-2

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