Couplings: Old and new ideas

This is a series of six lectures on coupling methods in probability theory. Everything will be done from scratch, so that the lectures are suitable for non-experts; the only prerequisite is to have some familiarity with probability on the level that we usually require from first-year graduate students. On the other hand, it is hoped that the lectures will also be of some interest to experts (such as those who attended the 1999 summer school on couplings in Ellös), because each lecture will (towards its end) touch upon some recent twist, or at least on some material that was neither covered in the summer school, nor in the books by Lindvall (1992) and Thorisson (2000).

• Lecture 1: Coupling of Markov chains. Monday, April 22 at 15.15-17.00 in seminar room 3733.
• Lecture 2: Coupling of random walks. Wednesday, April 24 at 10.15-12.00 in seminar room 3721.
• Lecture 3: Coupling of renewal processes. Monday, April 29 at 15.15-17.00 in seminar room 3733.
• Lecture 4: Some important inequalities: Holley, Harris and FKG. Thursday, May 2 at 10.15-12.00 at Stockholm Univerisity Sal 11 Hus 5. OBS! Ändrad tid och plats!
• Lecture 5: Max-flow min-cut and Strassen's theorem. Monday, May 6 at 15.15-17.00 in seminar room 3733.
• Lecture 6: The Propp-Wilson algorithm and stochastic monotonicity. Wednesday, May 8 at 15.15-17.00 in seminar room 3721.

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