Abstract. µ being a nonnegative measure satisfying some Log-Sobolev inequality, we give conditions on F for the Boltzmann measure ν = e −2F µ to also satisfy some Log-Sobolev inequality. This paper improves and completes the final section in [6]. A general sufficient condition and a general necessary condition are given and examples are explicitly studied. Résumé. µ étant une mesure positive satisfaisant une inégalité de Sobolev logarithmique, nous donnons des conditions sur F pour que la mesure de Boltzmann ν = e −2F µ satisfasse également une telle inégalité (améliorant et complétant ainsi la dernière partie de [6]). Les conditions obtenues sont illustrées par des exemples.

We study in details the isoperimetric profile of product probability measures with tails between the exponential and the Gaussian regime. In particular we exhibit many examples where coordinate half-spaces are approximate solutions of the isoperimetric problem. 1

If a random variable is not exponentially integrable, it is known that no concentration inequality holds for an infinite sequence of independent copies. Under mild conditions, we establish concentration inequalities for finite sequences of n independent copies, with good dependence in n. 1

Abstract. We study the relationship between two classical approaches for quantitative ergodic properties: the first one based on Lyapunov type controls and popularized by Meyn and Tweedie, the second one based on functional inequalities (of Poincaré type). We show that they can be linked through new inequalities (Lyapunov-Poincaré inequalities). Explicit examples for diffusion processes are studied, improving some results in the literature. The example of the kinetic Fokker-Planck equation recently studied by Hérau-Nier, Helffer-Nier and Villani is in particular discussed in the final section.

Abstract. This note is concerned with intermediate inequalities which interpolate between the logarithmic Sobolev and the Poincaré inequalities. For such generalized Poincaré inequalities we improve upon the known constants from the literature. 1.

We show that for convex domains in Euclidean space, Cheeger’s isoperimetric inequality, spectral gap of the Neumann Laplacian, exponential concentration of Lipschitz functions, and the a-priori weakest requirement that Lipschitz functions have arbitrarily slow uniform tail-decay, are all quantitatively equivalent (to within universal constants, independent of the dimension). This substantially extends previous results of Maz’ya, Cheeger, Gromov– Milman, Buser and Ledoux. As an application, we conclude a sharp quantitative stability result for the spectral gap of convex domains under convex perturbations which preserve volume (up to constants) and under maps which are “on-average ” Lipschitz. We also provide a new characterization (up to constants) of the spectral gap of a convex domain, as one over the square of the average distance from the “worst ” subset having half the measure of the domain. In addition, we easily recover and extend many previously known lower bounds on the spectral gap of convex domains, due to Payne–Weinberger, Li–Yau, Kannan– Lovász–Simonovits, Bobkov and Sodin. The proof involves estimates on the diffusion semigroup following Bakry–Ledoux and a result from Riemannian Geometry on the concavity of the isoperimetric profile. Our results extend to the more general setting of Riemannian manifolds with density which satisfy the CD(0, ∞) curvature-dimension condition of Bakry-Émery. 1

We provide a sufficient condition for a measure on the real line to satisfy a modified logarithmic Sobolev inequality, thus extending the criterion of Bobkov and Götze. Under mild assumptions the condition is also necessary. Concentration inequalities are derived. This completes the picture given in recent contributions by Gentil, Guillin and Miclo. 1

The normalised volume measure on the ℓ n p unit ball (1 ≤ p ≤ 2) satisfies the following isoperimetric inequality: the boundary measure of a set of measure a is at least cn 1/p ã log 1−1/p (1/ã), where ã = min(a,1 − a). Résumé Nous prouvons une inégalité isopérimétrique pour la mesure uniforme Vp,n sur la boule unité de ℓ n p (1 ≤ p ≤ 2). Si Vp,n(A) = a, alors V + p,n(A) ≥ cn 1/p ea log 1−1/p 1/ea, où V + p,n est la mesure de surface associée à Vp,n, ea = min(a,1 − a) et c est une constante absolue. En particulier, les boules unités de ℓ n p vérifient la conjecture de Kannan– Lovász–Simonovits [KLS] sur la constante de Cheeger d’un corps convexe isotrope. La démonstration s’appuie sur les inégalités isopérimétriques de Bobkov [B1] et de Barthe–Cattiaux–Roberto [BCR], et utilise la représentation de Vp,n établie par Barthe–Guédon–Mendelson–Naor [BGMN] ainsi qu’un argument de découpage. 1

In this paper we introduce and study a weakened form of logarithmic Sobolev inequalities in connection with various others functional inequalities (weak Poincaré inequalities, general Beckner inequalities...). We also discuss the quantitative behaviour of relative entropy along a symmetric diffusion semi-group. In particular, we exhibit an example where Poincaré inequality can not be used for deriving entropic convergence whence weak logarithmic Sobolev inequality ensures the result.

“Threshold phenomena ” refer to settings in which the probability for an event to occur changes rapidly as some underlying parameter varies. Thresh-old phenomena play an important role in probability theory and statistics, physics, and computer science, and are related to issues studied in economics