Random Fields on a Network

Book excerpt: The theory of spatial models over lattices, or random fields as they are known, has developed significantly over recent years. This book provides a graduate-level introduction to the subject which assumes only a basic knowledge of probability and statistics, finite Markov chains, and the spectral theory of second-order processes. A particular strength of this book is its emphasis on examples - both to motivate the theory which is being developed, and to demonstrate the applications which range from statistical mechanics to image analysis and from statistics to stochastic algorithms.