Statistical mechanics of interpolation nodes, pluripotential theory and complex geometry

Abstract

This is mainly a survey, explaining how the probabilistic (statistical mechanical) construction of Kahler-Einstein metrics on compact complex manifolds, introduced in a series of works by the author, naturally arises from classical approximation and interpolation problems in C-n. A fair amount of background material is included. Along the way the results are generalized to the non-compact setting of C-n. This yields a probabilistic construction of Kahler solutions to Einstein's equations in C-n, with cosmological constant -beta, from a gas of interpolation nodes in equilibrium at positive inverse temperature beta. In the infinite temperature limit, beta -> 0, solutions to the Calabi-Yau equation are obtained. In the opposite zero temperature case the results may be interpreted as transcendental analogs of classical asymptotics for orthogonal polynomials, with the inverse temperature beta playing the role of the degree of a polynomial.