Thermodynamical aspects of classical lattice systems

The main theme of the lectures is large deviations theory using ideas of Statistical Mechanics. A large deviations principle for empirical measures is obtained for a large class of random fields, called asymptotically decoupled measures. The connection between the existence of a large deviations principle for empirical measures and the notions of equilibrium measures and Gibbs measures is explained. As a consequence of the large deviations principle for empirical measures, I prove conditional limit theorems, extending previous results. In a separate section, which can be read independently, I discuss the relevance of these general results for Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics of classical lattice systems; it is a short and concise introduction to Statistical Mechanics. Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics is derived from Statistical Thermodynamics and the fundamental role of Boltzmann entropy is emphasized.