Coupling, spectral gap and related topics. I (Q1375830)

This is the first paper in a group of three papers concerning the spectral gap problem [for Parts II and III see the papers Zbl 0892.58079 and Zbl 0892.58080 below.] In the first Part, the author explains three main steps in the proof of estimating the spectral gap by using the coupling method and points out some of the main difficulties of this method.