Spin glasses: a new direction for probability theory? (Q957702)

The theme of this paper: the emergence of collective behavior in large correlated families of random variables. The author considers cases where the correlation structure is very regular, but is in some (rather imprecise) sense ``high dimensional''. ``Both physicists and mathematicians have now written hundreds of pages about models for spin glasses, but the questions treated with great efforts by the mathematicians are at the very most the object of a few introductory comments in the physicist's work. Physicist consider this topic as well understood. Mathematicians wonder whether they will ever be able to provide rigorous proofs of the main predictions.'' This paradoxical situation and similar problems are discussed.