Assaf Shapira

assaf.shapira@normalesup.org

45 rue des Saints-Pères, Paris
Office 812D

About me

I'm an associate professor ("maître de conférences") in MAP5 in Paris. I'm interested mostly in probability and statistical physics, and I work a lot on time scales of random processes.

I did my PhD at the LPSM with Cristina Toninelli on interacting particle systems, and specifically on kinetically constrained models. This is a family of models studied in physics in order to better understand jamming of glassy and granular materials. You can see my thesis here. I continued the same line of work during a postdoc in Roma Tre University's probability group.

I studied for a B.Sc. in mathematics and physics at the Technion in Haifa (which is also my home town). Other than classes, I also got to work on two research projects, one in probability with Itai Benjamini at the Weizmnn Institute, and the other in experimental physics at Bielefeld university with Armin Gölzhäuser.
After my bachelor's, I moved to Paris and studied for a master's degree in theoretical physics at the ENS. This was a two year program, with two research internships, one for each year. The first year I worked at the LPMA (which turned into LPSM), with Giambattista Giacomin and Cristina Toninelli. Both projects were in mathematical statistical physics, from the mathematical side of it. For my second year's internship I worked with Kay Wiese at the LPTENS, still on statistical physics but from its physics side.

My CV is here.

Projects & Publications

Noncooperative models of kinetically constrained lattice gases

arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.13559 (2023). (PDF)
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Topologically induced metastability in a periodic XY chain

With Clément Cosco. Appears in Journal of Mathematical Physics 62 (2021). (PDF)
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Large scale dynamics of the Kob-Andersen model

Diffusive scaling of the Kob–Andersen model in $\mathbb{Z}^d$, with Fabio Martinelli and Cristina Toninelli. Appears in Annales de l'Institut Henri Poincaré, Probabilités et Statistiques 56 (2020). (PDF)
Self-Diffusion coefficient in the Kob-Andersen model, with Anatole Ertul. Appears in Electronic Communications in Probability 26 (2021). (PDF)
Hydrodynamic limit of the Kob-Andersen model. arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.08495 (2020). (PDF)
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Kinetically constrained models in random environments

Kinetically constrained models with random constraints. Appears in Annals of Applied Probability 30 (2018). (PDF)
Time scales of the Fredrickson-Andersen model on polluted $\mathbb{Z}^2$ and $\mathbb{Z}^3$, with Erik Slivken. arXiv preprint arXiv:1906.09949 (2019). (PDF)
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Field theoretical representation of the Loop-erased random walk

Loop-erased random walk as a spin system observable, with Tyler Helmuth. Appears in Journal of Statistical Physics (2020). (PDF)
An exact mapping between loop-erased random walks and an interacting field theory with two fermions and one boson, with Kay Wiese. Appears in SciPost Physics 9 (2020). (PDF)
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Spectral gap of the Fredrickson-Andersen one spin facilitated model

Journal of Statistical Physics (2020). (PDF)
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Metastable behavior of bootstrap percolation on Galton-Watson trees

ALEA 16 (2019).
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Hausdorff dimension of the record set of a fractional Brownian motion

With Lucas Benigni, Clément Cosco and Kay Wiese. Electronic Communications in Probability 23 (2018). (PDF)
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Small noise and long time phase diffusion in stochastic limit cycle oscillators

With Giambattista Giacomin and Christophe Poquet. Journal of Differential Equations 264 (2018). (PDF)
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On maximizing the speed of a random walk in fixed environments

With Amichai Lampert. Electronic Communications in Probability 18 (2013). (PDF)
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