Realizability of point processes

There are various situations in which it is natural to ask whether a given collection of k functions, ρ _j (r ₁,...,r _j ), j=1,...,k, defined on a set X, are the first k correlation functions of a point process on X. Here we describe some necessary and sufficient conditions on the ρ _j 's for this to be true. Our primary examples are X=ℝ^d , X=ℤ^d , and X an arbitrary finite set. In particular, we extend a result by Ambartzumian and Sukiasian showing realizability at sufficiently small densities ρ ₁(r). Typically if any realizing process exists there will be many (even an uncountable number); in this case we prove, when X is a finite set, the existence of a realizing Gibbs measure with k body potentials which maximizes the entropy among all realizing measures. We also investigate in detail a simple example in which a uniform density ρ and translation invariant ρ ₂ are specified on ℤ; there is a gap between our best upper bound on possible values of ρ and the largest ρ for which realizability can be established.