We prove a strong form of the equivalence of ensembles for the invariant measures of zero range processes conditioned to a supercritical density of particles. It is known that in this case there is a single site that accomodates a macroscopically large number of the particles in the system. We show that in the thermodynamic limit the rest of the sites have joint distribution equal to the grand canonical measure at the critical density. This improves the result of Großkinsky, Schütz and Spohn, where convergence is obtained for the finite dimensional marginals. We obtain as corollaries limit theorems for the order statistics of the components and for the fluctuations of the bulk.

It is known that large deviations of sums of subexponential random variables are most likely realised by deviations of a single random variable. In this article we give a detailed picture of how subexponential random variables are distributed when a large deviation of the sum is observed.

Zero-range condensation at criticality. Abstract Zero-range processes with decreasing jump rates exhibit a condensation transition, where a positive fraction of all particles condenses on a single lattice site when the total density exceeds a critical value. We study the onset of condensation, i.e. the behaviour of the maximum occupation number after adding or subtracting a subextensive excess mass of particles at the critical density. We establish a law of large numbers for the excess mass fraction in the maximum, which turns out to jump from zero to a positive value at a critical scale. Our results also include distributional limits for the fluctuations of the maximum, which change from standard extreme value statistics to Gaussian when the density crosses the critical point. Fluctuations in the bulk are also covered, showing that the mass outside the maximum is distributed homogeneously. In summary, we identify the detailed behaviour at the critical scale including sub-leading terms, which provides a full understanding of the crossover from sub-to supercritical behaviour.