Consider $n+m$ nonintersecting Brownian bridges, with $n$ of them leaving from 0 at time $t=-1$ and returning to 0 at time $t=1$, while the $m$ remaining ones (wanderers) go from $m$ points $a_i$ to $m$ points $b_i$. First, we keep $m$ fixed and we scale $a_i,b_i$ appropriately with $n$. In the large-$n$ limit, we obtain a new Airy process with wanderers, in the neighborhood of $\sqrt{2n}$, the approximate location of the rightmost particle in the absence of wanderers. This new process is governed by an Airy-type kernel, with a rational perturbation. Letting the number $m$ of wanderers tend to infinity as well, leads to two Pearcey processes about two cusps, a closing and an opening cusp, the location of the tips being related by an elliptic curve. Upon tuning the starting and target points, one can let the two tips of the cusps grow very close; this leads to a new process, which might be governed by a kernel, represented as a double integral involving the exponential of a quintic polynomial in the integration variables.
This paper deals with products and ratios of average characteristic polynomials for unitary ensembles. We prove universality at the soft edge of the limiting eigenvalues' density, and write the universal limit in function of the Kontsevich matrix model ("matrix Airy function", as originally named by Kontsevich). For the case of the hard edge, universality is already known. We show that also in this case the universal limit can be expressed as a matrix integral ("matrix Bessel function") known in the literature as generalized Kontsevich matrix model.
Consider N Brownian bridges B_i:[-N,N] -> R, B_i(-N) = B_i(N) = 0, 1 <= i <= N, conditioned not to intersect. The edge-scaling limit of this system is obtained by taking a limit as N -> infinity of these curves scaled around (0,2^{1/2} N) horizontally by a factor of N^{2/3} and vertically by N^{1/3}. If a parabola is added to each limit curve, an x-translation invariant process sometimes called the multi-line Airy process is obtained. We prove the existence of a version of this process (which we call the Airy line ensemble) in which curves are a.s. everywhere continuous and non-intersecting. T…
We introduce a new method for studying universality of random matrices. Let T_n be the Jacobi matrix associated to the Dyson beta ensemble with uniformly convex polynomial potential. We show that after scaling, T_n converges to the Stochastic Airy operator. In particular, the top edge of the Dyson beta ensemble and the corresponding eigenvectors are universal. As a byproduct, our work leads to conjectured operator limits for the entire family of soft edge distributions.
We study the decay of the covariance of the Airy$_1$ process, $\mathcal{A}_1$, a stationary stochastic process on $\mathbb{R}$ that arises as a universal scaling limit in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class. We show that the decay is super-exponential and determine the leading order term in the exponent by showing that $\textrm{Cov}(\mathcal{A}_1(0),\mathcal{A}_1(u))= e^{-(\frac{4}{3}+o(1))u^3}$ as $u\to\infty$. The proof employs a combination of probabilistic techniques and integrable probability estimates. The upper bound uses the connection of $\mathcal{A}_1$ to planar exponent…
In last passage percolation models lying in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class, maximizing paths that travel over distances of order $n$ accrue energy that fluctuates on scale $n^{1/3}$; and these paths deviate from the linear interpolation of their endpoints on scale $n^{2/3}$. These maximizing paths and their energies may be viewed via a coordinate system that respects these scalings. What emerges by doing so is a system indexed by $x,y \in \mathbb{R}$ and $s,t \in \mathbb{R}$ with $s < t$ of unit order quantities $W_n\big( x,s ; y,t \big)$ specifying the scaled energy of the maximiz…
We consider the system of one-sided reflected Brownian motions which is in variational duality with Brownian last passage percolation. We show that it has integrable transition probabilities, expressed in terms of Hermite polynomials and hitting times of exponential random walks, and that it converges in the 1:2:3 scaling limit to the KPZ fixed point, the scaling invariant Markov process defined in [MQR17] and believed to govern the long time large scale fluctuations for all models in the KPZ universality class. Brownian last passage percolation was shown recently in [DOV18] to converge to the…
We revisit the anchored Toom interface and use KPZ scaling theory to argue that the interface fluctuations are governed by the Airy_1 process with the role of space and time interchanged. There is no free parameter. The predictions are numerically well confirmed for space-time statistics in the stationary state. In particular the spatial fluctuations of the interface are given by the GOE edge distribution of Tracy and Widom.
There has recently been much activity within the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class spurred by the construction of the canonical limiting object, the parabolic Airy sheet $\mathcal{S}:\mathbb{R}^2\to\mathbb{R}$ [arXiv:1812.00309]. The parabolic Airy sheet provides a coupling of parabolic Airy$_2$ processes -- a universal limiting geodesic weight profile in planar last passage percolation models -- and a natural goal is to understand this coupling. Geodesic geometry suggests that the difference of two parabolic Airy$_2$ processes, i.e., a difference profile, encodes important structural inf…
Universality of eigenvalue spacings is one of the basic characteristics of random matrices. We give the precise meaning of universality and discuss the standard universality classes (sine, Airy, Bessel) and their appearance in unitary, orthogonal, and symplectic ensembles. The Riemann-Hilbert problem for orthogonal polynomials is one possible tool to derive universality in unitary random matrix ensembles. An overview is presented of the Deift/Zhou steepest descent analysis of the Riemann-Hilbert problem in the one-cut regular case. Non-standard universality classes that arise at singular point…
We establish an invariance principle corresponding to the universality of random matrices. More precisely, we prove the dynamical universality of random matrices in the sense that, if the random point fields $ \muN $ of $ \nN $-particle systems describing the eigenvalues of random matrices or log-gases with general self-interaction potentials $ \V $ converge to some random point field $ μ$, then the associated natural $ \muN $-reversible diffusions represented by solutions of stochastic differential equations (SDEs) converge to some $ μ$-reversible diffusion given by the solution of an infinit…
Many models of one-dimensional local random growth are expected to lie in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class. For such a model, the interface profile at advanced time may be viewed in scaled coordinates specified via characteristic KPZ scaling exponents of one-third and two-thirds. When the long time limit of this scaled interface is taken, it is expected -- and proved for a few integrable models -- that, up to a parabolic shift, the Airy$_2$ process $\mathcal{A}:\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$ is obtained. This process may be embedded via the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth correspondence a…
An explicit Fredholm determinant formula is derived for the multipoint distribution of the height function of the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP) with arbitrary right-finite initial condition. The method is by solving the biorthogonal ensemble/non-intersecting path representation found by [Sas05; BFPS07]. The resulting kernel involves transition probabilities of a random walk forced to hit a curve defined by the initial data. In the KPZ 1:2:3 scaling limit the formula leads in a transparent way to a Fredholm determinant formula, in terms of analogous kernels based on Browni…
We study the model of the totally asymmetric exclusion process with generalized update, which compared to the usual totally asymmetric exclusion process, has an additional parameter enhancing clustering of particles. We derive the exact multiparticle distributions of distances travelled by particles on the infinite lattice for two types of initial conditions: step and alternating once. Two different scaling limits of the exact formulas are studied. Under the first scaling associated to Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class we prove convergence of joint distributions of the scaled partic…
In this paper we study fluctuations of extreme particles of nonintersecting Brownian bridges starting from $a_1\leq a_2\leq \cdots \leq a_n$ at time $t=0$ and ending at $b_1\leq b_2\leq \cdots\leq b_n$ at time $t=1$, where $μ_{A_n}=(1/n)\sum_{i}δ_{a_i}, μ_{B_n}=(1/n)\sum_i δ_{b_i}$ are discretization of probability measures $μ_A, μ_B$. Under regularity assumptions of $μ_A, μ_B$, we show as the number of particles $n$ goes to infinity, fluctuations of extreme particles at any time $0<t<1$, after proper rescaling, are asymptotically universal, converging to the Airy point process.
We review recent advances in the theory of trapped fermions using techniques borrowed from random matrix theory (RMT) and, more generally, from the theory of determinantal point processes. In the presence of a trap, and in the limit of a large number of fermions $N \gg 1$, the spatial density exhibits an edge, beyond which it vanishes. While the spatial correlations far from the edge, i.e. close to the center of the trap, are well described by standard many-body techniques, such as the local density approximation (LDA), these methods fail to describe the fluctuations close to the edge of the F…
Within the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class, the space-time Airy sheet is conjectured to be the canonical scaling limit for last passage percolation models. In recent work arXiv:1812.00309 of Dauvergne, Ortmann, and Virág, this object was constructed and shown to be the limit after parabolic correction of one such model: Brownian last passage percolation. This limit object, called the directed landscape, admits geodesic paths between any two space-time points $(x,s)$ and $(y,t)$ with $s<t$. In this article, we examine fractal properties of the set of these paths. Our main results concern…
