We analyse the abelian sandpile model on $\mathbbm{Z}^d$ for the starting configuration of $n$ particles in the origin and $2d-2$ particles otherwise. We give a new short proof of the theorem of Fey, Levine and Peres \cite{FLP} that the radius of the toppled cluster of this configuration is $O(n^{1/d})$.
The aim of the current work is to investigate structural properties of the sandpile group of a special class of self-similar graphs. More precisely, we consider Abelian sandpiles on Sierpinski gasket graphs and for the choice of normal boundary conditions, we give a characterization of the identity element and a recursive description of the sandpile group. Finally, we consider Abelian sandpile Markov chains on the aforementioned graphs and we improve the existing bounds on the speed of convergence to stationarity.
We prove that Abelian sandpiles with random initial states converge almost surely to unique scaling limits. The proof follows the Armstrong-Smart program for stochastic homogenization of uniformly elliptic equations. Using simple random walk estimates, we prove an analogous result for the divisible sandpile and identify its scaling limit as exactly that of the averaged divisible sandpile. As a corollary, this gives a new quantitative proof of known results on the stabilizability of Abelian sandpiles.
We present limiting shape results for a non-abelian variant of the abelian sandpile growth model (ASGM), some of which have no parallel in the ASGM. One of our limiting shapes is an octagon. In our model, mass spreads from the origin by the toppling rule in Zhang's sandpile model. Previously, several limiting shape results have been obtained for the ASGM using abelianness and monotonicity as main tools. As both properties fail for our model, we use a new proof technique: in our main proof, we introduce several cellular automata to mimic our growth model.
We prove the dimensional reduction conjecture of Fey, Levine, and Peres (2010) on the hypercube. The proof shows that dimensional reduction, symmetry, and regularity of the Abelian sandpile persist during the parallel toppling process. This stronger result verifies empirical observations first documented by Liu, Kaplan, and Gray (1990).
In this paper we study the abelian sandpile model on the two-dimensional grid with uniform neighborhood, and prove that any family of neighborhoods defined as scalings of a continuous non-flat shape can ultimately perform crossing.
The abelian sandpile model is a simple combinatorial model for critical behaviour which has the "abelian property" that the order in which we make moves does not change the final outcome of the game. This might seem to restrict the model's computational ability, but we show that, given three dimensions to work with, the sandpile is able to simulate a Turing machine. We use that to prove the undecidability of three halting problems.
We study the Abelian sandpile model (ASM), a process where grains of sand are placed on a graph's vertices. When the number of grains on a vertex is at least its degree, one grain is distributed to each neighboring vertex. This model has been shown to form fractal patterns on the integer lattice, and using these fractal patterns as motivation, we consider the model on graph approximations of post critically finite (p.c.f) fractals. We determine asymptotic behavior of the diameter of sites toppled and characterize graphs which exhibit a periodic number of grains with respect to the initial plac…
The Abelian sandpile process evolves configurations of chips on the integer lattice by toppling any vertex with at least 4 chips, distributing one of its chips to each of its 4 neighbors. When begun from a large stack of chips, the terminal state of the sandpile has a curious fractal structure which has remained unexplained. Using a characterization of the quadratic growths attainable by integer-superharmonic functions, we prove that the sandpile PDE recently shown to characterize the scaling limit of the sandpile admits certain fractal solutions, giving a precise mathematical perspective on t…
The abelian sandpile model defines a Markov chain whose states are integer-valued functions on the vertices of a simple connected graph $G$. By viewing this chain as a (nonreversible) random walk on an abelian group, we give a formula for its eigenvalues and eigenvectors in terms of `multiplicative harmonic functions' on the vertices of $G$. We show that the spectral gap of the sandpile chain is within a constant factor of the length of the shortest non-integer vector in the dual Laplacian lattice, while the mixing time is at most a constant times the smoothing parameter of the Laplacian latti…
We classify all recurrent configurations of the Abelian sandpile model (ASM) on Ferrers graphs. The classification is in terms of decorations of EW-tableaux, which undecorated are in bijection with the minimal recurrent configurations. We introduce decorated permutations, extending to decorated EW-tableaux a bijection between such tableaux and permutations, giving a direct bijection between the decorated permutations and all recurrent configurations of the ASM. We also describe a bijection between the decorated permutations and the intransitive trees of Postnikov, the breadth-first search of w…
The Abelian sandpile growth model is a diffusion process for configurations of chips placed on vertices of the integer lattice $\mathbb{Z}^d$, in which sites with at least 2d chips {\em topple}, distributing 1 chip to each of their neighbors in the lattice, until no more topplings are possible. From an initial configuration consisting of $n$ chips placed at a single vertex, the rescaled stable configuration seems to converge to a particular fractal pattern as $n\to \infty$. However, little has been proved about the appearance of the stable configurations. We use PDE techniques to prove that th…
The height probabilities for the recurrent configurations in the Abelian Sandpile Model on the square lattice have analytic expressions, in terms of multidimensional quadratures. At first, these quantities have been evaluated numerically with high accuracy, and conjectured to be certain cubic rational-coefficient polynomials in 1/pi. Later their values have been determined by different methods. We revert to the direct derivation of these probabilities, by computing analytically the corresponding integrals. Yet another time, we confirm the predictions on the probabilities, and thus, as a coroll…
The Abelian Sandpile Model is a cellular automaton whose discrete dynamics reaches an out-of-equilibrium steady state resembling avalanches in piles of sand. The fundamental moves defining the dynamics are encoded by the toppling rules. The transition monoid corresponding to this dynamics in the set of stable configurations is abelian, a property which seems at the basis of our understanding of the model. By including also antitoppling rules, we introduce and investigate a larger monoid, which is not abelian anymore. We prove a number of algebraic properties of this monoid, and describe their …
We present some combinatorial results on the stochastic abelian sandpile model. These models are characterized by nondeterministic toppling rules. The recurrence checking for the deterministic case can be performed using the well known burning test which detects presence of forbidden sub-configurations (FSC) in strongly polynomial time. In the stochastic case, however, even for Manna's model, which is perhaps the simplest non-trivial example, no such procedure is known. In this paper, we address the decision problem of the existence of any FSC in a general stochastic sandpile. We demonstrate a…
We establish quantitative spherical shape theorems for rotor-router aggregation and abelian sandpile growth on the graphical Sierpinski gasket ($SG$) when particles are launched from the corner vertex. In particular, the abelian sandpile growth problem is exactly solved via a recursive construction of self-similar sandpile tiles. We show that sandpile growth and patterns exhibit a $(2\cdot 3^n)$-periodicity as a function of the initial mass. Moreover, the cluster explodes---increments by more than 1 in radius---at periodic intervals, a phenomenon not seen on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ or trees. We explici…
We introduce a new model of a stochastic sandpile on a graph $G$ containing a sink. When unstable, a site sends one grain to each of its neighbours independently with probability $p \in (0,1]$. For $p=1$, this coincides with the standard Abelian sandpile model. In general, for $p\in(0,1)$, the set of recurrent configurations of this sandpile model is different from that of the Abelian sandpile model. We give a characterisation of this set in terms of orientations of the graph $G$. We also define the lacking polynomial $L_G$ as the generating function counting this set according to the number o…
We prove several results concerning a polynomial that arises from the sandpile model on directed graphs; these results are previously only known for undirected graphs. Implicit in the sandpile model is the choice of a sink vertex, and it is conjectured by Perrot and Pham that the polynomial $c_0+c_1y+\ldots c_n y^n$, where $c_i$ is the number of recurrent classes of the sandpile model with level $i$, is independent of the choice of the sink. We prove their conjecture by expressing the polynomial as an invariant of the sinkless sandpile model. We then present a bijection between arborescences o…
The Abelian Sandpile generates complex and beautiful patterns and seems to display allometry. On the plane, beyond patches, patterns periodic in both dimensions, we remark the presence of structures periodic in one dimension, that we call strings. We classify completely their constituents in terms of their principal periodic vector k, that we call momentum. We derive a simple relation between the momentum of a string and its density of particles, E, which is reminiscent of a dispersion relation, E=k^2. Strings interact: they can merge and split and within these processes momentum is conserved.…
In this paper we study three classes of models widely used in physics, computer science and social science: the Chip Firing Game, the Abelian Sandpile Model and the Chip Firing Game on a mutating graph. We study the set of configurations reachable from a given initial configuration, called the configuration space of a model, and try to determine the main properties of such sets. We study the order induced over the configurations by the evolution rule. This makes it possible to compare the power of expression of these models. It is known that the configuration spaces we obtain are lattices, a s…
The leaky abelian sandpile model (Leaky-ASM) is a growth model in which $n$ grains of sand start at the origin in $\mathbb{Z}^2$ and diffuse along the vertices according to a toppling rule. A site can topple if its amount of sand is above a threshold. In each topple a site sends some sand to each neighbor and leaks a portion $1-1/d$ of its sand. We compute the limit shape as a function of $d$ in the symmetric case where each topple sends an equal amount of sand to each neighbor. The limit shape converges to a circle as $d\to 1$ and a diamond as $d\to\infty$. We compute the limit shape by compa…
The Abelian Sandpile Model, seen as a deterministic lattice automaton, on two-dimensional periodic graphs generates complex regular patterns displaying (fractal) self-similarity. In particular, on a variety of lattices and initial conditions, at all sizes, there appears what we call an exact Sierpinski structure: the volume is filled with periodic patterns, glued together along straight lines, with the topology of a triangular Sierpinski gasket. Various lattices (square, hexagonal, kagome,...), initial conditions, and toppling rules show Sierpinski structures which are apparently unrelated and…
A EW-tableau is a certain 0/1-filling of a Ferrers diagram, corresponding uniquely to an acyclic orientation, with a unique sink, of a certain bipartite graph called a Ferrers graph. We give a bijective proof of a result of Ehrenborg and van Willigenburg showing that EW-tableaux of a given shape are equinumerous with permutations with a given set of excedances. This leads to an explicit bijection between EW-tableaux and the much studied Le-tableaux, as well as the tree-like tableaux introduced by Aval, Boussicault and Nadeau. We show that the set of EW-tableaux on a given Ferrers diagram are i…
We answer a question of Laszlo Babai concerning the abelian sandpile model. Given a graph, the model yields a finite abelian group of recurrent configurations which is closely related to the combinatorial Laplacian of the graph. We explicitly describe the group elements and operations in the case of thick trees with loops--that is, graphs which are obtained from trees by setting arbitrary edge multiplicities and adding loops at vertices. We do this both concretely (by describing the so-called recurrent and identity configurations) and abstractly (by computing the group's abstract structure), a…
A permutation graph is a graph whose edges are given by inversions of a permutation. We study the Abelian sandpile model (ASM) on such graphs. We exhibit a bijection between recurrent configurations of the ASM on permutation graphs and the tiered trees introduced by Dugan et al. [10]. This bijection allows certain parameters of the recurrent configurations to be read on the corresponding tree. In particular, we show that the level of a recurrent configuration can be interpreted as the external activity of the corresponding tree, so that the bijection exhibited provides a new proof of a famous …
The sandpile group of a connected graph is the group of recurrent configurations in the abelian sandpile model on this graph. We study the structure of this group for the case of regular trees. A description of this group is the following: Let T(d,h) be the d-regular tree of depth h and let V be the set of its vertices. Denote the adjacency matrix of T(d,h) by A and consider the modified Laplacian matrix D:=dI-A. Let the rows of D span the lattice L in Z^V. The sandpile group of T(d,h) is Z^V/L. We compute the rank, the exponent and the order of this abelian group and find a cyclic Hall-subgro…
We study the abelian sandpile growth model, where n particles are added at the origin on a stable background configuration in Z^d. Any site with at least 2d particles then topples by sending one particle to each neighbor. We find that with constant background height h <= 2d-2, the diameter of the set of sites that topple has order n^{1/d}. This was previously known only for h<d. Our proof uses a strong form of the least action principle for sandpiles, and a novel method of background modification. We can extend this diameter bound to certain backgrounds in which an arbitrarily high fraction of…
In the abelian sandpile model, recurrent chip configurations are of interest as they are a natural choice of coset representatives under the quotient of the reduced Laplacian. We investigate graphs whose recurrent identities with respect to different sinks are compatible with each other. The maximal stable configuration is the simplest recurrent chip configuration, and graphs whose recurrent identities equal the maximal stable configuration are of particular interest, and are said to have the complete maximal identity property. We prove that given any graph $G$ one can attach trees to the vert…
We study combinatorial aspects of the sandpile model on wheel and fan graphs, seeking bijective characterisations of the model's recurrent configurations on these families. For wheel graphs, we exhibit a bijection between these recurrent configurations and the set of subgraphs of the cycle graph which maps the level of the configuration to the number of edges of the subgraph. This bijection relies on two key ingredients. The first consists in considering a stochastic variant of the standard Abelian sandpile model (ASM), rather than the ASM itself. The second ingredient is a mapping from a give…