We define and study a family of generalized non-intersection exponents for planar Brownian motions that is indexed by subsets of the complex plane: For each $A\subset\CC$, we define an exponent $ξ(A)$ that describes the decay of certain non-intersection probabilities. To each of these exponents, we associate a conformally invariant subset of the planar Brownian path, of Hausdorff dimension $2-ξ(A)$. A consequence of this and continuity of $ξ(A)$ as a function of $A$ is the almost sure existence of pivoting points of any sufficiently small angle on a planar Brownian path.
With the help of the Gauss-Laplace transform for the exit time from a cone of planar Brownian motion, we obtain some infinite divisibility properties for the reciprocal of this exit time.
Let $D_N$ be the set of points around which a planar Brownian motion winds at least $N$ times. We prove that the random measure on the plane with density $2 πN 1_{D_N}$ with respect to the Lebesgue measure converges almost surely weakly, as $N$ tends to infinity, towards the occupation measure of the Brownian motion.
A number of recent new proofs of Euler's celebrated identity are presented, all of which are probabilistic in nature and depend on the conformal invariance of planar Brownian motion.
For every integer $n\geq 1$, we consider a random planar map $\mathcal{M}_n$ which is uniformly distributed over the class of all rooted bipartite planar maps with $n$ edges. We prove that the vertex set of $\mathcal{M}_n$ equipped with the graph distance rescaled by the factor $(2n)^{-1/4}$ converges in distribution, in the Gromov-Hausdorff sense, to the Brownian map. This complements several recent results giving the convergence of various classes of random planar maps to the Brownian map.
Known results show that the diameter $d_1$ of the trace of planar Brownian motion run for unit time satisfies $1.595 \leq \mathbb{E} d_1 \leq 2.507$. This note improves these bounds to $1.601 \leq \mathbb{E} d_1 \leq 2.355$. Simulations suggest that $\mathbb{E} d_1 \approx 1.99$.
Prompted by an example arising in critical percolation, we study some reflected Brownian motions in symmetric planar domains and show that they are intertwined with one-dimensional diffusions. In the case of a wedge, the reflected Brownian motion is intertwined with the 3-dimensional Bessel process. This implies some simple hitting distributions and sheds some light on the formula proposed by Watts for double-crossing probabilities in critical percolation.
We obtain a formula for the density of the winding number of planar Brownian motion around the origin, and deduce from it asymptotic expansions in inverse powers of the logarithm of the squared time, explicit in the angular variable. In particular, we obtain the corrections of any order to the Spitzer's law, and also to a local limit theorem for the windings.
In this review paper, we first discuss some open problems related to two-dimensional self-avoiding paths and critical percolation. We then review some closely related results (joint work with Greg Lawler and Oded Schramm) on critical exponents for two-dimensional simple random walks, Brownian motions and other conformally invariant random objects.
The purpose of the paper is to find the joint distribution of the hitting time and place of two-dimensional Brownian motion hitting the negative horizontal axis. We provide various formulas for Green functions as well as for the conditional distributions. In the end we treat an analogous problem for the case when vertical component has a negative drift.
The aim of this paper is to present a self-similar growth-fragmentation process linked to a Brownian excursion in the upper half-plane $\mathbb{H}$, obtained by cutting the excursion at horizontal levels. We prove that the associated growth-fragmentation is related to one of the growth-fragmentation processes introduced by Bertoin, Budd, Curien and Kortchemski.
We define a natural conformally invariant measure on unrooted Brownian loops in the plane and study some of its properties. We relate this measure to a measure on loops rooted at a boundary point of a domain and show how this relation gives a way to ``chronologically add Brownian loops'' to simple curves in the plane.
We construct obliquely reflected Brownian motions in all bounded simply connected planar domains, including non-smooth domains, with general reflection vector fields on the boundary. Conformal mappings and excursion theory are our main technical tools. A key intermediate step, which may be of independent interest, is an alternative characterization of reflected Brownian motions in smooth bounded planar domains with a given field of angles of oblique reflection on the boundary in terms of a pair of quantities, namely an integrable positive harmonic function, which represents the stationary dist…
Let (B_t : t > 0) be a planar Brownian motion and define gauge functions $ϕ_α(s)=log(1/s)^{-α}$ for $α>0$. If $α<1$ we show that almost surely there exists a point x in the plane such that $H^{ϕ_α}({t > 0 : B_t=x})>0$, but if $α>1$ almost surely $H^{ϕ_α} ({t > 0 : B_t=x})=0$ simultaneously for all $x\in R^2$. This resolves a longstanding open problem posed by S.,J. Taylor in 1986.
The purpose of this note is to collect in one place a few results about simple random walk and Brownian motion which are often useful. These include standard results such as Beurling estimates, large deviation estimates, and a method for coupling the two processes, as well as solutions to the discrete Dirichlet problem in various domains which, to the author's knowledge, have not been published anywhere. The main focus is on the two-dimensional processes.
It has been known for some time that the Green's function of a planar domain can be defined in terms of the exit time of Brownian motion, and this definition has been extended to stopping times more general than exit times. In this paper, we extend the notion of conformal invariance of Green's function to analytic functions which are not injective, and use this extension to calculate the Green's function for a stopping time defined by the winding of Brownian motion. These considerations lead to a new proof of the Riemann mapping theorem. We also show how this invariance can be used to deduce s…
In this paper we study the hitting probability of a circumference $C_R$ for a correlated Brownian motion $\underline{B}(t)=\left(B_1(t), B_2(t)\right)$, $ρ$ being the correlation coefficient. The analysis starts by first mapping the circle $C_R$ into an ellipse $E$ with semiaxes depending on $ρ$ and transforming the differential operator governing the hitting distribution into the classical Laplace operator. By means of two different approaches (one obtained by applying elliptic coordinates) we obtain the desired distribution as a series of Poisson kernels.
The main purpose of this work is to define planar self-intersection local time by an alternative approach which is based on an almost sure pathwise approximation of planar Brownian motion by simple, symmetric random walks. As a result, Brownian self-intersection local time is obtained as an almost sure limit of local averages of simple random walk self-intersection local times. An important tool is a discrete version of the Tanaka--Rosen--Yor formula; the continuous version of the formula is obtained as an almost sure limit of the discrete version. The author hopes that this approach to self-i…
We consider the 2D delta-Bose gas by a smooth mollification of the delta potential, where the coupling constant is in the critical window. The main result proves that for two particles, the approximate semigroups on $\mathscr B_b(\Bbb R^2)$ for the Schrödinger operator with singular interaction at the origin converge pointwise in the initial condition. This convergence extends earlier functional analytic results for the convergence in the $L_2$-norm resolvent sense. The central methods introduced here apply the excursion theory of the 2D Bessel process and the ergodicity of the winding number …
Some identities in law in terms of planar complex valued Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes $(Z_{t}=X_{t}+iY_{t},t\geq0)$ including planar Brownian motion are established and shown to be equivalent to the well known Bougerol identity for linear Brownian motion:$(β_{t},t\geq0)$: for any fixed $u>0$: \sinh(β_{u}) \stackrel{(law)}{=} \hatβ_{(\int^{u}_{0}ds\exp(2β_{s}))}. These identities in law for 2-dimensional processes allow to study the distributions of hitting times $T^θ_{c}\equiv\inf\{t:θ_{t} =c \}, (c>0)$, $T^θ_{-d,c}\equiv\inf\{t:θ_{t}\notin(-d,c) \}, (c,d>0)$ and more specifically of $T^θ_{-c,…
An open problem of interest, first infused into the applied probability community in the work of Bingham and Doney in 1988, (see \cite{Bingham}) is stated as follows: find the distribution of the quadrant occupation time of planar Brownian motion. In this short communication, we study an alternate formulation of this longstanding open problem: let $X(t), Y(t), t \geq 0$ be standard Brownian motions starting at $x,y$ respectively. Find the distribution of the total time $T=Leb\{t \in [0,1]: X(t) \times Y(t) >0\}$, when $x=y=0$, i.e., the occupation time of the union of the first and third quadr…
We construct the analogue of Gaussian multiplicative chaos measures for the local times of planar Brownian motion by exponentiating the square root of the local times of small circles. We also consider a flat measure supported on points whose local time is within a constant of the desired thickness level and show a simple relation between the two objects. Our results extend those of Bass, Burdzy and Khoshnevisan and in particular cover the entire $L^1$-phase or subcritical regime. These results allow us to obtain a nondegenerate limit for the appropriately rescaled size of thick points, thereb…
This is an introductory account of the emergence of conformal invariance in the scaling limit of planar critical percolation. We give an exposition of Smirnov's theorem (2001) on the conformal invariance of crossing probabilities in site percolation on the triangular lattice. We also give an introductory account of Schramm-Loewner evolutions (SLE(k)), a one-parameter family of conformally invariant random curves discovered by Schramm (2000). The article is organized around the aim of proving the result, due to Smirnov (2001) and to Camia and Newman (2007), that the percolation exploration path…
We present different continuous models of random geometry that have been introduced and studied in the recent years. In particular, we consider the Brownian map, which is the universal scaling limit of large planar maps in the Gromov-Hausdorff sense, and the Brownian disk, which appears as the scaling limit of planar maps with a boundary. We discuss the construction of these models, and we emphasize the role played by Brownian motion indexed by the Brownian tree.
We consider the model of the Brownian plane, which is a pointed non-compact random metric space with the topology of the complex plane. The Brownian plane can be obtained as the scaling limit in distribution of the uniform infinite planar triangulation or the uniform infinite planar quadrangulation and is conjectured to be the universal scaling limit of many others random planar lattices. We establish sharp bounds on the probability of having a short cycle separating the ball of radius $r$ centered at the distinguished point from infinity. Then we prove a strong version of the spatial Markov p…
It has been shown by various authors under different assumptions that the diameter of a bounded non-trivial set $γ$ under the action of a stochastic flow grows linearly in time. We show that the asymptotic linear expansion speed if properly defined is deterministic i.e. we show for a $2$-dimensional isotropic Brownian flow $Φ$ with a positive Lyapunov exponent that there exists a non-random set $\mathcal{B}$ such that we have for $ε>0$, arbitrary connected $γ\subset\subset\R^2$ consisting of at least two different points and arbitrarily large times $T$ that $$(1-ε)T\mathcal{B}\subset \cup_{0\l…
We estimate the mean first time, called the mean rotation time (MRT), for a planar random polymer to wind around a point. This polymer is modeled as a collection of n rods, each of them being parameterized by a Brownian angle. We are led to study the sum of i.i.d. imaginary exponentials with one dimensional Brownian motions as arguments. We find that the free end of the polymer satisfies a novel stochastic equation with a nonlinear time function. Finally, we obtain an asymptotic formula for the MRT, whose leading order term depends on the square root of n and, interestingly, depends weakly on …
Consider a Brownian motion $W$ in ${\bf C}$ started from $0$ and run for time 1. Let $A(1),A(2),\dots$ denote the bounded connected components of ${\bf C}-W([0,1])$. Let $R(i)$ (resp. $r(i)$) denote the out-radius (resp. in-radius) of $A(i)$ for $i\in\bf N$. Our main result is that ${\bf E}[\sum_i R(i)^2|\log R(i)|^θ]<\infty$ for any $θ<1$. We also prove that $\sum_i r(i)^2|\log r(i)|=\infty$ almost surely. These results have the interpretation that most of the components $A(i)$ have a rather regular or round shape.
This paper describes joint work with Oded Schramm and Wendelin Werner establishing the values of the planar Brownian intersection exponents from which one derives the Hausdorff dimension of certain exceptional sets of planar Brownian motion. In particular, we proof a conjecture of Mandelbrot that the dimension of the frontier is 4/3. The proof uses a universality principle for conformally invariant measures and a new process, the stochastic Loewner evolution ($SLE$), introduced by Schramm. These ideas can be used to study other planar lattice models from statistical physics at criticality. I d…
It has been shown by various authors that the diameter of a given nontrivial bounded connected set $\mathcal{X}$ grows linearly in time under the action of an isotropic Brownian flow (IBF), which has a nonnegative top-Lyapunov exponent. In case of a planar IBF with a positive top-Lyapunov exponent, the precise deterministic linear growth rate K of the diameter is known to exist. In this paper we will extend this result to an asymptotic support theorem for the time-scaled trajectories of a planar IBF $φ$, which has a positive top-Lyapunov exponent, starting in a nontrivial compact connected set…
We introduce and study the random non-compact metric space called the Brownian plane, which is obtained as the scaling limit of the uniform infinite planar quadrangulation. Alternatively, the Brownian plane is identified as the Gromov-Hausdorff tangent cone in distribution of the Brownian map at its root vertex, and it also arises as the scaling limit of uniformly distributed (finite) planar quadrangulations with n faces when the scaling factor tends to 0 less fast than n^{-1/4}. We discuss various properties of the Brownian plane. In particular, we prove that the Brownian plane is homeomorphi…
In this article we study the distribution of the number of points of a simple random walk, visited a given number of times (the k-multiple point range). In a previous article we had developed a graph theoretical approach which is now extended from the closed to the the non restricted walk. Based on a study of the analytic properties of the first hit determinant a general method to define and calculate the generating functions of the moments of the distribution as analytical functions and express them as an absolutely converging series of graph contributions is given. So a method to calculate t…
In this paper we address the question of finding the point which maximizes the $p$-th moment of the exit time of planar Brownian motion from a given domain. We present a geometrical method of excluding parts of the domain from consideration which makes use of a coupling argument and the conformal invariance of Brownian motion. In many cases the maximizing point can be localized to a relatively small region. Several illustrative examples are presented.
The Liouville Brownian motion which was introduced in \cite{GRV} is a natural diffusion process associated with a random metric in two dimensional Liouville quantum gravity. In this paper we construct the Liouville Brownian motion via Dirichlet form theory. By showing that the Liouville measure is smooth in the strict sense, the positive continuous additive functional $(F_t)_{t \ge 0}$ of the Liouville measure in the strict sense w.r.t. the planar Brownian motion $(B_t)_{t \ge 0}$ is obtained. Then the Liouville Brownian motion can be defined as a time changed process of the planar Brownian mo…
In this paper, the scaling limit of random connected cubic planar graphs (respectively multigraphs) is shown to be the Brownian sphere. The proof consists in essentially two main steps. First, thanks to the known decomposition of cubic planar graphs into their 3-connected components, the metric structure of a random cubic planar graph is shown to be well approximated by its unique 3-connected component of linear size, with modified distances. Then, Whitney's theorem ensures that a 3-connected cubic planar graph is the dual of a simple triangulation, for which it is known that the scaling limit…
We study a scaling limit associated to a model of planar aggregation. The model is obtained by composing certain independent random conformal maps. The evolution of harmonic measure on the boundary of the cluster is shown to converge to the coalescing Brownian flow.
We establish an exact formula for the average number of edges appearing on the boundary of the global convex hull of n independent Brownian paths in the plane. This requires the introduction of a counting criterion which amounts to "cutting off" edges that are, in a specific sense, small. The main argument consists in a mapping between planar Brownian convex hulls and configurations of constrained, independent linear Brownian motions. This new formula is confirmed by retrieving an existing exact result on the average perimeter of the boundary of Brownian convex hulls in the plane.
We prove a number of results relating exit times of planar Brownian with the geometric properties of the domains in question. Included are proofs of the conformal invariance of moduli of rectangles and annuli using Brownian motion; similarly probabilistic proofs of some recent results of Karafyllia on harmonic measure on starlike domains; examples of domains and their complements which are simultaneously large when measured by the moments of exit time of Brownian motion, and examples of domains and their complements which are simultaneously small; and proofs of several identities involving the…
We give sharp two-sided estimates for the functions $g_M(t,x,y)$ and $g_M(t,x,y)-g(t,x,y)$, where $g_M(t,x,y)$ are the transition probability densities of the reflected Brownian motion on a $M$-complex of size $M \in \mathbb{Z}$ of an unbounded planar simple nested fractal and $g(t,x,y)$ are the transition probability densities of the `free' Brownian motion on this fractal. This is done for a large class of planar simple nested fractals with the good labeling property.
Motivated by a common Mathematical Finance topic, we discuss the reciprocal of the exit time from a cone of planar Brownian motion which also corresponds to the exponential functional of an associated Brownian motion. We prove a conjecture by Vakeroudis and Yor (2012) concerning infinite divisibility properties of this random variable and we present a novel simple proof of De Blassie's result (1987-1988) about the asymptotic behaviour of the distribution of the Bessel clock appearing in the skew-product representation of planar Brownian motion, for t large. Similar issues for the exponential f…
We study geodesics in the random metric space called the Brownian map, which appears as the scaling limit of large planar maps. In particular, we completely describe geodesics starting from the distinguished point called the root, and we characterize the set S of all points that are connected to the root by more than one geodesic. The set S is dense in the Brownian map and homeomorphic to a non-compact real tree. Furthermore, for every x in S, the number of distinct geodesics from x to the root is equal to the number of connected components of the complement of {x} in S. In particular, points …
It is well-known (see Dvoretzky, Erd{\H o}s and Kakutani [8] and Le Gall [12]) that a planar Brownian motion $(B_t)_{t\ge 0}$ has points of infinite multiplicity, and these points form a dense set on the range. Our main result is the construction of a family of random measures, denoted by $\{{\mathcal M}_{\infty}^α\}_{0< α<2}$, that are supported by the set of the points of infinite multiplicity. We prove that for any $α\in (0, 2)$, almost surely the Hausdorff dimension of ${\mathcal M}_{\infty}^α$ equals $2-α$, and ${\mathcal M}_{\infty}^α$ is supported by the set of thick points defined in B…
Brownian motion in the plane in the presence of a "trap" at which motion is stopped is studied. If the trap $T$ is a connected compact set, it is shown that the probability for planar Brownian motion to hit this set before a given time $t$ is well approximated even at short times by the probability that Brownian motion hits a disk of radius $r_T$ equal to the conformal radius of the trap $T$.
In a recent work by Gross, it was proved that, given a distribution $μ$ with zero mean and finite second moment, we can find a simply connected domain $Ω$ such that if $Z_{t}$ is a standard planar BM, then $\mathcal{R}e(Z_{τ_Ω})$ has the distribution $μ$. In this note, we extend his method to prove that if $μ$ has a finite $L^{p}$ moment then the exit time $τ_Ω$ has a finite moment of order $\frac{p}{2}$.
