Excess deviations for points disconnected by random interlacements

Abstract

We consider random interlacements on $ \mathbb{Z}^d$, $d \ge 3$, when their vacant set is in a strongly percolative regime. Given a large box centered at the origin, we establish an asymptotic upper bound on the exponential rate of decay of the probability that the box contains an excessive fraction $\nu$ of points that are disconnected by random interlacements from the boundary of a concentric box of double size. As an application we show that when $\nu$ is not too large, this asymptotic upper bound matches the asymptotic lower bound derived in a previous work of the author, and the exponential rate of decay is governed by a certain variational problem in the continuum which involves the percolation function of the vacant set of random interlacements.