The localization transition for the directed polymer in a random environment is smooth

Abstract

When $d\ge 3$, the directed polymer a in random environment on $\mathbb Z^d$ is known to display a phase transition from a diffusive phase, known as \textit{weak disorder} to a localized phase, referred to as \textit{strong disorder}. This transition is encoded by the behavior of the the free energy of the model, defined by $$\mathfrak f(\beta):=\lim_{N\to \infty} (1/n)\log W^{\beta}_n$$ where $W^{\beta}_n$ is the normalized partition function for the directed polymer of length $n$. More precisely weak disorder corresponds to $\mathfrak f(\beta)=0$ and strong disorder to $\mathfrak f(\beta)<0$. Monotonicity and continuity of $\mathfrak f$ implies that there exists $\beta_c\in [0,\infty]$ such that weak disorder is equivalent to $\beta\in [0,\beta_c]$. Furthermore $\beta_c>0$ if and only if $d\ge 3$. We prove that this transition is infinitely smooth in the sense that $\mathfrak f$ grows slower than any power function at the vicinity of $\beta_c$, that is $$ \lim_{\beta \downarrow \beta_c }\frac{\log |\mathfrak f(\beta)|}{\log (\beta-\beta_c)}=\infty.$$