The conformally invariant metric on CLE$_4$ II: existence of geodesics

Abstract

We continue our study of the conformal loop ensemble (CLE) with parameter $\kappa=4$, the critical threshold at or below which the loops are simple and disjoint, touching neither each other nor the domain boundary. This paper is the second in a series of three establishing that the loops of a CLE$_4$ uniquely determine a conformally invariant, local, and geodesic metric such that the metric ball growth from the domain boundary coincides with the uniform exploration of Werner and Wu. In this second paper, we prove the existence of geodesics, showing that any geodesic between two loops is supported on the CLE$_4$ loops (off a set of Hausdorff dimension zero) and does not intersect the domain boundary. Along the way, we establish sharp quantitative estimates for the CLE$_4$ metric geometry, including exponential tail bounds for rectangle distances and multi-scale four-arm SLE$_4$ non-intersection bounds for metric balls.