Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Oded Schramm

Publications and source records attributed to Oded Schramm.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2006

Conformally invariant scaling limits (an overview and a collection of problems)

Many mathematical models of statistical physics in two dimensions are either known or conjectured to exhibit conformal invariance. Over the years, physicists proposed predictions of various exponents describing the behavior of these models. Only recently have some of these predictions become accessible to mathematical proof. One of the new developments is the discovery of a one-parameter family of random curves called Stochastic Loewner evolution or SLE. The SLE curves appear as limits of interfaces or paths occurring in a variety of statistical physics models as the mesh of the grid on which the model is defined tends to zero. The main purpose of this article is to list a collection of open problems. Some of the open problems indicate aspects of the physics knowledge that have not yet been understood mathematically. Other problems are questions about the nature of the SLE curves themselves. Before we present the open problems, the definition of SLE will be motivated and explained, and a brief sketch of recent results will be presented.

math.PR↗
arXiv2006

The harmonic explorer and its convergence to SLE(4)

The harmonic explorer is a random grid path. Very roughly, at each step the harmonic explorer takes a turn to the right with probability equal to the discrete harmonic measure of the left-hand side of the path from a point near the end of the current path. We prove that the harmonic explorer converges to SLE(4) as the grid gets finer.

math.PR↗
arXiv2005

Every decision tree has an influential variable

We prove that for any decision tree calculating a boolean function $f:\{-1,1\}^n\to\{-1,1\}$, \[ \Var[f] \le \sum_{i=1}^n δ_i \Inf_i(f), \] where $δ_i$ is the probability that the $i$th input variable is read and $\Inf_i(f)$ is the influence of the $i$th variable on $f$. The variance, influence and probability are taken with respect to an arbitrary product measure on $\{-1,1\}^n$. It follows that the minimum depth of a decision tree calculating a given balanced function is at least the reciprocal of the largest influence of any input variable. Likewise, any balanced boolean function with a decision tree of depth $d$ has a variable with influence at least $\frac{1}{d}$. The only previous nontrivial lower bound known was $Ω(d 2^{-d})$. Our inequality has many generalizations, allowing us to prove influence lower bounds for randomized decision trees, decision trees on arbitrary product probability spaces, and decision trees with non-boolean outputs. As an application of our results we give a very easy proof that the randomized query complexity of nontrivial monotone graph properties is at least $Ω(v^{4/3}/p^{1/3})$, where $v$ is the number of vertices and $p \leq \half$ is the critical threshold probability. This supersedes the milestone $Ω(v^{4/3})$ bound of Hajnal and is sometimes superior to the best known lower bounds of Chakrabarti-Khot and Friedgut-Kahn-Wigderson.

cs.CC↗
arXiv2004

Markov chains in smooth Banach spaces and Gromov hyperbolic metric spaces

A metric space $X$ has {\em Markov type} 2, if for any reversible finite-state Markov chain $\{Z_t\}$ (with $Z_0$ chosen according to the stationary distribution) and any map $f$ from the state space to $X$, the distance $D_t$ from $f(Z_0)$ to $f(Z_t)$ satisfies $\E(D_t^2) \le K^2 t \E(D_1^2)$ for some $K=K(X)<\infty$. This notion is due to K. Ball (1992), who showed its importance for the Lipschitz extension problem. However until now, only Hilbert space (and its bi-Lipschitz equivalents) were known to have Markov type 2. We show that every Banach space with modulus of smoothness of power type 2 (in particular, $L_p$ for $p>2$) has Markov type 2; this proves a conjecture of Ball. We also show that trees, hyperbolic groups and simply connected Riemannian manifolds of pinched negative curvature have Markov type 2. Our results are applied to settle several conjectures on Lipschitz extensions and embeddings. In particular, we answer a question posed by Johnson and Lindenstrauss in 1982, by showing that for $1<q<2<p<\infty$, any Lipschitz mapping from a subset of $L_p$ to $L_q$ has a Lipschitz extension defined on all of $L_p$.

math.FA↗
arXiv2004

Balanced Boolean functions that can be evaluated so that every input bit is unlikely to be read

A Boolean function of n bits is balanced if it takes the value 1 with probability 1/2. We exhibit a balanced Boolean function with a randomized evaluation procedure (with probability 0 of making a mistake) so that on uniformly random inputs, no input bit is read with probability more than Theta(n^{-1/2} sqrt{log n}). We give a balanced monotone Boolean function for which the corresponding probability is Theta(n^{-1/3} log n). We then show that for any randomized algorithm for evaluating a balanced Boolean function, when the input bits are uniformly random, there is some input bit that is read with probability at least Theta(n^{-1/2}). For balanced monotone Boolean functions, there is some input bit that is read with probability at least Theta(n^{-1/3}).

math.PR↗
arXiv2004

Basic properties of SLE

SLE is a random growth process based on Loewner's equation with driving parameter a one-dimensional Brownian motion running with speed $κ$. This process is intimately connected with scaling limits of percolation clusters and with the outer boundary of Brownian motion, and is conjectured to correspond to scaling limits of several other discrete processes in two dimensions. The present paper attempts a first systematic study of SLE. It is proved that for all $κ\ne 8$ the SLE trace is a path; for $κ\in[0,4]$ it is a simple path; for $κ\in(4,8)$ it is a self-intersecting path; and for $κ>8$ it is space-filling. It is also shown that the Hausdorff dimension of the SLE trace is a.s. at most $1+κ/8$ and that the expected number of disks of size $\eps$ needed to cover it inside a bounded set is at least $\eps^{-(1+κ/8)+o(1)}$ for $κ\in[0,8)$ along some sequence $\eps\to 0$. Similarly, for $κ\ge 4$, the Hausdorff dimension of the outer boundary of the SLE hull is a.s. at most $1+2/κ$, and the expected number of disks of radius $\eps$ needed to cover it is at least $\eps^{-(1+2/κ)+o(1)}$ for a sequence $\eps\to 0$.

math.PR↗
arXiv2003

Conformal restriction: the chordal case

We characterize and describe all random subsets $K$ of a given simply connected planar domain (the upper half-plane $\H$, say) which satisfy the ``conformal restriction'' property, i.e., $K$ connects two fixed boundary points (0 and $\infty$, say) and the law of $K$ conditioned to remain in a simply connected open subset $D$ of $\H$ is identical to that of $Φ(K)$, where $Φ$ is a conformal map from $\H$ onto $D$ with $Φ(0)=0$ and $Φ(\infty)=\infty$. The construction of this family relies on the stochastic Loewner evolution (SLE) processes with parameter $κ\le 8/3$ and on their distortion under conformal maps. We show in particular that SLE(8/3) is the only random simple curve satisfying conformal restriction and relate it to the outer boundaries of planar Brownian motion and SLE(6).

math.PR↗
arXiv2003

Conformal invariance of planar loop-erased random walks and uniform spanning trees

We prove that the scaling limit of loop-erased random walk in a simply connected domain $D$ is equal to the radial SLE(2) path in $D$. In particular, the limit exists and is conformally invariant. It follows that the scaling limit of the uniform spanning tree in a Jordan domain exists and is conformally invariant. Assuming that the boundary of the domain is a $C^1$ simple closed curve, the same method is applied to show that the scaling limit of the uniform spanning tree Peano curve, where the tree is wired along a proper arc $A$ on the boundary, is the chordal SLE(8) path in the closure of $D$ joining the endpoints of $A$. A by-product of this result is that SLE(8) is almost surely generated by a continuous path. The results and proofs are not restricted to a particular choice of lattice.

math.PR↗
arXiv2003

Uniform Infinite Planar Triangulations

The existence of the weak limit as n --> infinity of the uniform measure on rooted triangulations of the sphere with n vertices is proved. Some properties of the limit are studied. In particular, the limit is a probability measure on random triangulations of the plane.

math.PR↗
arXiv2003

Geometry of the Uniform Spanning Forest: Transitions in Dimensions 4, 8, 12

The uniform spanning forest (USF) in Z^d is the weak limit of random, uniformly chosen, spanning trees in [-n,n]^d. Pemantle proved that the USF consists a.s. of a single tree if and only if d <= 4. We prove that any two components of the USF in Z^d are adjacent a.s. if 5 <= d <= 8, but not if d >= 9. More generally, let N(x,y) be the minimum number of edges outside the USF in a path joining x and y in Z^d. Then a.s. max{N(x,y) : x,y in Z^d} is the integer part of (d-1)/4. The notion of stochastic dimension for random relations in the lattice is introduced and used in the proof.

math.PR↗
arXiv2002

A negative answer to Nevanlinna's type question and a parabolic surface with a lot of negative curvature

Consider a simply connected Riemann surface represented by a Speiser graph. Nevanlinna asked if the type of the surface is determined by the mean excess of the graph: whether mean excess zero implies that the surface is parabolic and negative mean excess implies that the surface is hyperbolic. Teichmuller gave an example of a hyperbolic simply connected Riemann surface whose mean excess is zero, disproving the first of these implications. We give an example of a simply connected parabolic Riemann surface with negative mean excess, thus disproving the other part. We also construct an example of a complete, simply connected, parabolic surface with nowhere positive curvature such that the integral of curvature in any disk about a fixed basepoint is less than -epsilon times the area of the disk, where epsilon > 0 is some constant.

math.CV↗
arXiv2002

Markov Chain Intersections and the Loop-Erased Walk

Let X and Y be independent transient Markov chains on the same state space that have the same transition probabilities. Let L denote the ``loop-erased path'' obtained from the path of X by erasing cycles when they are created. We prove that if the paths of X and Y have infinitely many intersections a.s., then L and Y also have infinitely many intersections a.s.

math.PR↗
arXiv2002

On the scaling limit of planar self-avoiding walk

A planar self-avoiding walk (SAW) is a nearest neighbor random walk path in the square lattice with no self-intersection. A planar self-avoiding polygon (SAP) is a loop with no self-intersection. In this paper we present conjectures for the scaling limit of the uniform measures on these objects. The conjectures are based on recent results on the stochastic Loewner evolution and non-disconnecting Brownian motions. New heuristic derivations are given for the critical exponents for SAWs and SAPs.

math.PR↗
arXiv2001

Recurrence of Distributional Limits of Finite Planar Graphs

Suppose that $G_j$ is a sequence of finite connected planar graphs, and in each $G_j$ a special vertex, called the root, is chosen randomly-uniformly. We introduce the notion of a distributional limit $G$ of such graphs. Assume that the vertex degrees of the vertices in $G_j$ are bounded, and the bound does not depend on $j$. Then after passing to a subsequence, the limit exists, and is a random rooted graph $G$. We prove that with probability one $G$ is recurrent. The proof involves the Circle Packing Theorem. The motivation for this work comes from the theory of random spherical triangulations.

math.PR↗
arXiv2001

One-arm exponent for critical 2D percolation

The probability that the cluster of the origin in critical site percolation on the triangular grid has diameter larger than $R$ is proved to decay like $R^{-5/48}$ as $R\to\infty$.

math.PR↗
arXiv2001

A percolation formula

Let $A$ be an arc on the boundary of the unit disk $U$. We prove an asymptotic formula for the probability that there is a percolation cluster $K$ for critical site percolation on the triangular grid in $U$ which intersects $A$ and such that 0 is surrounded by $K\cup A$.

math.PR↗
arXiv2001

Sharp estimates for Brownian non-intersection probabilities

This paper gives an accessible (but still technical) self-contained proof to the fact that the intersection probabilities for planar Brownian motion are given in terms of the intersection exponents, up to a bounded multiplicative error, and some closely related results. While most of the results are already known, the proofs are somewhat new, and the paper can serve as a source for the estimates used in our paper on the analyticity of the Brownian intersection exponents (math.PR/0005295).

math.PR↗