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Rongfeng Sun

Publications and source records attributed to Rongfeng Sun.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Geometry of the random walk range conditioned on survival among Bernoulli obstacles

We consider a discrete time simple symmetric random walk among Bernoulli obstacles on $\mathbb{Z}^d$, $d\geq 2$, where the walk is killed when it hits an obstacle. It is known that conditioned on survival up to time $N$, the random walk range is asymptotically contained in a ball of radius $\varrho_N=C N^{1/(d+2)}$ for any $d\geq 2$. For $d=2$, it is also known that the range asymptotically contains a ball of radius $(1-ε)\varrho_N$ for any $ε>0$, while the case $d\geq 3$ remains open. We complete the picture by showing that for any $d\geq 2$, the random walk range asymptotically contains a ball of radius $\varrho_N-\varrho_N^ε$ for some $ε\in (0,1)$. Furthermore, we show that its boundary is of size at most $\varrho_N^{d-1}(\log \varrho_N)^a$ for some $a>0$.

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The Dickman subordinator, renewal theorems, and disordered systems

We consider the so-called Dickman subordinator, whose Levy measure has density 1/x restricted to the interval (0,1). The marginal density of this process, known as the Dickman function, appears in many areas of mathematics, from number theory to combinatorics. In this paper, we study renewal processes in the domain of attraction of the Dickman subordinator, for which we prove local renewal theorems. We then present applications to marginally relevant disordered systems, such as pinning and directed polymer models, and prove sharp second moment estimates on their partition functions.

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The two-dimensional KPZ equation in the entire subcritical regime

We consider the KPZ equation in space dimension 2 driven by space-time white noise. We showed in previous work that if the noise is mollified in space on scale $ε$ and its strength is scaled as $\hatβ/ \sqrt{|\log ε|}$, then a transition occurs with explicit critical point $\hatβ_c = \sqrt{2π}$. Recently Chatterjee and Dunlap showed that the solution admits subsequential scaling limits as $ε\downarrow 0$, for sufficiently small $\hatβ$. We prove here that the limit exists in the entire subcritical regime $\hatβ\in (0, \hatβ_c)$ and we identify it as the solution of an additive Stochastic Heat Equation, establishing so-called Edwards-Wilkinson fluctuations. The same result holds for the directed polymer model in random environment in space dimension 2.

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On the moments of the (2+1)-dimensional directed polymer and stochastic heat equation in the critical window

The partition function of the directed polymer model on Z^{2+1} undergoes a phase transition in a suitable continuum and weak disorder limit. In this paper, we focus on a window around the critical point. Exploiting local renewal theorems, we compute the limiting third moment of the space-averaged partition function, showing that it is uniformly bounded. This implies that the rescaled partition functions, viewed as a generalized random field on R^2, have non-trivial subsequential limits, and each such limit has the same explicit covariance structure. We obtain analogous results for the stochastic heat equation on R^2, extending previous work by Bertini and Cancrini.

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Equilibrium interfaces of biased voter models

A one-dimensional interacting particle system is said to exhibit interface tightness if starting in an initial condition describing the interface between two constant configurations of different types, the process modulo translations is positive recurrent. In a biological setting, this describes two populations that do not mix, and it is believed to be a common phenomenon in one-dimensional particle systems. Interface tightness has been proved for voter models satisfying a finite second moment condition on the rates. We extend this to biased voter models. Furthermore, we show that the distribution of the equilibrium interface for the biased voter model converges to that of the voter model when the bias parameter tends to zero. A key ingredient is an identity for the expected number of boundaries in the equilibrium voter model interface, which is of independent interest.

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Scaling limit of the uniform prudent walk

We study the 2-dimensional uniform prudent self-avoiding walk, which assigns equal probability to all nearest-neighbor self-avoiding paths of a fixed length that respect the prudent condition, namely, the path cannot take any step in the direction of a previously visited site. The uniform prudent walk has been investigated with combinatorial techniques in [Bousquet-Mélou, 2010], while another variant, the kinetic prudent walk has been analyzed in detail in [Beffara, Friedli and Velenik, 2010]. In this paper, we prove that the $2$-dimensional uniform prudent walk is ballistic and follows one of the $4$ diagonals with equal probability. We also establish a functional central limit theorem for the fluctuations of the path around the diagonal.

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Low-dimensional lonely branching random walks die out

The lonely branching random walks on ${\mathbb Z}^d$ is an interacting particle system where each particle moves as an independent random walk and undergoes critical binary branching when it is alone. We show that if the symmetrized walk is recurrent, lonely branching random walks die out locally. Furthermore, the same result holds if additional branching is allowed when the walk is not alone.

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Universality in marginally relevant disordered systems

We consider disordered systems of directed polymer type, for which disorder is so-called marginally relevant. These include the usual (short-range) directed polymer model in dimension (2+1), the long-range directed polymer model with Cauchy tails in dimension (1+1) and the disordered pinning model with tail exponent 1/2. We show that in a suitable weak disorder and continuum limit, the partition functions of these different models converge to a universal limit: a log-normal random field with a multi-scale correlation structure, which undergoes a phase transition as the disorder strength varies. As a by-product, we show that the solution of the two-dimensional Stochastic Heat Equation, suitably regularized, converges to the same limit. The proof, which uses the celebrated Fourth Moment Theorem, reveals an interesting chaos structure shared by all models in the above class.

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The Brownian web, the Brownian net, and their universality

The Brownian web is a collection of one-dimensional coalescing Brownian motions starting from everywhere in space and time, and the Brownian net is a generalization that also allows branching. They appear in the diffusive scaling limits of many one-dimensional interacting particle systems with branching and coalescence. This article gives an introduction to the Brownian web and net, and how they arise in the scaling limits of various one-dimensional models, focusing mainly on coalescing random walks and random walks in i.i.d. space-time random environments. We will also briefly survey models and results connected to the Brownian web and net, including alternative topologies, population genetic models, true self-repelling motion, planar aggregation, drainage networks, oriented percolation, black noise and critical percolation. Some open questions are discussed at the end.

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Continuum Space Limit of the Genealogies of Interacting Fleming-Viot Processes on $\Z$

We study the evolution of genealogies of a population of individuals, whose type frequencies result in an interacting Fleming-Viot process on $\Z$. We construct and analyze the genealogical structure of the population in this genealogy-valued Fleming-Viot process as a marked metric measure space, with each individual carrying its spatial location as a mark. We then show that its time evolution converges to that of the genealogy of a continuum-sites stepping stone model on $\R$, if space and time are scaled diffusively. We construct the genealogies of the continuum-sites stepping stone model as functionals of the Brownian web, and furthermore, we show that its evolution solves a martingale problem. The generator for the continuum-sites stepping stone model has a singular feature: at each time, the resampling of genealogies only affects a set of individuals of measure $0$. Along the way, we prove some negative correlation inequalities for coalescing Brownian motions, as well as extend the theory of marked metric measure spaces (developed recently by Depperschmidt, Greven and Pfaffelhuber [DGP12]) from the case of probability measures to measures that are finite on bounded sets.

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Polynomial chaos and scaling limits of disordered systems

Inspired by recent work of Alberts, Khanin and Quastel, we formulate general conditions ensuring that a sequence of multi-linear polynomials of independent random variables (called polynomial chaos expansions) converges to a limiting random variable, given by a Wiener chaos expansion over the d-dimensional white noise. A key ingredient in our approach is a Lindeberg principle for polynomial chaos expansions, which extends earlier work of Mossel, O'Donnell and Oleszkiewicz. These results provide a unified framework to study the continuum and weak disorder scaling limits of statistical mechanics systems that are disorder relevant, including the disordered pinning model, the (long-range) directed polymer model in dimension 1+1, and the two-dimensional random field Ising model. This gives a new perspective in the study of disorder relevance, and leads to interesting new continuum models that warrant further studies.

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Subdiffusivity of a random walk among a Poisson system of moving traps on ${\mathbb Z}$

We consider a random walk among a Poisson system of moving traps on ${\mathbb Z}$. In earlier work [DGRS12], the quenched and annealed survival probabilities of this random walk have been investigated. Here we study the path of the random walk conditioned on survival up to time $t$ in the annealed case and show that it is subdiffusive. As a by-product, we obtain an upper bound on the number of so-called thin points of a one-dimensional random walk, as well as a bound on the total volume of the holes in the random walk's range.

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One-dimensional random walks with self-blocking immigration

We consider a system of independent one-dimensional random walkers where new particles are added at the origin at fixed rate whenever there is no older particle present at the origin. A Poisson ansatz leads to a semi-linear lattice heat equation and predicts that starting from the empty configuration the total number of particles grows as $c \sqrt{t} \log t$. We confirm this prediction and also describe the asymptotic macroscopic profile of the particle configuration.

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The continuum disordered pinning model

Any renewal processes on $\mathbb{N}$ with a polynomial tail, with exponent $α\in (0,1)$, has a non-trivial scaling limit, known as the $α$-stable regenerative set. In this paper we consider Gibbs transformations of such renewal processes in an i.i.d. random environment, called disordered pinning models. We show that for $α\in (1/2, 1)$ these models have a universal scaling limit, which we call the continuum disordered pinning model (CDPM). This is a random closed subset of $\mathbb{R}$ in a white noise random environment, with subtle features: -Any fixed a.s. property of the $α$-stable regenerative set (e.g., its Hausdorff dimension) is also an a.s. property of the CDPM, for almost every realization of the environment. -Nonetheless, the law of the CDPM is singular with respect to the law of the $α$-stable regenerative set, for almost every realization of the environment. The existence of a disordered continuum model, such as the CDPM, is a manifestation of disorder relevance for pinning models with $α\in (1/2, 1)$.

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The Critical Curve of the Random Pinning and Copolymer Models at Weak Coupling

We study random pinning and copolymer models, when the return distribution of the underlying renewal process has a polynomial tail with finite mean. We compute the asymptotic behavior of the critical curves of the models in the weak coupling regime, showing that it is universal. This proves a conjecture of Bolthausen, den Hollander and Opoku for copolymer models (ref. [8]), which we also extend to pinning models.

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Stochastic flows in the Brownian web and net

Certain one-dimensional nearest-neighbor random walks in i.i.d. random space-time environments are known to have diffusive scaling limits. In the continuum limit, the random environment is represented by a `stochastic flow of kernels', which is a collection of random kernels that can be loosely interpreted as the transition probabilities of a Markov process in a random environment. The theory of stochastic flows of kernels was introduced by Le Jan and Raimond, who showed that each such flow is characterized by its n-point motions. We focus on a class of stochastic flows of kernels with Brownian n-point motions which, after their inventors, will be called Howitt-Warren flows. We give a graphical construction of general Howitt-Warren flows, where the underlying random environment takes on the form of a suitably marked Brownian web. Alternatively, we show that a special subclass of the Howitt-Warren flows can be constructed as random flows of mass in a Brownian net. Using these constructions, we prove some new results for the Howitt-Warren flows. In particular, we show that the kernels spread with a finite speed and have a locally finite support at deterministic times if and only if the flow is embeddable in a Brownian net. We show that the kernels are always purely atomic at deterministic times, but with the exception of a special subclass known as the erosion flows, exhibit random times when the kernels are purely non-atomic. We moreover prove ergodic statements for a class of measure-valued processes induced by the Howitt-Warren flows. Along the way, we also prove some new results for the Brownian web and net.

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Brownian Web in the Scaling Limit of Supercritical Oriented Percolation in Dimension 1+1

We prove that, after centering and diffusively rescaling space and time, the collection of rightmost infinite open paths in a supercritical oriented percolation configuration on the space-time lattice Z^2_{even}:={(x,i) in Z^2: x+i is even} converges in distribution to the Brownian web. This proves a conjecture of Wu and Zhang. Our key observation is that each rightmost infinite open path can be approximated by a percolation exploration cluster, and different exploration clusters evolve independently before they intersect.

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