Department of Mathematics - Master Calendar

Abstract: Assign a random length of 1 or 2 to each edge of the square grid based on independent fair coin tosses. The resulting random geometry, first passage percolation, is conjectured to have a scaling limit.  Most random plane geometric models (including hidden geometries) should have the same scaling limit.

I will explain the basics of the limiting geometry, the "directed landscape", the central object in the class of models named after Kardar, Parisi and Zhang. Its construction is a version of the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth correspondence, first introduced in 1938 as a tool in representation theory.