Scaling Limits for Internal Aggregation Models with Multiple Sources

We study the scaling limits of three different aggregation models on Z^d: internal DLA, in which particles perform random walks until reaching an unoccupied site; the rotor-router model, in which particles perform deterministic analogues of random walks; and the divisible sandpile, in which each site distributes its excess mass equally among its neighbors. As the lattice spacing tends to zero, all three models are found to have the same scaling limit, which we describe as the solution to a certain PDE free boundary problem in R^d. In particular, internal DLA has a deterministic scaling limit. We find that the scaling limits are quadrature domains, which have arisen independently in many fields such as potential theory and fluid dynamics. Our results apply both to the case of multiple point sources and to the Diaconis-Fulton smash sum of domains.Comment: 74 pages, 4 figures, to appear in J. d'Analyse Math. Main changes in v2: added "least action principle" (Lemma 3.2); small corrections in section 4, and corrected the proof of Lemma 5.3 (Lemma 5.4 in the new version); expanded section 6.

Hele-Shaw flow on weakly hyperbolic surfaces

We consider the Hele-Shaw flow that arises from injection of two-dimensional fluid into a point of a curved surface. The resulting fluid domains have and are more or less determined implicitly by a mean value property for harmonic functions. We improve on the results of Hedenmalm and Shimorin \cite{HS} and obtain essentially the same conclusions while imposing a weaker curvature condition on the surface. Incidentally, the curvature condition is the same as the one that appears in a recent paper of Hedenmalm and Perdomo, where the problem of finding smooth area minimizing surfaces for a given curvature form under a natural normalizing condition was considered. Probably there are deep reasons behind this coincidence.Comment: 16 page