Nearest neighbor Markov dynamics on Macdonald processes

Macdonald processes are certain probability measures on two-dimensional arrays of interlacing particles introduced by Borodin and Corwin (arXiv:1111.4408 [math.PR]). They are defined in terms of nonnegative specializations of the Macdonald symmetric functions and depend on two parameters (q,t), where 0<= q, t < 1. Our main result is a classification of continuous time, nearest neighbor Markov dynamics on the space of interlacing arrays that act nicely on Macdonald processes. The classification unites known examples of such dynamics and also yields many new ones. When t = 0, one dynamics leads to a new integrable interacting particle system on the one-dimensional lattice, which is a q-deformation of the PushTASEP (= long-range TASEP). When q = t, the Macdonald processes become the Schur processes of Okounkov and Reshetikhin (arXiv:math/0107056 [math.CO]). In this degeneration, we discover new Robinson--Schensted-type correspondences between words and pairs of Young tableaux that govern some of our dynamics.Comment: 90 pages; 13 figure

Inhomogeneous exponential jump model

We introduce and study the inhomogeneous exponential jump model - an integrable stochastic interacting particle system on the continuous half line evolving in continuous time. An important feature of the system is the presence of arbitrary spatial inhomogeneity on the half line which does not break the integrability. We completely characterize the macroscopic limit shape and asymptotic fluctuations of the height function (= integrated current) in the model. In particular, we explain how the presence of inhomogeneity may lead to macroscopic phase transitions in the limit shape such as shocks or traffic jams. Away from these singularities the asymptotic fluctuations of the height function around its macroscopic limit shape are governed by the GUE Tracy-Widom distribution. A surprising result is that while the limit shape is discontinuous at a traffic jam caused by a macroscopic slowdown in the inhomogeneity, fluctuations on both sides of such a traffic jam still have the GUE Tracy-Widom distribution (but with different non-universal normalizations). The integrability of the model comes from the fact that it is a degeneration of the inhomogeneous stochastic higher spin six vertex models studied earlier in arXiv:1601.05770 [math.PR]. Our results on fluctuations are obtained via an asymptotic analysis of Fredholm determinantal formulas arising from contour integral expressions for the q-moments in the stochastic higher spin six vertex model. We also discuss "product-form" translation invariant stationary distributions of the exponential jump model which lead to an alternative hydrodynamic-type heuristic derivation of the macroscopic limit shape.Comment: 52 pages, 12 figure

Static quark anti-quark pair in SU(2) gauge theory

We study singlet and triplet correlation functions of static quark anti-quark pair defined through gauge invariant time-like Wilson loops and Polyakov loop correlators in finite temperature SU(2) gauge theory. We use the Luescher-Weisz multilevel algorithm, which allows to calculate these correlators at very low temperatures. We observe that the naive separation of singlet and triplet states in general does not hold non-perturbatively, however, is recovered in the limit of small separation and the temperature dependence of the corresponding correlators is indeed very different.Comment: ReVTeX, 11 pages, 5 figure

Spectral theory for the q-Boson particle system

We develop spectral theory for the generator of the q-Boson (stochastic) particle system. Our central result is a Plancherel type isomorphism theorem for this system. This theorem has various implications. It proves the completeness of the Bethe ansatz for the q-Boson generator and consequently enables us to solve the Kolmogorov forward and backward equations for general initial data. Owing to a Markov duality with q-TASEP, this leads to moment formulas which characterize the fixed time distribution of q-TASEP started from general initial conditions. The theorem also implies the biorthogonality of the left and right eigenfunctions. We consider limits of our q-Boson results to a discrete delta Bose gas considered previously by van Diejen, as well as to another discrete delta Bose gas that describes the evolution of moments of the semi-discrete stochastic heat equation (or equivalently, the O'Connell-Yor semi-discrete directed polymer partition function). A further limit takes us to the delta Bose gas which arises in studying moments of the stochastic heat equation / Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation.Comment: 63 pages, 5 figure

Integrable probability: From representation theory to Macdonald processes

These are lecture notes for a mini-course given at the Cornell Probability Summer School in July 2013. Topics include lozenge tilings of polygons and their representation theoretic interpretation, the (q, t)-deformation of those leading to the Macdonald processes, nearest neighbor dynamics on Macdonald processes, their limit to semi-discrete Brownian polymers, and large time asymptotic analysis of polymer's partition function.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant DMS-1056390