Tracy-Widom at high temperature

We investigate the marginal distribution of the bottom eigenvalues of the stochastic Airy operator when the inverse temperature $\beta$ tends to $0$. We prove that the minimal eigenvalue, whose fluctuations are governed by the Tracy-Widom $\beta$ law, converges weakly, when properly centered and scaled, to the Gumbel distribution. More generally we obtain the convergence in law of the marginal distribution of any eigenvalue with given index $k$. Those convergences are obtained after a careful analysis of the explosion times process of the Riccati diffusion associated to the stochastic Airy operator. We show that the empirical measure of the explosion times converges weakly to a Poisson point process using estimates proved in [L. Dumaz and B. Vir\'ag. Ann. Inst. H. Poincar\'e Probab. Statist. 49, 4, 915-933, (2013)]. We further compute the empirical eigenvalue density of the stochastic Airy ensemble on the macroscopic scale when $\beta\to 0$. As an application, we investigate the maximal eigenvalues statistics of $\beta_N$-ensembles when the repulsion parameter $\beta_N\to 0$ when $N\to +\infty$. We study the double scaling limit $N\to +\infty, \beta_N \to 0$ and argue with heuristic and numerical arguments that the statistics of the marginal distributions can be deduced following the ideas of [A. Edelman and B. D. Sutton. J. Stat. Phys. 127, 6, 1121-1165 (2007)] and [J. A. Ram\'irez, B. Rider and B. Vir\'ag. J. Amer. Math. Soc. 24, 919-944 (2011)] from our later study of the stochastic Airy operator.Comment: 5 figure

The right tail exponent of the Tracy-Widom-beta distribution

The Tracy-Widom beta distribution is the large dimensional limit of the top eigenvalue of beta random matrix ensembles. We use the stochastic Airy operator representation to show that as a tends to infinity the tail of the Tracy Widom distribution satisfies P(TW_beta > a) = a^(-3/4 beta+o(1)) exp(-2/3 beta a^(3/2))

Marginal densities of the "true" self-repelling motion

Let X(t) be the true self-repelling motion (TSRM) constructed by B.T. and Wendelin Werner in 1998, L(t,x) its occupation time density (local time) and H(t):=L(t,X(t)) the height of the local time profile at the actual position of the motion. The joint distribution of (X(t),H(t)) was identified by B.T. in 1995 in somewhat implicit terms. Now we give explicit formulas for the densities of the marginal distributions of X(t) and H(t). The distribution of X(t) has a particularly surprising shape: It has a sharp local minimum with discontinuous derivative at 0. As a consequence we also obtain a precise version of the large deviation estimate of arXiv:1105.2948v3.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure

Random matrices in non-confining potentials

We consider invariant matrix processes diffusing in non-confining cubic potentials of the form $V_a(x)= x^3/3 - a x, a\in \mathbb{R}$. We construct the trajectories of such processes for all time by restarting them whenever an explosion occurs, from a new (well chosen) initial condition, insuring continuity of the eigenvectors and of the non exploding eigenvalues. We characterize the dynamics of the spectrum in the limit of large dimension and analyze the stationary state of this evolution explicitly. We exhibit a sharp phase transition for the limiting spectral density $\rho_a$ at a critical value $a=a^*$. If $a\geq a^*$, then the potential $V_a$ presents a well near $x=\sqrt{a}$ deep enough to confine all the particles inside, and the spectral density $\rho_a$ is supported on a compact interval. If $a<a^*$ however, the steady state is in fact dynamical with a macroscopic stationary flux of particles flowing across the system. In this regime, the eigenvalues allocate according to a stationary density profile $\rho_{a}$ with full support in $\mathbb{R}$, flanked with heavy tails such that $\rho_{a}(x)\sim C_a /x^2$ as $x\to \pm \infty$. Our method applies to other non-confining potentials and we further investigate a family of quartic potentials, which were already studied in Br\'ezin et al. to count planar diagrams.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figure

A clever (self-repelling) burglar

We derive the following property of the "true self-repelling motion", a continuous real-valued self-interacting process (X_t, t \ge 0) introduced by Balint Toth and Wendelin Werner. Conditionally on its occupation time measure at time one (which is the information about how much time it has spent where before time one), the law of X_1 is uniform in a certain admissible interval. This contrasts with the corresponding conditional distribution for Brownian motion that had been studied by Warren and Yor.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

Anderson localization for the 11-d Schr\"odinger operator with white noise potential

We consider the random Schr\"odinger operator on $\mathbb{R}$ obtained by perturbing the Laplacian with a white noise. We prove that Anderson localization holds for this operator: almost surely the spectral measure is pure point and the eigenfunctions are exponentially localized. We give two separate proofs of this result. We also present a detailed construction of the operator and relate it to the parabolic Anderson model. Finally, we discuss the case where the noise is smoothed out.Comment: 42 page

From Sine kernel to Poisson statistics

[no abstract available

Optimization of electricity / hydrogen cogeneration from generation IV nuclear energy systems

One of the great motivations of studying and developing Generation IV (Gen IV) reactors of VHTR (Very High Temperature Reactor) design concept is their capacity to efficiently produce both electricity and H2 (hydrogen). This study aims at developing an optimization methodology for cogeneration systems of H2 and electricity, from Gen IV nuclear reactors, with respect to energy constraints, economics and conjuncture in term of demand. It lies within a scope of a collaboration between the Laboratoire de Génie Chimique (Toulouse, France) and the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA, Cadarache, France) in order to compare various cogeneration systems from both energy and economics viewpoint. This paper presents the results of an optimization study based on the “minimal destruction of exergy” or “exergy loss” concept. This criterion, used within the framework of a mono-objective genetic algorithm optimizer, was applied successfully to electric and heat production from Gen IV systems