We describe random generation algorithms for a large class of random
combinatorial objects called Schur processes, which are sequences of random
(integer) partitions subject to certain interlacing conditions. This class
contains several fundamental combinatorial objects as special cases, such as
plane partitions, tilings of Aztec diamonds, pyramid partitions and more
generally steep domino tilings of the plane. Our algorithm, which is of
polynomial complexity, is both exact (i.e. the output follows exactly the
target probability law, which is either Boltzmann or uniform in our case), and
entropy optimal (i.e. it reads a minimal number of random bits as an input).
The algorithm encompasses previous growth procedures for special Schur
processes related to the primal and dual RSK algorithm, as well as the famous
domino shuffling algorithm for domino tilings of the Aztec diamond. It can be
easily adapted to deal with symmetric Schur processes and general Schur
processes involving infinitely many parameters. It is more concrete and easier
to implement than Borodin's algorithm, and it is entropy optimal.
At a technical level, it relies on unified bijective proofs of the different
types of Cauchy and Littlewood identities for Schur functions, and on an
adaptation of Fomin's growth diagram description of the RSK algorithm to that
setting. Simulations performed with this algorithm suggest interesting limit
shape phenomena for the corresponding tiling models, some of which are new.Comment: 26 pages, 19 figures (v3: final version, corrected a few misprints
present in v2