We consider the discrete Gaussian Free Field in a square box in ( Z ^2 ) of side length N with zero boundary conditions and study the joint law of its properly-centered extreme values (h) and their scaled spatial positions (x) in the limit as ( N ). Restricting attention to extreme local maxima, i.e., the extreme points that are maximal in an r N -neighborhood thereof, we prove that the associated process tends, whenever ( r_N ) and ( r_N N 0 ), to a Poisson point process with intensity measure ( Z ( dx) e ^ - h d h ), where ( := 2 g ) with g: = 2 π and where Z(dx) is a random Borel measure on [0, 1]2. In particular, this yields an integral representation of the law of the absolute maximum, similar to that found in the context of Branching Brownian Motion. We give evidence that the random measure Z is a version of the derivative martingale associated with the continuum Gaussian Free Field.
@cite_41: Branching Brownian motion describes a system of particles that diffuse in space and split into offspring according to a certain random mechanism. By virtue of the groundbreaking work by M. Bramson on the convergence of solutions of the Fisher-KPP equation to traveling waves, the law of the rightmost particle in the limit of large times is rather well understood. In this work, we address the full statistics of the extremal particles (first-, second-, third-largest, etc.). In particular, we prove that in the large t-limit, such particles descend with overwhelming probability from ancestors having split either within a distance of order 1 from time 0, or within a distance of order 1 from time t. The approach relies on characterizing, up to a certain level of precision, the paths of the extremal particles. As a byproduct, a heuristic picture of branching Brownian motion “at the edge” emerges, which sheds light on the still unknown limiting extremal process. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
@cite_35: As a first step toward a characterization of the limiting extremal process of branching Brownian motion, we proved in a recent work [Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 64 (2011) 1647-1676] that, in the limit of large time @math , extremal particles descend with overwhelming probability from ancestors having split either within a distance of order 1 from time 0, or within a distance of order 1 from time @math . The result suggests that the extremal process of branching Brownian motion is a randomly shifted cluster point process. Here we put part of this picture on rigorous ground: we prove that the point process obtained by retaining only those extremal particles which are also maximal inside the clusters converges in the limit of large @math to a random shift of a Poisson point process with exponential density. The last section discusses the Tidal Wave Conjecture by Lalley and Sellke [Ann. Probab. 15 (1987) 1052-1061] on the full limiting extremal process and its relation to the work of Chauvin and Rouault [Math. Nachr. 149 (1990) 41-59] on branching Brownian motion with atypical displacement.
@cite_32: It has been conjectured since the work of Lalley and Sellke (1987) that the branching Brownian motion seen from its tip (e.g. from its rightmost particle) converges to an invariant point process. Very recently, it emerged that this can be proved in several different ways (see e.g. Brunet and Derrida, 2010, , 2010, 2011). The structure of this extremal point process turns out to be a Poisson point process with exponential intensity in which each atom has been decorated by an independent copy of an auxiliary point process. The main goal of the present work is to give a complete description of the limit object via an explicit construction of this decoration point process. Another proof and description has been obtained independently by (2011).
@cite_3: We prove that the extremal process of branching Brownian motion, in the limit of large times, converges weakly to a cluster point process. The limiting process is a (randomly shifted) Poisson cluster process, where the positions of the clusters is a Poisson process with intensity measure with exponential density. The law of the individual clusters is characterized as branching Brownian motions conditioned to perform “unusually large displacements”, and its existence is proved. The proof combines three main ingredients. First, the results of Bramson on the convergence of solutions of the Kolmogorov–Petrovsky–Piscounov equation with general initial conditions to standing waves. Second, the integral representations of such waves as first obtained by Lalley and Sellke in the case of Heaviside initial conditions. Third, a proper identification of the tail of the extremal process with an auxiliary process (based on the work of Chauvin and Rouault), which fully captures the large time asymptotics of the extremal process. The analysis through the auxiliary process is a rigorous formulation of the cavity method developed in the study of mean field spin glasses.
Building further upon this beautiful structure, Arguin, Bovier and Kistler @cite_41 @cite_35 @cite_3 and independently A "id 'ekon, Berestycki, Brunet and Shi @cite_32 have recently managed to control the full distribution of the extreme points of the set @math as @math . The limit point process is a cluster process associated with Gumbel law of intensity @math , again quite analogously to what we show (modulo the clusters) for the DGFF in Theorem . A key fact (proved in @cite_41 ) is the separation of time scales: If @math and @math are close to @math , then the corresponding Brownian paths split either right at the beginning (i.e., at a time @math ) or or right at the very end (i.e., at a time @math ). The splittings in time @math give rise to a residual'' randomness in the problem; this is the origin of the random variable @math .