The dimer model is a model of perfect matching whose popularity stems from the fact that it is exactly solvable. It is believed that the large-scale fluctuations of the height function of the dimer model is universal in a certain sense and should not depend on the microscopic properties of the graph. It turns out that in this level of generality, the well-established methods using Kasteleyn matrices become intractable.

 

 We propose a new method for examining the fluctuation of the height function which enables us to obtain a universality result for general graphs with various boundary conditions and even when the underlying surface is a Riemann surface. This provides a new proof of some old results and solves several open questions. Our methods use exact solvability in a weak sense and use some new results in the continuum instead which enables us to get universal results.

 

Ongoing joint work with Nathanael Berestycki and Benoit Laslier.

What motives are to algebraic varieties, exponential motives are to pairs (X, f) consisting of an algebraic variety over some field k and a regular function f on X. In characteristic zero, one is naturally led to define the de Rham and rapid decay cohomology of such pairs when dealing with numbers like the special values of the gamma function or the Euler constant gamma which are not expected to be periods in the usual sense. Over finite fields, the étale and rigid cohomology groups of (X, f) play a pivotal role in the study of exponential sums. 

Following ideas of Katz, Kontsevich, and Nori, we construct a Tannakian category of exponential motives when k is a subfield of the complex numbers. This allows one to attach to exponential periods a Galois group that conjecturally governs all algebraic relations among them. The category is equipped with a Hodge realisation functor with values in mixed Hodge modules over the affine line and, if k is a number field, with an étale realisation related to exponential sums. This is a joint work with Peter Jossen (ETH).

A spherical CR structure on a 3-manifold is a geometric structure modeled on the boundary at infinity of the complex hyperbolic plane, or in other words a (G,X)-structure with G=PU(2,1), X=S3. I will discuss spherical CR uniformizations, which are a special kind of spherical CR structure that arises by taking the manifold at infinity of a quotient of the ball by the action of a discrete group of isometries. I will explain how to construct some explicit uniformizations, including a 1-parameter family of (pairwise non-conjugate) spherical CR uniformizations of the figure eight knot complement.

Soient V=(Z/2Z)n et X un V-CW complexe fini. On construit deux complexes dans la catégorie H*V-U, le premier "algébrique" basé sur la structure de H*V-module de la cohomologie équivariante H*_VX et le second "topologique" utilisant l'action du groupe V sur X. Sous certaines conditions, on montre que ces deux complexes sont acycliques et équivalents.

We compare height functions for (1) points of an algebraic variety over a number field, (2) motives over a number field, (3) variations of Hodge structure with log degeneration on a projective smooth curve over the complex number field, (4) horizontal maps from the complex plane C to a toroidal partial compactification of the period domain. Usual Nevanlinna theory uses height functions for (5) holomorphic maps f from C to a compactification of an algebraic variety V and considers how often the values of f lie outside V. Vojta compares (1) and (5). In (4), V is replaced by a period domain. The comparisons of (1)–(4) provide many new questions to study.

I will make a quick review of old and new results concerning the Lorentz gas; discuss new directions in which I’d like to proceed (e.g. non periodic obstacles, interacting particles, …) and some (very) partial results toward such directions.

The two-dimensional one-component Coulomb plasma is an ensemble of identical charges in the plane repelling each other via the logarithmic Coulomb potential and confined by an external potential. I will discuss results that show that the fluctuations of linear statistics of many particles are of order 1 and given by a Gaussian free field, at any temperature. This is joint work with P. Bourgade, M. Nikula, and H.-T. Yau.

Totally positive matrices are characterized by having all their minors positive. They appear in various areas of physics and mathematics, including oscillations in mechanical systems, quantum groups, and algebraic geometry. It has been known since the work of Fomin that the two-point correlations functions of the two-dimensional Gaussian free field satisfy total positivity. I will present an analogous result for the correlations of the planar Ising model. The idea is to prove that determinants of such correlations have interpretations in terms of probabilities of events in the random current model. A natural open question is to identify all planar totally positive spin systems.

We study the gradient field models with uniformly convex potential (also known as the Ginzburg-Landau field) in two dimension. These log-correlated non-Gaussian random fields arise in different branches of statistical mechanics. Existing results were mainly focused on the CLT for the linear functionals. In this talk I will describe some recent progress on the global maximum and local CLT for the field, thus confirming they are in the Gaussian universality class in a very strong sense. The proof uses a random walk representation (a la Helffer-Sjostrand) and an approximate harmonic coupling (by J. Miller).

Affine manifolds, i.e. manifolds which admit charts given by affine transformations, remain mysterious by the very few explicit examples and their famous open conjectures: the Auslander Conjecture, the Chern Conjecture and the Markus Conjecture. I will discuss an intermediate conjecture, somehow between the Auslander Conjecture and the Chern Conjecture, predicting the vanishing of the simplicial volume of affine manifolds. In a joint work with Chris Connell and Jean-François Lafont, we prove the latter conjecture under some hypothesis, thus providing further evidence for the veracity of the Auslander and Chern Conjectures. To do so, we provide a simple cohomological criterion for aspherical manifolds with normal amenable subgroups in their fundamental group to have vanishing simplicial volume. This answers a special case of a question due to Lück.
Joint work with Chris Connell and Jean-François Lafont.

Quasifuchsian manifolds are an important class of hyperbolic 3-manifolds, classically parametrized by two copies of Teichmüller space. Their volume is infinite, but they have a well-defined finite « renormalized volume » which has nice properties, both analytic and « coarse ». In particular, considered as a function over Teichmüller space, the renormalized volume provides a Kähler potential for the Weil-Petersson metric; moreover, it is within bounded additive constants of the volume of the convex core and is bounded from above by the Weil-Petersson distance between the conformal structures at infinity. After describing these properties, we will outline some recent applications (by Kojima, McShane, Brock, Bromberg, Bridgeman, and others) to the Weil-Petersson geometry of Teichmüller space or the geometry of hyperbolic 3-manifolds that fiber over the circle. We will then explain how properties of the renormalized volume suggest new questions and viewpoints on quasifuchsian manifolds.
The talk will be accessible to nonexperts.