Log-Gamma polymer free energy fluctuations via a Fredholm determinant identity

TL;DR

This paper establishes that the free energy fluctuations of the log-Gamma directed polymer follow the GUE Tracy-Widom distribution in the large n limit, using a novel Fredholm determinant identity for asymptotic analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a new identity linking contour integrals and Fredholm determinants, enabling rigorous analysis of the log-Gamma polymer's free energy fluctuations.

Findings

Free energy fluctuations follow GUE Tracy-Widom distribution

Established a new identity between contour integrals and Fredholm determinants

Provided rigorous proof of a previously conjectured Fredholm determinant structure

Abstract

We prove that under n^{1/3} scaling, the limiting distribution as n goes to infinity of the free energy of Seppalainen's log-Gamma discrete directed polymer is GUE Tracy-Widom. The main technical innovation we provide is a general identity between a class of n-fold contour integrals and a class of Fredholm determinants. Applying this identity to the integral formula proved in [Corwin-O'Connell-Seppalainen-Zygouras] for the Laplace transform of the log-Gamma polymer partition function, we arrive at a Fredholm determinant which lends itself to asymptotic analysis (and thus yields the free energy limit theorem). The Fredholm determinant was anticipated in [Borodin-Corwin] via the formalism of Macdonald processes yet its rigorous proof was so far lacking because of the nontriviality of certain decay estimates required by that approach.