Time correlations in KPZ models with diffusive initial conditions

TL;DR

This paper investigates time correlations in KPZ models with diffusive initial conditions, providing bounds for free energy correlations in the inverse-gamma polymer model, extending previous results to more general initial states.

Contribution

It introduces bounds for time correlations in KPZ models with diffusive initial conditions using the inverse-gamma polymer, broadening the understanding beyond special initial conditions.

Findings

Bounds for free energy correlations between close and far endpoints.

Results applicable to zero temperature exponential LPP.

Method relies on moderate deviation estimates, not exact formulas.

Abstract

Temporal correlation for randomly growing interfaces in the KPZ universality class is a topic of recent interest. Most of the works so far have been concentrated on the zero temperature model of exponential last passage percolation, and three special initial conditions, namely droplet, flat and stationary. We focus on studying the time correlation problem for generic random initial conditions with diffusive growth. We formulate our results in terms of the positive temperature exactly solvable model of the inverse-gamma polymer and obtain up to constant upper and lower bounds for the correlation between the free energy of two polymers whose endpoints are close together or far apart. Our proofs apply almost verbatim to the zero temperature set-up of exponential LPP and are valid for a broad class of initial conditions. Our work complements and completes the partial results obtained in (Ferrari-Occelli'19), following the conjectures of (Ferrari-Spohn'16). Moreover, our arguments rely on the one-point moderate deviation estimates which have recently been obtained using stationary polymer techniques and thus do not depend on complicated exact formulae.