Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics Seminar

University of Michigan

Winter 2005
Friday, Feb 18, 3:10-4:00pm, 1084 East Hall

Directed Last Passage Site Percolation

Jinho Baik

Department of Mathematics
University of Michigan


Abstract

Directed last passage site percolation is a kind of optimization question in a random environment. We will consider a 2-dimensional model, which can also be thought of as a model for a randomly growing interface in 2-D, or a queueing model, or a 1-D traffic model (totally asymmetric simple exclusion process). We will discuss two things. The first one is a proof of a universality of this model and its connection to random matrix theory, and the second is, in terms of the traffic model, a blockage of traffic due to a few slow cars.