Six-vertex model and Schramm-Loewner evolution

Square ice is a statistical mechanics model for two-dimensional ice, widely believed to have a conformally invariant scaling limit. We associate a Peano (space-filling) curve to a square ice configuration, and more generally to a so-called six-vertex model configuration, and argue that its scaling l...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kenyon, Richard, Miller, Jason, Wilson, David B., Sheffield, Scott Roger
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109751
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5951-4933
Description
Summary:Square ice is a statistical mechanics model for two-dimensional ice, widely believed to have a conformally invariant scaling limit. We associate a Peano (space-filling) curve to a square ice configuration, and more generally to a so-called six-vertex model configuration, and argue that its scaling limit is a space-filling version of the random fractal curve SLE[subscript κ], Schramm-Loewner evolution with parameter κ, where 4 < κ ≤ 12 + 8 √2. For square ice, κ = 12. At the “free-fermion point” of the six-vertex model, κ = 8 + 4√3. These unusual values lie outside the classical interval 2≤κ≤8.