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Introduction

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Schramm–Loewner Evolution

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Mathematical Physics ((BRIEFSMAPHY,volume 24))

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Abstract

In this introductory chapter, we look at iterations of conformal maps, random processes, such as random walks, and statistical physics and establish some connections.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The reader can use, for instance, Rudin’s book [7] as a reference. Notice the supplementary material (appendices) of this book described in the preface, and also Chap. 3.

  2. 2.

    In the sense that if \(P_1\) and \(P_2\) are smooth curves that form an angle \(\theta \) at \(z_0\), then also \(f \circ P_1\) and \(f \circ P_2\) form an angle \(\theta \) at \(f(z_0)\).

  3. 3.

    Throughout this text we use the notations \(\mathbb {Z}_{>0}= \{k \in \mathbb {Z}\,:\, k \ge 1\}\), \(\mathbb {Z}_{\ge 0}= \{k \in \mathbb {Z}\,:\, k \ge 0\}\), \(\mathbb {R}_{>0}= \{x \in \mathbb {R}\,:\, x > 0\}\), \(\mathbb {R}_{\ge 0}= \{x \in \mathbb {R}\,:\, x \ge 0\}\) as well as \(\llbracket j, k\rrbracket \) for the ordered set \(j,j+1,j+2,\ldots , k-1,k\), where \(j<k\) are integers.

  4. 4.

    We use a common notion that \(\lfloor x \rfloor \) is the largest integer smaller or equal to x.

  5. 5.

    Such a limit is an example of scaling limit . Two typical features of a scaling limit are that there are scaling factor involved, such as \(n^{-a}\) and \(n^a\) above, which ensure that the limit exists, and that the limiting object will be described by continuous variables (another term is a continuum limit).

  6. 6.

    The reader can use, for instance, Durrett’s book [3] as a reference. Notice the supplementary material (appendices) of this book described in the preface. See also Chap. 2.

  7. 7.

    Remember that, in this particular case, the random variables, \(X_k\), \(k \in \mathbb {Z}_{>0}\), are independent if for any \(n \in \mathbb {Z}_{>0}\) and for any \(x_1,x_2,\ldots ,x_n \in \{-1,+1\}\), \(\mathsf {P}[\,X_k = x_k \text { for all } k\in \llbracket 1,n\rrbracket \,]=\prod _{ k\in \llbracket 1,n\rrbracket } \mathsf {P}[X_k = x_k] \).

  8. 8.

    We use the notation \((X_t)_{t \in I}\) where usually \(I=\mathbb {Z}_{\ge 0}\) or \(I=\mathbb {R}_{\ge 0}\), to denote a stochastic process.

  9. 9.

    Remember that the result that a sum of independent and identical centered random variables scaled by \(n^{-1/2}\) converges to a Gaussian random variable in distribution, is called the central limit theorem.

  10. 10.

    Simply connectedness means that the domain consisting of the hexagons is a simply connected domain (i.e. with no holes)—in other words, if we have a closed path of hexagons in the domain, it cannot disconnect any point in the complement of the domain from infinity.

  11. 11.

    From the modelling perspective, the open sites represent channels through which a substance, say, water can flow. Therefore if we inject water into the sites of a set \(A_1\), the water will flow to all the sites connected by a path of open sites to \(A_1\). In particular we are interested in connection events that for fixed \(A_1\) and \(A_2\) there exists a connected path from \(A_1\) to \(A_2\) that stays in a set B.

  12. 12.

    The reader should stop to think this for a moment, though.

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Kemppainen, A. (2017). Introduction. In: Schramm–Loewner Evolution. SpringerBriefs in Mathematical Physics, vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65329-7_1

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