Informal Seminar on Statistical Physics: "From vicious walkers to random matrix theory: A path-integral approach"
Starts 11 Nov 2009 16:00
Ends 11 Nov 2009 20:00
Central European Time
ICTP
Leonardo da Vinci Building Seminar Room
Strada Costiera, 11
I - 34151 Trieste (Italy)
Vicious, i.e. non-intersecting, random walkers have been studied in various physical situations, ranging from wetting and melting to stochastic growth processes. In this talk, I will present a method based on path integrals associated to free Fermions models to study such statistical models. In particular I will show how this allows for a physical derivation of the connection between certain constrained vicious walkers and random matrix theory. Besides I will use this method to calculate exactly the distribution of the maximal height of p vicious walkers with and without a wall.