Selected Topics in Random Walk in Random Environment

Abstract

Random walk in random environment (RWRE) is a fundamental model of statistical mechanics, describing the movement of a particle in a highly disordered and inhomogeneous medium as a random walk with random jump probabilities. It has been introduced in a series of papers by Chernov and Temkin as a model for DNA chain replication and crystal growth, and also as a model for turbulent behavior in fluids through a Lorentz gas description by Sinai. It is a simple but powerful model for a variety of complex large-scale disordered phenomena arising from fields such as physics, biology and engineering. While the one-dimensional model is well-understood, in the multidimensional setting, fundamental questions about the RWRE model have resisted repeated and persistent attempts to answer them. Two major complications in this context stem from the loss of the Markov property under the averaged measure as well as the fact that in dimensions larger than one, the RWRE is not reversible anymore. In these notes we present a general overview of the model, with an emphasis on the multidimensional setting and a more detailed description of recent progress around ballisticity questions.