On self-avoiding polygons and walks: counting, joining and closing

Abstract

For d at least two and integer n, let c_n = c_n(d) denote the number of length n self-avoiding walks beginning at the origin in the integer lattice Z^d, and, for even n, let p_n = p_n(d) denote the number of length n self-avoiding polygons in Z^d up to translation. Then the probability under the uniform law W_n on self-avoiding walks Gamma of any given odd length n beginning at the origin that Gamma closes -- i.e., that Gamma's endpoint is a neighbour of the origin -- is given by W_n ( Gamma closes ) = 2(n+1) p_{n+1}/c_n. The polygon and walk cardinalities share a common exponential growth: lim_n c_n^{1/n} = lim_{n even} p_n^{1/n} = mu (where the common value mu is called the connective constant). Madras [26] has shown that p_n is at most C n^{-1/2} mu^n in dimension d=2, while the closing probability was recently shown in [12] to satisfy W_n ( Gamma closes ) is at most n^{-1/4 + o(1)} in any dimension d at least two. Here we establish that (1) W_n ( Gamma closes ) is at most n^{-1/2 + o(1)} for any d at least two; (2) W_n ( Gamma closes ) is at most n^{-4/7 + o(1)} for a subsequence of odd n, if d = 2; and (3) p_n is at most n^{-3/2 + o(1)} mu^n for a set of even n of full density when d=2. We also argue that the closing probability is bounded above by n^{-(1 - 1/d) + o(1)} on a full density set when d is at least three for a certain variant of self-avoiding walk.