Diffusive fluctuations for one-dimensional totally asymmetric interacting random dynamics

Abstract

We study central limit theorems for a totally asymmetric, one-dimensional interacting random system. The models we work with are the Aldous-Diaconis-Hammersley process and the related stick model. The A-D-H process represents a particle configuration on the line, or a 1-dimensional interface on the plane which moves in one fixed direction through random local jumps. The stick model is the process of local slopes of the A-D-H process, and has a conserved quantity. The results describe the fluctuations of these systems around the deterministic evolution to which the random system converges under hydrodynamic scaling. We look at diffusive fluctuations, by which we mean fluctuations on the scale of the classical central limit theorem. In the scaling limit these fluctuations obey deterministic equations with random initial conditions given by the initial fluctuations. Of particular interest is the effect of macroscopic shocks, which play a dominant role because dynamical noise is suppressed on the scale we are working.