Dominos in hedgehog domains

Abstract

We introduce a new class of discrete approximations of planar domains that we call "hedgehog domains". In particular, this class of approximations contains two-step Aztec diamonds and similar shapes. We show that fluctuations of the height function of a random dimer tiling on hedgehog discretizations of a planar domain converge in the scaling limit to the Gaussian Free Field with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Interestingly enough, in this case the dimer model coupling function satisfies the same Riemann-type boundary conditions as fermionic observables in the Ising model. In addition, using the same factorization of the double-dimer model coupling function as in [17], we show that in the case of approximations by hedgehog domains the expectation of the double-dimer height function is harmonic in the scaling limit.