The trunks of CLE(4) explorations

Abstract

A natural class of conformally invariant ways for discovering the loops of a conformal loop ensemble $\text{CLE}_4$ is given by a certain family of $\text{SLE}_4^{\langle\mu\rangle}(-2)$ exploration processes for real $\mu$. Such an exploration consists of one simple continuous path called the trunk of the exploration that discovers $\text{CLE}_4$ loops along the way. The parameter $\mu$ appears in the Loewner chain description of the path that traces the trunk and all CLE loops encountered by the trunk in chronological order. These explorations can also be interpreted in terms of level lines of a Gaussian free field. It has been shown by Miller, Sheffield and Werner that the trunk of such an exploration is an $\text{SLE}_4(\rho,-2-\rho)$ process for some (unknown) value of $\rho \in (-2, 0)$. The main result of the present paper is to establish the relation between $\mu$ and $\rho$, more specifically to show that $\mu = -\pi\cot(\pi\rho/2)$. The crux of the paper is to show how explorations of $\text{CLE}_4$ can be approximated by explorations of $\text{CLE}_\kappa$ for $\kappa \uparrow 4$, which then makes it possible to use recent results by Miller, Sheffield and Werner about the trunks of $\text{CLE}_\kappa$ explorations for $\kappa < 4$.