Gaussian free field on the tree subject to a hard wall I: Bounds

Abstract

This is the first in a series of two works which study the discrete Gaussian free field on the binary tree when all leaves are conditioned to be positive. In this work, we obtain sharp asymptotics for the probability of this "hard-wall constraint" event, and identify the repulsion profile followed by the field in order to achieve it. We also provide estimates for the mean, fluctuations and covariances of the field under the conditioning, which show that in the first log-many generations the field is localized around its mean. These results are used in the sequel work ("Gaussian free field on the tree subject to a hard wall II: Asymptotics") to obtain a comprehensive asymptotic description of the law of the field under the conditioning.