Precise large deviations in geometric last passage percolation

Abstract

We study the last passage time in geometric last passage percolation (LPP). As the system size increases, we derive precise large deviation probabilities -- up to and including the constant terms -- for both the lower and upper tails. A key step in proving these results is to establish a duality formula that reformulates the LPP problem in terms of the largest eigenvalue in the Jacobi unitary ensemble (JUE). In addition, we establish a second duality formula, which relates the LPP problem to the truncated unitary ensemble (TUE). Using this, we also derive asymptotics for the moments of the absolute value of characteristic polynomials of the TUE, which may be of independent interest.