Asymptotics for the number of domino tilings of L-shaped Aztec domains

Abstract

We obtain precise asymptotics for the weighted number of domino tilings of an L-shaped subset of the Aztec diamond, obtained by removing an approximate rectangle in a corner of the Aztec diamond. By tuning the size of the removed corner, we observe different types of asymptotics. For a small removed corner, the number of tilings is close to that of the full Aztec diamond. Enlarging the removed corner to a critical size, a phase transition described in terms of the Tracy-Widom distribution occurs. Further increasing the size of the removed region, we observe a sharp decrease of the number of tilings, until it is finally approximated by the number of tilings of two smaller disjoint Aztec diamonds. We obtain uniform asymptotics for the number of domino tilings which fully describe these transitions.