Joint probability for the Pearcey process

Abstract

This paper is a step in the direction of understanding the behavior of non-intersecting Brownian motions on the real line, when the number of particles becomes large. Consider 2k non-intersecting Brownian motions, all starting at the origin, such that the k left paths end up at -a and the k right paths end up at +a at time t=1. The Karlin-McGregor formula enables one to express the transition probability in terms of a matrix model, consisting of Gaussian Hermitian random matrices in a chain with external source. It is shown that the log of the probability for this model satisfies a fourth order PDE with a quartic non-linearity, obtained by means of the 3-component KP hierarchy and Virasoro constraints. When the number of particles grows very large, the particles will be concentrated on two intervals near t=0 and on one interval near t=1. The Pearcey process is the infinite-dimensional diffusion, near the critical transition from two to one interval. An appropriate scaling limit of the PDE for the finite model leads to a non-linear PDE for the multi-time transition probabilities of the Pearcey process. We conjecture that each of the Markov clouds (like the Pearcey process) arising near phase transitions is related to some integrable system. Moreover, there is an intimate connection between the integrable system and the associated Riemann-Hilbert problem.