We study the dimer model on subgraphs of the square lattice in which vertices on a prescribed part of the boundary (the free boundary) are possibly unmatched. Each such unmatched vertex is called a monomer and contributes a fixed multiplicative weight to the total weight of the configuration. A bijection described by Giuliani et al. (J Stat Phys 163(2):211-238, 2016) relates this model to a standard dimer model but on a non-bipartite graph. The Kasteleyn matrix of this dimer model describes a walk with transition weights that are negative along the free boundary. Yet under certain assumptions, which are in particular satisfied in the infinite volume limit in the upper half-plane, we prove an effective, true random walk representation for the inverse Kasteleyn matrix. In this case we further show that, independently of the value of , the scaling limit of the centered height function is the Gaussian free field with Neumann (or free) boundary conditions. It is the first example of a discrete model where such boundary conditions arise in the continuum scaling limit.
Aggregation equations, such as the parabolic-elliptic Patlak-Keller-Segel model, are known to have an optimal threshold for global existence versus finite-time blow-up. In particular, if the diffusion is absent, then all smooth solutions with finite second moment can exist only locally in time. Nevertheless, one can ask whether global existence can be restored by adding a suitable noise to the equation, so that the dynamics are now stochastic. Inspired by the work of Buckmaster et al. (Int Math Res Not IMRN 23:9370-9385, 2020) showing that, with high probability, the inviscid SQG equation with random diffusion has global classical solutions, we investigate whether suitable random diffusion can restore global existence for a large class of active scalar equations in arbitrary dimension with possibly singular velocity fields. This class includes Hamiltonian flows, such as the SQG equation and its generalizations, and gradient flows, such as those arising in aggregation models. For this class, we show global existence of solutions in Gevrey-type Fourier-Lebesgue spaces with quantifiable high probability.
We prove limit laws for infinite horizon planar periodic Lorentz gases when, as time n tends to infinity, the scatterer size may also tend to zero simultaneously at a sufficiently slow pace. In particular we obtain a non-standard Central Limit Theorem as well as a Local Limit Theorem for the displacement function. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first results on an intermediate case between the two well-studied regimes with superdiffusive scaling (i) for fixed infinite horizon configurations-letting first and then -studied e.g. by Szász and Varjú (J Stat Phys 129(1):59-80, 2007) and (ii) Boltzmann-Grad type situations-letting first and then -studied by Marklof and Tóth (Commun Math Phys 347(3):933-981, 2016) .

