Entropic repulsion for the free field: Pathwise characterization in \(d\geq 3\) (Q1961084)

In dimension \(d\geq 3\), the lattice free field \(\{\varphi_x\}\), \(x\in{\mathbb{Z}}^d\), is defined as the centered Gaussian field whose covariances are given by the Green function of the discrete Laplacian. If, in addition, the field is conditioned to stay positive, \(\varphi_x\geq 0\), one speaks about the hard-wall condition. As it was shown by \textit{E. Bolthausen, J.-D. Deuschel} and \textit{O. Zeitouni} [Commun. Math. Phys. 170, No. 2, 417-443 (1995; Zbl 0821.60040)] the hard-wall condition for such a field defined in a finite box of size \(N\) leads to the phenomenon of entropic repulsion: as \(N\to\infty\), the field is pushed to infinity as \(c\sqrt{\log{N}}\) with a certain precise constant \(c\). It was also conjectured there that once the diverging height \(c\sqrt{\log{N}}\) is subtracted from the conditioned field, in the limit \(N\to\infty\) one obtains the (unconditioned) lattice free field. The main result of the paper consists in justifying this conjecture.