Strong law of large numbers for the interface in ballistic deposition (Q1594507)

This paper proves a hydrodynamic limit for ballistic deposition on a multidimensional integer lattice. The growth model is taken from statistical mechanics, and means that particles rain down at random and stick to the growing cluster at the first point of contact. The main result says that if the initial random interface converges to a deterministic macroscopic function, then at later times the height of the scaled interface converges to the viscosity solution of a Hamilton-Jacobi equation. The proof idea is to decompose the interface into the shapes that grow from individual seeds of the initial interface. This decomposition converges to a variational formula that defines viscosity solutions of the macroscopic equation. The technical side of the proof involves sub-additive methods, coupling methods and large deviation bounds for related first-passage percolation processes.