Topics in loop measures and the loop-erased walk (Q1746509)

The survey (based on a course that author gave at the University of Chicago in 2016) is devoted to the current theory of loop-measure. The author considers the some historic stages of development of this theory and marked the start of the current theory with the paper [the author and \textit{W. Werner}, Probab. Theory Relat. Fields 128, No. 4, 565--588 (2004; Zbl 1049.60072)]. The following topics are presented in the survey: loop erasure and induced measure on the paths; determinant of the Laplacian for the weight; loop-erased walk for Markov chains; the relation between it and Laplacian random walk; Wilson's algorithm to generate uniform spanning trees; Kirchhoff's matrix-tree theorem; the discrete time loop measure; soup and its distribution (for positive weight is Poissonian realization from the loop measure); relation with Gaussian fields; multiple loop-erased walk.