Emptiness formation probability of the six-vertex model and the sixth Painlevé equation (Q2630735)

The correlation functions of a number of statistical mechanical models are known to have deep connections to the famous Painlevé equations. In this paper, the authors show that, for the six-vertex model with domain wall boundary conditions at the free fermion point (a special case of the most general six-vertex model), the emptiness formation probability, which is a particular kind of correction functions, is given by the Jimbo-Miwa \(\tau\)-function of the sixth Painlevé equation. Based on such a connection, the authors derive a number of asymptotics of the emptiness formation probability in the thermodynamic limit, by making use of the techniques developed in the studies of Painlevé equations.