Sharp critical behavior for pinning models in a random correlated environment (Q424476)

The authors study a disordered, inhomogeneous random pinning model with long-range disorder; the focus is on the disorder's influence on critical behavior. The model's ingredients are a renewal sequence \((\tau_k)\) with interarrival distribution \(\mathbf{P} (\tau_k =n) \approx 1/n^{1+\alpha}\) for a given \(\alpha >0, \alpha \neq 1\), and a disorder sequence \((\omega_i) \in \{0,1\}^\mathbb{N}\) with the property \(\mathrm{Cov}(\omega_i,\omega_{i+k}) \approx k^{1-\tilde \alpha}\) as \(k\to \infty\) for some given \(\tilde \alpha >1\). The partition function is \[ Z_{N,h}^{\omega,\beta} = \mathbf{E}\left[ \exp \left(\sum_{n=1}^N (h+\beta \omega_n) \mathbf{1}_{\{\tau_k =n \text{ for some }n\}} \right)\right]. \] The authors prove the existence of the quenched free energy \(f(\beta,h)\) and self-averaging. They identify the critical behavior of the free energy as \(h\to 0+\) at fixed \(\beta\), providing bounds for \(h\in (0,1)\) \[ C_1 h^{\frac{\tilde \alpha}{\min(1,\alpha)}} |\log h|^{1-\tilde \alpha} \leq f(\beta,h) \leq C_2 h^{\frac{\tilde \alpha}{\min(1,\alpha)}} |\log h|^{1-\tilde \alpha}. \] Furthermore, the number of contact points at \(h=0\) stays tight as \(N\to \infty\). This result highlights the effect of the disorder on the critical behavior: at \(h=\beta =0\), the number of contact points behaves like a fractional power of \(N\).