Recursions and tightness for the maximum of the discrete, two dimensional Gaussian Free Field

Erwin Bolthausen, Jean-Dominique Deuschel, Ofer Zeitouni

Published 2010-05-28, updated 2010-06-28Version 2

We consider the maximum of the discrete two dimensional Gaussian free field in a box, and prove the existence of a (dense) deterministic subsequence along which the maximum, centered at its mean, is tight; this still leaves open the conjecture that tightness holds without the need for subsequences. The method of proof relies on an argument developed by Dekking and Host for branching random walks with bounded increments and on comparison results specific to Gaussian fields.