Conformal invariance of planar loop-erased random walks and uniform spanning trees

Abstract

This paper proves that the scaling limit of a loop-erased random walk in a simply connected domain $Dsubsetneqq\C$ is equal to the radial SLE$_2$ path. In particular, the limit exists and is conformally invariant. It follows that the scaling limit of the uniform spanning tree in a Jordan domain exists and is conformally invariant. Assuming that $\p D$ is a $C^1$-simple closed curve, the same method is applied to show that the scaling limit of the uniform spanning tree Peano curve, where the tree is wired along a proper arc $A\subset\p D$, is the chordal SLE$_8$ path in $\overline D$ joining the endpoints of A. A by-product of this result is that SLE$_8$ is almost surely generated by a continuous path. The results and proofs are not restricted to a particular choice of lattice.