On intermediate level sets of two-dimensional discrete Gaussian free field

Abstract

We consider the discrete Gaussian Free Field (DGFF) in scaled-up (square-lattice) versions of suitably regular continuum domains $D\subset\mathbb C$ and describe the scaling limit, including local structure, of the level sets at heights growing as a $\lambda$-multiple of the height of the absolute maximum, for any $\lambda\in(0,1)$. We prove that, in the scaling limit, the scaled spatial position of a typical point $x$ sampled from this level set is distributed according to a Liouville Quantum Gravity (LQG) measure in $D$ at parameter equal $\lambda$-times its critical value, the field value at $x$ has an exponential intensity measure and the configuration near $x$ reduced by the value at $x$ has the law of a pinned DGFF reduced by a suitable multiple of the potential kernel. In particular, the law of the total size of the level set, properly-normalized, converges that that of the total mass of the LQG measure. This sharpens considerably an earlier conclusion by Daviaud.