Properties of the limit shape for some last-passage growth models in random environments

Abstract

We study directed last-passage percolation on the planar square lattice whose weights have general distributions, or equivalently, queues in series with general service distributions. Each row of the last-passage model has its own randomly chosen weight distribution. We investigate the limiting time constant close to the boundary of the quadrant. Close to the y -axis, where the number of random distributions averaged over stays large, the limiting time constant takes the same universal form as in the homogeneous model. But close to the x -axis we see the effect of the tail of the distribution of the random environment.