From disordered systems to the Critical 2D Stochastic Heat Flow

Abstract

We review our joint work on the scaling limits of disordered systems, linking the notion of disorder relevance/irrelevance to that of sub/super-criticality of singular SPDEs. This line of research culminated in the construction of the Critical 2D Stochastic Heat Flow (SHF), a universal process which provides a non-trivial solution to the Stochastic Heat Equation in dimension 2, a critical singular SPDE that lies beyond the reach of existing solution theories. The SHF also offers a rare example of a non-Gaussian scaling limit for a disordered system at its phase transition point in the critical dimension.

20 pages, 3 figures; contribution to the Proceedings of the ICM 2026