First-Passage Percolation on Spread-out line graphs: Microscopic Regime

Abstract

We study first-passage percolation on the $\ell$-spread-out line graph, where each vertex $i\in \{0,1,\dots ,n\}$ is connected to all others at distance at most $\ell$. Here, we focus on the microscopic regime, with $\ell$ fixed as $n\to \infty$. Independent nonnegative weights are assigned to these edges. We obtain a law of large numbers and precise fluctuation results for the passage time $T_n$ from $0$ to $n$. If the weight distribution has finite variance or a heavy tail with exponent above $2/{\ell }_c$ where ${\ell }_c=\ell (\ell +1)/2$, then $T_n$ satisfies a Gaussian CLT with $\sqrt{n}$ scaling. In contrast, for heavier-tailed distributions, with index below the threshold, we show that $T_n$, appropriately centered and scaled, converges to a non-Gaussian stable law. We also prove an LLN and CLT for the number of edges in the minimizing path. The key tool is a pivot-node decomposition; the geodesic can be segmented into i.i.d. blocks, leading to a renewal structure. Our results extend the classical one-dimensional CLT to include finite-range connectivity and heavy tails, revealing a new distributional phase transition in the fluctuations of $T_n$.

32 pages, 5 figures