Limit shape, avalanches, and stabilisation of abelian sandpiles on comb lattices

Source abstract

We study two aspects of the abelian sandpile model on comb lattices. First, we prove that the infinite-volume limit of the stationary measures is supported on the saturated configuration. We then investigate the shape of avalanches induced by adding a particle at the origin in finite boxes of size $(2n+1)\times(2n+1)$ around the origin. In the stationary distribution on these finite boxes, we show that avalanches reach the boundary along the vertical teeth with probability tending to $1$, while the horizontal spread is of order $\sqrt{n}$. Finally, we establish that the single-source limit shape for abelian sandpiles on the comb lattice agrees with the corresponding limit shapes for the divisible sandpile, internal diffusion-limited aggregation (IDLA), and rotor-router aggregation models. This establishes limit shape universality on the comb lattice.