Lozenge tilings, Glauber dynamics and macroscopic shape

Abstract: We study the Glauber dynamics on the set of tilings of a finite domain of the plane with lozenges of side 1/L. Under the invariant measure of the process (the uniform measure over all tilings), it is well known that the random height function associated to the tiling converges in probability, in the scaling limit $L\to\infty$, to a non-trivial macroscopic shape minimizing a certain surface tension functional. According to the boundary conditions the macroscopic shape can be either analytic or contain "frozen regions" (Arctic Circle phenomenon). It is widely conjectured, on the basis of theoretical considerations, partial mathematical results and numerical simulations for similar models, that the Glauber dynamics approaches the equilibrium macroscopic shape in a time of order $L<sup>{2+o(1)}$. In this work we prove this conjecture, under the assumption that the macroscopic equilibrium shape contains no "frozen region".