Two-periodic weighted dominos and the sine-Gordon field at the free fermion point: I

Abstract: In this paper we investigate the height field of a dimer model/random domino tiling on the plane at a smooth-rough (i.e. gas-liquid) transition. We prove that the height field at this transition has two-point correlation functions which limit to those of the massless sine-Gordon field at the free fermion point, with parameters $(4\pi, z)$ where $z\in \mathbb{R}\setminus {0}$. The dimer model is on $\epsilon \mathbb{Z}^2$ and has a two-periodic weight structure with weights equal to either 1 or $a=1-C|z|\epsilon$, for $0<\epsilon$ small (tending to zero). In order to obtain this result, we provide a direct asymptotic analysis of a double contour integral formula of the correlation kernel of the dimer model found by Fourier analysis. The limiting field interpolates between the Gaussian free field and white noise and the main result gives an explicit connection between tiling/dimer models and the law of a two-dimensional non-Gaussian field.