Abstract. Using a calculus of variations approach, we determine the shape of a typical plane partition in a large box (i.e., a plane partition chosen at random according to the uniform distribution on all plane partitions whose solid Young diagrams fit inside the box). Equivalently, we describe the distribution of the three different orientations of lozenges in a random lozenge tiling of a large hexagon. We prove a generalization of the classical formula of MacMahon for the number of plane partitions in a box; for each of the possible ways in which the tilings of a region can behave when restricted to certain lines, our formula tells the number of tilings that behave in that way. When we take a suitable limit, this formula gives us a functional which we must maximize to determine the asymptotic behavior of a plane partition in a box. Once the variational problem has been set up, we analyze it using a modification of the methods employed by Logan and Shepp and by Vershik and Kerov in their studies of random Young tableaux. 1.

This survey article describes a method for choosing uniformly at random from any finite set whose objects can be viewed as constituting a distributive lattice. The method is based on ideas of the author and David Wilson for using "coupling from the past" to remove initialization bias from Monte Carlo randomization.

We determine the order dimension of the strong Bruhat order on finite Coxeter groups of types A, B and H. The order dimension is determined using a generalization of a theorem of Dilworth: dim(P) = width(Irr(P)), whenever P satisfies a simple order-theoretic condition called here the dissective property (or “clivage ” in [16, 21]). The result for dissective posets follows from an upper bound and lower bound on the dimension of any finite poset. The dissective property is related, via MacNeille completion, to the distributive property of lattices. We show a similar connection between quotients of the strong Bruhat order with respect to parabolic subgroups and lattice quotients.