The multinomial dimer model

An $N$-dimer cover of a graph is a collection of edges (with multiplicity) such that each vertex is contained in exactly $N$ edges in the collection. The multinomial dimer model is a natural probability measure on $N$-dimer covers. We study the behavior of these measures on periodic bipartite graphs in ${\mathbb R}^d$, in the scaling limit as the multiplicity $N$ and then the size of the graph go to infinity. In this iterated limit, we prove a large deviation principle, where the rate function is the integral of an explicit surface tension, and show that random configurations concentrate on a limit shape which is the unique solution to an associated Euler-Lagrange equation. We further show that the associated critical gauge functions, which exist in the $N\to\infty$ limit on each finite graph, converge in the scaling limit to a limiting gauge function which solves a dual Euler-Lagrange equation. We use our techniques to compute explicit limit shapes in some two and three dimensional examples, such as the Aztec diamond and ``Aztec cuboid". These $3d$ examples are the first stat mech models in dimensions $d\ge3$ where limit shapes can be computed explicitly.