In the interchange process on a graph G=(V,E), distinguished particles are placed on the vertices of G with independent Poisson clocks on the edges. When the clock of an edge rings, the two particles on the two sides of the edge interchange. In this way, a random permutation \pi _\beta:V\to V is formed for any time \beta >0. One of the main objects of study is the cycle structure of the random permutation and the emergence of long cycles.

We prove the existence of infinite cycles in the interchange process on Z^d for all dimensions d>=5 and all large \beta, establishing a conjecture of Bálint Tóth from 1993 in these dimensions.

In our proof, we study a self-interacting random walk called the cyclic time random walk.  Using a multiscale induction we prove that it is diffusive and can be coupled with Brownian motion. One of the key ideas in the proof is establishing a local escape property which shows that the walk will quickly escape when it is entangled in its history in complicated ways.

This is a joint work with Allan Sly.