Critical properties of a growing interface described by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation.

The Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation is a stochastic non-equilibrium and non-linear equation initially derived to describe the kinetic roughening of a growing interface. As it has turned out to map to many other important problems, such as directed polymers in random media or Burgers turbulence, it has emerged as a fundamental model to investigate non-equilibrium scaling phenomena and phase transitions.

The theoretical understanding of the interface properties in the rough phase, corresponding to a strong-coupling regime, requires non-perturbative methods. I will show, from a detailed analysis of the KPZ symmetries, how to construct an effective action to study the KPZ growth, and derive its Non-Perturbative Renormalization Group flow. I will then present results for critical properties in the stationary regime: critical exponents and correlation and response functions. I will show that these functions exhibit generic scaling, determine the associated universal scaling functions and universal amplitude ratios.