Boundary proximity of SLE

This paper examines how close the chordal SLE _κ curve gets to the real line asymptotically far away from its starting point. In particular, when κ ? (0, 4), it is shown that if β > β _κ  := 1/(8/κ ? 2), then the intersection of the SLE _κ curve with the graph of the function y = x/(log x) ^β , x > e, is a.s. bounded, while it is a.s. unbounded if β = β _κ . The critical SLE₄ curve a.s. intersects the graph of $y=x^{{-({\rm log\,log\,x})}^{\alpha}}, x > e^e$ , x > e ^e , in an unbounded set if α ≤ 1, but not if α > 1. Under a very mild regularity assumption on the function y(x), we give a necessary and sufficient integrability condition for the intersection of the SLE _κ path with the graph of y to be unbounded. When the intersection is bounded a.s., we provide an estimate for the probability that the SLE _κ path hits the graph of y. We also prove that the Hausdorff dimension of the intersection set of the SLE _κ curve and the real axis is 2 ? 8/κ when 4 < κ < 8.