Liouville quantum gravity weighted by conformal loop ensemble nesting statistics

We study Liouville quantum gravity (LQG) surfaces whose law has been reweighted according to nesting statistics for a conformal loop ensemble (CLE) relative to n ∈ 0, 1, 2,. . . marked points z1,. . . , zn. The idea is to consider a reweighting by B⊆n e σ B N B, where σB ∈ R and NB is the number of CLE loops surrounding the points zi for i ∈ B. This is made precise via an approximation procedure where as part of the proof we derive strong spatial independence results for CLE. The reweighting induces logarithmic singularities for the Liouville field at z1,. . . , zn with a magnitude depending explicitly on σ1,. . . , σn. We define the partition function of the surface and explain its relationship to Liouville conformal field theory (CFT) correlation functions and a potential relationship with a CFT for CLE. In the case of n ∈ 0, 1 points we derive an explicit formula for the partition function. Furthermore, we obtain a recursive formula for the partition functions where we express the n point partition function in terms of the partition function for disks with k < n marked points, and we use this to partially determine for which values of (σB: B ⊆ n) the partition function is finite. The recursive formula is derived via a continuum counterpart of the peeling process on planar maps, which was earlier studied in works of Miller, Sheffield, and Werner in the setting of n = 0 marked points. We also find an explicit formula for the generator of the Markov process describing the LQG boundary lengths in the continuum peeling process. Via an explicit calculation for this Markov process for n = 0 we give a new proof for the law of the conformal radius of the outermost CLE loop in the unit disk around 0, which was earlier established by Schramm, Sheffield, and Wilson. Finally, we state precise conjectures relating the LQG surfaces with marked points to random planar maps.