Exact solution for the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation with flat initial conditions.

We provide the first exact calculation of the height distribution at arbitrary time t of the continuum Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) growth equation in one dimension with flat initial conditions. We use the mapping onto a directed polymer with one end fixed, one free, and the Bethe ansatz for the replicated attractive boson model. We obtain the generating function of the moments of the directed polymer partition sum as a Fredholm Pfaffian. Our formula, valid for all times, exhibits convergence of the free energy (i.e., KPZ height) distribution to the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble Tracy-Widom distribution at large time.