Homomorphisms from the torus

We present a detailed probabilistic and structural analysis of the set of weighted homomorphisms from the discrete torus Zmn, where m is even, to any fixed graph: we show that the corresponding probability distribution on such homomorphisms is close to a distribution defined constructively as a certain random perturbation of some dominant phase. This has several consequences, including solutions (in a strong form) to conjectures of Engbers and Galvin and a conjecture of Kahn and Park. Special cases include sharp asymptotics for the number of independent sets and the number of proper q-colourings of Zmn (so in particular, the discrete hypercube). We give further applications to the study of height functions and (generalised) rank functions on the discrete hypercube and disprove a conjecture of Kahn and Lawrenz. For the proof we combine methods from statistical physics, entropy and graph containers and exploit isoperimetric and algebraic properties of the torus.