On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation

Probability
Research Seminar
Gabriel Baptista
Insituto Nacional de Matem
atica Pura e Aplicada
IMPA

Aug 16th , 2014

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Outline

Percolation
Continuity
Topology
Schramms Conjecture

Cheeger Constant
Intuition
Configuration
Result on r-regular graphs

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Percolation

Given an infinite graph G = (V , E ) we will work on the probability

space (, F) where:
Y
=
{0, 1}
eE

F = (cilinders)
Y
Pp =
Ber (p)
eE

Connected component:
Cx = {y V (G ) : x y }
Where x y open path joining x to y

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Percolation

Definition
The percolation probability on G is G (p) = Pp (x : |C (x)| = )
Obs: G (p) increasing on p.
Definition
Critical percolation probability pc of a graph G :
pc (G ) = sup{p [0, 1] : G (0) = 0} = inf {p [0, 1] : G (0) > 0}

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Continuity of pc

Let F be the set of infinite (locally-finite) connected graphs

pc : F 7 [0, 1]
Continuous? Topology?
Definition
Let the pairs (G , o), o E (G ) and (G 0 , o 0 ), o 0 E (G 0 ) be two
rooted graphs and k = sup{r N : BG (o, r ) BG 0 (o 0 , r )}. Define
the metric d : F F [0, ) as:
d((G , o), (G 0 , o 0 )) = 2k

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Continuity of pc

Example
Let S(k) = {x Z3 : x3 [0, k]}:
d((S(k), 0), (Z3 , 0)) = 2k (S(k), 0) (Z3 , 0)
On G = {G F : G is transitive} d is a metric.
Example
d(Z2 Zk , Z3 ) = 2k Z2 Zk Z3
d(Z Zk , Z2 ) = 2k Z Zk Z2

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Continuity of pc

pc (Z2 Zk ) pc (Z3 )? Yes (Grimmet and Mastrand in [1])

pc (Z Zk ) = 1, pc (Z2 ) = 1/2? No (Kesten in [2])
Conjecture
Oded Schramm Let Gn G with supn pc (Gn ) < 1 such that Gn
converges to a graph G . Then pc (Gn ) pc (G ).
Still open. We will prove a weaker version.

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Cheeger Constant

Restrict to finite graphs

Definition
Given a finite graph G = (V , E ) we define the cheeger constant
h(G ) to be:


|E (A, V \ A)|
|V |
: 0 < |A|
h(G ) = min
AV
|A|
2

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Cheeger Constant

Let Gr reg denote the space of r-regular graphs.

Definition
S
Given n N, W = nj=1 Wj a set of 2m = nr vertices such that
|Wj | = r . A configuration Fn is a partition {Ak }m
k=1 of W , where
|Ak | = 2. Ak is called an edge of F .
A configuration defines a multigraph:
hi, ji (F ) k : Ak Wi 6= , Ak Wj 6=
Obs: No guarantee (F ) is a simple graph (no loops or
multi-edges).

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Cheeger Constant

Good properties:
Easier to count events on (space of configurations):



2

2m 2m2
... 2
2m!
2
|| = 2
= m
=: N(m)
m!
2 m!
Construct a graph from half-edges
P ((F ) is a simple graph) exp
Canfield in [3])

Gabriel Baptista

1d 2
4

(Bender and

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Cheeger Constant
Theorem
Let r 3 and 0 < < 1 be such that:
24/r < (1 )1 (1 + )1+
Then a.e. r-regular graph G has h(G )

(1)r
2

Definition
Given a configuration Fn we define its Cheeger constant to be:


|E (A, V \ A)|
n
h(Fn ) = min
: 0 < |A|
AV
|A|
2
Where E (A, V \ A) is the set of edges wih exactly one endvertex in
jA Wj
Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Cheeger Constant
Proposition
Almost all configurations have a Cheeger constant bounded below
by (1)r
2 .
Proof.
U V and s, u N:
k(U) = |{k : |Ak (

jU

Wj )| = 1}|

A(U, s) = {F : k(U) = s}
S
P(u, s) = P( |U|=u A(U, s))
Suppose that a configuration F has h(F ) <
A V ;

(1)r
2 .

Then:

|E (A, V \ A)|
(1 )r
<
|A|
2

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Cheeger Constant

Proof (Cont.)
Then:
|E (A, V \ A)| <

(1 )r |A|
P(F ) P(|A|, |E (A, V \ A)|)
2

Let s(u) be the largest integer less then

ru s(u) is even. So:
X

(1)ru
2

such that

P(u, s) = o(1) Lemma

1un/2
0ss(u)

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Cheeger Constant

Proof (Cont.)
Given U0 V , estimate P(A(U0 , s)) counting the ways A(U0 , s)
can occur. Let u = |U0 |:
S
S
s vertices from jU0 Wj and s from j U
/ Wj to form the




ru r (nu)
edges: s
;
s
s! different ways of connect them;
On one side ru s vertices connect among them, on the other
r (nu)s
r (n u) s: N( rus
)
2 )N(
2

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Cheeger Constant

Proof (Cont.)
P(A(U, s)) only depends on |U|:
P(u, s)

X
|U|=u

n

ru

r (nu)
s

 
n
P(A(U, s)) =
P(A(U0 , s))
u

r (nu)s
)
s!N( rus
2 )N(
2
=: P0 (u, s)
N( rn
)
2

From the formula:

0 s < s 0 s(u) P0 (A(U0 , s)) P0 (A(U0 , s 0 ))

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Cheeger Constant
Proof (Cont.)
Remember s(u) <

(1)ru
:
2
n

P0 (u, s) r

1un/2
0ss(u)

And:

b2c
X

uP0 (u, s(u))

u=1

b2c
X

uP0 (u, s(u)) = o(1) Lemma

u=1

Left side will follow from:

P0 (u, s(u)) = o(1) for all u u0 for a fixed u0
P0 (u, s(u)) = o(n2 ) for u0 u < n/2
Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Cheeger Constant
Proof (Cont.)
The first follow from bounds on the binomial formula
Note that:
n
n/2

P0 (n/2, s(u)) =

rn/2
2
s!N(
s(u)

rn
2
2

)2

N(rn/2)

Use Stirlings approximation:

P0 (n/2, s(u)) = o(1)[4r r ((1)r )(1)r /2 ((1+)r )(1+)r /2 ]n/2
And Hypothesis:
24/r < (1 )1 (1 + )1+

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

References

G. R. Grimmett and J. M. Marstrand, The supercritical phase

of percolation is well behaved, Proc. Roy. Soc. London Ser. A
430 (1990), no. 1879, 439457.
Kesten, Harry (1982), Percolation theory for mathematicians,
Birkhauser
E. A. Bender and E. R. Canfield, The asymptotic number of
non-negative integer matrices with given row and column
sums, Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A, 24 (1978),
296307.

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Scenes from the next chapter

Weak convergence of graphs

Weak version of the conjecture

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Appendix

Define: p as:

p =

1 : Xe < p
0 : Xe p

Then Pp = p P.
Definition
We say that a random variable N on (, F) is increasing if
N(w ) N(w 0 ) for any w w 0 . An event A F is increasinf if IA
is an increasing random variable.

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability

Appendix

Proposition
If N is an increasing random variable on (, F) and p1 p2 then:
Ep1 (N) Ep1 (N)
Proof.
We can see from the definition that if p1 p2 then p1 p2 .
Since N is increasing, we have N(p1 ) N(p2 ). Integrating we
get Ep1 (N) Ep2 (N)

Gabriel Baptista

On the Continuity of the Critical Percolation Probability