Planar Site Percolation, End Structure, and the Benjamini-Schramm Conjecture

TL;DR

This paper investigates percolation thresholds and cluster uniqueness on planar graphs, proving new results about the coexistence interval and providing counterexamples to a longstanding conjecture.

Contribution

It introduces a cycle--separation equivalence on ends, resolves the Benjamini--Schramm conjecture under certain conditions, and constructs a counterexample disproving the conjecture in full generality.

Findings

Non--uniqueness of infinite clusters in the coexistence interval for certain graphs.

Counterexample graph with degree at least 7 where the conjecture fails.

Extension of the coexistence interval beyond the critical threshold.

Abstract

Let $G$ be an infinite, connected, locally finite planar graph and consider i.i.d.\ Bernoulli$(p)$ site percolation. Write $p_c^{\mathrm{site}}(G)$ and $p_u^{\mathrm{site}}(G)$ for the critical and uniqueness thresholds. Using a well--separated Freudenthal embedding $G\hookrightarrow\mathbb S^2$, we introduce a cycle--separation equivalence on ends and associated ``directional'' thresholds $p^{\mathrm{site}}_{c,F}(G)$. When the set of end--equivalence classes is countable, we show that $p_c^{\mathrm{site}}(G)=\inf_F p^{\mathrm{site}}_{c,F}(G)$ and that for every $p\in\bigl(\tfrac12,\,1-p_c^{\mathrm{site}}(G)\bigr)$ there are almost surely infinitely many infinite open clusters. Combined with the $0/\infty$ theorem of Glazman--Harel--Zelesko for $p\le \tfrac12$, this yields non--uniqueness throughout the full coexistence interval $\bigl(p_c^{\mathrm{site}}(G),\,1-p_c^{\mathrm{site}}(G)\bigr)$, and hence $p_u^{\mathrm{site}}(G)\ge 1-p_c^{\mathrm{site}}(G)$ in this setting. This resolves the extension problem posed by Glazman--Harel--Zelesko for the upper half of the coexistence regime under a natural countability hypothesis. In contrast, for graphs with uncountably many end--equivalence classes we give criteria guaranteeing infinitely many infinite clusters above criticality, and we construct an explicit locally finite planar graph of minimum degree at least $7$ for which $p_u^{\mathrm{site}}(G)<1-p_c^{\mathrm{site}}(G)$. Consequently, the Benjamini--Schramm conjecture (Conjecture 7 in \cite{bs96}) that planarity together with minimal vertex degree at least 7 forces infinitely many infinite clusters for all $p\in(p_c,1-p_c)$ does not hold in full generality. Our proofs combine a cutset characterization of $p_c^{\mathrm{site}}$ with a planar alternating--arm exploration organized by an end--adapted boundary decomposition.