Cover times for random walk on dynamical percolation

Abstract

We study the cover time of random walk on dynamical percolation on the torus $\mathbb{Z}_n^d$ in the subcritical regime. In this model, introduced by Peres, Stauffer and Steif, each edge updates at rate $\mu$ to open with probability $p$ and closed with probability $1-p$. The random walk jumps along each open edge with rate $1/(2d)$. We prove matching (up to constants) lower and upper bounds for the cover time, which is the first time that the random walk has visited all vertices at least once. Along the way, we also obtain a lower bound on the hitting time of an arbitrary vertex starting from stationarity, improving on the maximum hitting time bounds by Peres, Stauffer and Steif.