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Tom Hutchcroft

Publications and source records attributed to Tom Hutchcroft.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2021

What are the limits of universality?

It is a central prediction of renormalisation group theory that the critical behaviours of many statistical mechanics models on Euclidean lattices depend only on the dimension and not on the specific choice of lattice. We investigate the extent to which this universality continues to hold beyond the Euclidean setting, taking as case studies Bernoulli bond percolation and lattice trees. We present strong numerical evidence that the critical exponents governing these models on transitive graphs of polynomial volume growth depend only on the volume-growth dimension of the graph and not on any other large-scale features of the geometry. For example, our results strongly suggest that percolation, which has upper-critical dimension six, has the same critical exponents on the four-dimensional hypercubic lattice $\mathbb{Z}^4$ and the Heisenberg group despite the distinct large-scale geometries of these two lattices preventing the relevant percolation models from sharing a common scaling limit. On the other hand, we also show that no such universality should be expected to hold on fractals, even if one allows the exponents to depend on a large number of standard fractal dimensions. Indeed, we give natural examples of two fractals which share Hausdorff, spectral, topological, and topological Hausdorff dimensions but exhibit distinct numerical values of the percolation Fisher exponent $τ$. This gives strong evidence against a conjecture of Balankin et al. [Phys. Lett. A 2018].

cond-mat.stat-mech↗
arXiv2021

Power-law bounds for critical long-range percolation below the upper-critical dimension

We study long-range Bernoulli percolation on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ in which each two vertices $x$ and $y$ are connected by an edge with probability $1-\exp(-β\|x-y\|^{-d-α})$. It is a theorem of Noam Berger (CMP, 2002) that if $0<α<d$ then there is no infinite cluster at the critical parameter $β_c$. We give a new, quantitative proof of this theorem establishing the power-law upper bound \[ \mathbf{P}_{β_c}\bigl(|K|\geq n\bigr) \leq C n^{-(d-α)/(2d+α)} \] for every $n\geq 1$, where $K$ is the cluster of the origin. We believe that this is the first rigorous power-law upper bound for a Bernoulli percolation model that is neither planar nor expected to exhibit mean-field critical behaviour. As part of the proof, we establish a universal inequality implying that the maximum size of a cluster in percolation on any finite graph is of the same order as its mean with high probability. We apply this inequality to derive a new rigorous hyperscaling inequality $(2-η)(δ+1)\leq d(δ-1)$ relating the cluster-volume exponent $δ$ and two-point function exponent $η$.

math.PR↗
arXiv2020

Transience and recurrence of sets for branching random walk via non-standard stochastic orders

We study how the recurrence and transience of space-time sets for a branching random walk on a graph depends on the offspring distribution. Here, we say that a space-time set $A$ is recurrent if it is visited infinitely often almost surely on the event that the branching random walk survives forever, and say that $A$ is transient if it is visited at most finitely often almost surely. We prove that if $μ$ and $ν$ are supercritical offspring distributions with means $\bar μ< \bar ν$ then every space-time set that is recurrent with respect to the offspring distribution $μ$ is also recurrent with respect to the offspring distribution $ν$ and similarly that every space-time set that is transient with respect to the offspring distribution $ν$ is also transient with respect to the offspring distribution $μ$. To prove this, we introduce a new order on probability measures that we call the germ order and prove more generally that the same result holds whenever $μ$ is smaller than $ν$ in the germ order. Our work is inspired by the work of Johnson and Junge (AIHP 2018), who used related stochastic orders to study the frog model.

math.PR↗
arXiv2020

Large, lengthy graphs look locally like lines

We apply the theory of unimodular random rooted graphs to study the metric geometry of large, finite, bounded degree graphs whose diameter is proportional to their volume. We prove that for a positive proportion of the vertices of such a graph, there exists a mesoscopic scale on which the graph looks like $\mathbb{R}$ in the sense that the rescaled ball is close to a line segment in the Gromov-Hausdorff metric.

math.MG↗
arXiv2020

Supercritical percolation on nonamenable graphs: Isoperimetry, analyticity, and exponential decay of the cluster size distribution

Let $G$ be a connected, locally finite, transitive graph, and consider Bernoulli bond percolation on $G$. We prove that if $G$ is nonamenable and $p > p_c(G)$ then there exists a positive constant $c_p$ such that \[\mathbf{P}_p(n \leq |K| < \infty) \leq e^{-c_p n}\] for every $n\geq 1$, where $K$ is the cluster of the origin. We deduce the following two corollaries: 1. Every infinite cluster in supercritical percolation on a transitive nonamenable graph has anchored expansion almost surely. This answers positively a question of Benjamini, Lyons, and Schramm (1997). 2. For transitive nonamenable graphs, various observables including the percolation probability, the truncated susceptibility, and the truncated two-point function are analytic functions of $p$ throughout the supercritical phase.

math.PR↗
arXiv2020

Collisions of Random Walks in Dynamic Random Environments

We study dynamic random conductance models on $\mathbb{Z}^2$ in which the environment evolves as a reversible Markov process that is stationary under space-time shifts. We prove under a second moment assumption that two conditionally independent random walks in the same environment collide infinitely often almost surely. These results apply in particular to random walks on dynamical percolation.

math.PR↗
arXiv2020

The $L^2$ boundedness condition in nonamenable percolation

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a connected, locally finite, transitive graph, and consider Bernoulli bond percolation on $G$. In recent work, we conjectured that if $G$ is nonamenable then the matrix of critical connection probabilities $T_{p_c}(u,v)=\mathbb{P}_{p_c}(u\leftrightarrow v)$ is bounded as an operator $T_{p_c}:L^2(V)\to L^2(V)$ and proved that this conjecture holds for several classes of graphs. We also noted in that work that the conjecture implies two older conjectures, namely that percolation on transitive nonamenable graphs always has a nontrivial nonuniqueness phase, and that critical percolation on the same class of graphs has mean-field critical behaviour. In this paper we further investigate the consequences of the $L^2$ boundedness conjecture. In particular, we prove that the following hold for all transitive graphs: i) The two-point function decays exponentially in the distance for all $p<p_{2\to 2}$; ii) If $p_c<p_{2\to 2}$, then the critical exponent governing the extrinsic diameter of a critical cluster is $1$; iii) Below $p_{2\to 2}$, percolation is "ballistic" in the sense that the intrinsic distance between two points is exponentially unlikely to be much larger than their extrinsic distance; iv) If $p_c<p_{2\to 2}$, then $\|T_{p_c}\|_{q\to q} \asymp (q-1)^{-1}$ and $p_{q\to q}-p_c \asymp q-1$ as $q\downarrow 1$. v) If $p_c<p_{2\to 2}$, then various 'multiple-arm' events have probabilities comparable to the upper bound given by the BK inequality. In particular, the probability that the origin is a trifurcation point is of order $(p-p_c)^3$ as $p \downarrow p_c$. All of these results are new even in the Gromov hyperbolic case. Finally, we apply these results together with duality arguments to compute the critical exponents governing the geometry of intrinsic geodesics at the uniqueness threshold of percolation in the hyperbolic plane.

math.PR↗
arXiv2020

Continuity of the Ising phase transition on nonamenable groups

We prove rigorously that the ferromagnetic Ising model on any nonamenable Cayley graph undergoes a continuous (second-order) phase transition in the sense that there is a unique Gibbs measure at the critical temperature. The proof of this theorem is quantitative and also yields power-law bounds on the magnetization at and near criticality. Indeed, we prove more generally that the magnetization $\langle σ_o \rangle_{β,h}^+$ is a locally Hölder-continuous function of the inverse temperature $β$ and external field $h$ throughout the non-negative quadrant $(β,h)\in [0,\infty)^2$. As a second application of the methods we develop, we also prove that the free energy of Bernoulli percolation is twice differentiable at $p_c$ on any transitive nonamenable graph.

math.PR↗
arXiv2020

Anomalous diffusion of random walk on random planar maps

We prove that the simple random walk on the uniform infinite planar triangulation (UIPT) typically travels graph distance at most $n^{1/4 + o_n(1)}$ in $n$ units of time. Together with the complementary lower bound proven by Gwynne and Miller (2017) this shows that the typical graph distance displacement of the walk after $n$ steps is $n^{1/4 + o_n(1)}$, as conjectured by Benjamini and Curien (2013). More generally, we show that the simple random walks on a certain family of random planar maps in the $γ$-Liouville quantum gravity (LQG) universality class for $γ\in (0,2)$---including spanning tree-weighted maps, bipolar-oriented maps, and mated-CRT maps---typically travels graph distance $n^{1/d_γ+ o_n(1)}$ in $n$ units of time, where $d_γ$ is the growth exponent for the volume of a metric ball on the map, which was shown to exist and depend only on $γ$ by Ding and Gwynne (2018). Since $d_γ> 2$, this shows that the simple random walk on each of these maps is subdiffusive. Our proofs are based on an embedding of the random planar maps under consideration into $\mathbb C$ wherein graph distance balls can be compared to Euclidean balls modulo subpolynomial errors. This embedding arises from a coupling of the given random planar map with a mated-CRT map together with the relationship of the latter map to SLE-decorated LQG.

math.PR↗
arXiv2020

Kazhdan groups have cost 1

We prove that every countably infinite group with Kazhdan's property (T) has cost 1, answering a well-known question of Gaboriau. It remains open if they have fixed price 1.

math.GR↗
arXiv2020

On the tail of the branching random walk local time

Consider a critical branching random walk on $\mathbb{Z}^d$, $d\geq 1$, started with a single particle at the origin, and let $L(x)$ be the total number of particles that ever visit a vertex $x$. We study the tail of $L(x)$ under suitable conditions on the offspring distribution. In particular, our results hold if the offspring distribution has an exponential moment.

math.PR↗
arXiv2020

Non-uniqueness and mean-field criticality for percolation on nonunimodular transitive graphs

We study Bernoulli bond percolation on nonunimodular quasi-transitive graphs, and more generally graphs whose automorphism group has a nonunimodular quasi-transitive subgroup. We prove that percolation on any such graph has a non-empty phase in which there are infinite light clusters, which implies the existence of a non-empty phase in which there are infinitely many infinite clusters. That is, we show that $p_c<p_h \leq p_u$ for any such graph. This answers a question of Haggstrom, Peres, and Schonmann (1999), and verifies the nonunimodular case of a well-known conjecture of Benjamini and Schramm (1996). We also prove that the triangle condition holds at criticality on any such graph, which implies that various critical exponents exist and take their mean-field values. All our results apply, for example, to the product $T_k\times \mathbb{Z}^d$ of a $k$-regular tree with $\mathbb{Z}^d$ for $k\geq 3$ and $d \geq 1$, for which these results were previously known only for large $k$. Furthermore, our methods also enable us to establish the basic topological features of the phase diagram for anisotropic percolation on such products, in which tree edges and $\mathbb{Z}^d$ edges are given different retention probabilities. These features had only previously been established for $d=1$, $k$ large.

math.PR↗
arXiv2020

Non-intersection of transient branching random walks

Let $G$ be a Cayley graph of a nonamenable group with spectral radius $ρ< 1$. It is known that branching random walk on $G$ with offspring distribution $μ$ is transient, i.e., visits the origin at most finitely often almost surely, if and only if the expected number of offspring $\bar μ$ satisfies $\bar μ\leq ρ^{-1}$. Benjamini and Müller (2010) conjectured that throughout the transient supercritical phase $1<\barμ \leq ρ^{-1}$, and in particular at the recurrence threshold $\bar μ= ρ^{-1}$, the trace of the branching random walk is tree-like in the sense that it is infinitely-ended almost surely on the event that the walk survives forever. This is essentially equivalent to the assertion that two independent copies of the branching random walk intersect at most finitely often almost surely. We prove this conjecture, along with several other related conjectures made by the same authors. A central contribution of this work is the introduction of the notion of local unimodularity, which we expect to have several further applications in the future.

math.PR↗
arXiv2019

New critical exponent inequalities for percolation and the random cluster model

We apply a variation on the methods of Duminil-Copin, Raoufi, and Tassion to establish a new differential inequality applying to both Bernoulli percolation and the Fortuin-Kasteleyn random cluster model. This differential inequality has a similar form to that derived for Bernoulli percolation by Menshikov but with the important difference that it describes the distribution of the volume of a cluster rather than of its radius. We apply this differential inequality to prove the following: The critical exponent inequalities $γ\leq δ-1$ and $Δ\leq γ+1$ hold for percolation and the random cluster model on any transitive graph. These inequalities are new even in the context of Bernoulli percolation on $\mathbb{Z}^d$, and are saturated in mean-field for Bernoulli percolation and for the random cluster model with $q \in [1,2)$. The volume of a cluster has an exponential tail in the entire subcritical phase of the random cluster model on any transitive graph. This proof also applies to infinite-range models, where the result is new even in the Euclidean setting.

math.PR↗
arXiv2019

No percolation at criticality on certain groups of intermediate growth

We prove that critical percolation has no infinite clusters almost surely on any unimodular quasi-transitive graph satisfying a return probability upper bound of the form $p_n(v,v) \leq \exp\left[-Ω(n^γ)\right]$ for some $γ>1/2$. The result is new in the case that the graph is of intermediate volume growth.

math.PR↗
arXiv2019

Locality of the critical probability for transitive graphs of exponential growth

Around 2008, Schramm conjectured that the critical probabilities for Bernoulli bond percolation satisfy the following continuity property: If $(G_n)_{n\geq 1}$ is a sequence of transitive graphs converging locally to a transitive graph $G$ and $\limsup_{n\to\infty} p_c(G_n) < 1$, then $ p_c(G_n)\to p_c(G)$ as $n\to\infty$. We verify this conjecture under the additional hypothesis that there is a uniform exponential lower bound on the volume growth of the graphs in question. The result is new even in the case that the sequence of graphs is uniformly nonamenable. In the unimodular case, this result is obtained as a corollary to the following theorem of independent interest: For every $g>1$ and $M<\infty$, there exist positive constants $C=C(g,M)$ and $δ=δ(g,M)$ such that if $G$ is a transitive unimodular graph with degree at most $M$ and growth $\operatorname{gr}(G) := \inf_{r\geq 1} |B(o,r)|^{1/r}\geq g$, then \[ \mathbf{P}_{p_c} \bigl(|K_o|\geq n\bigr) \leq C n^{-δ} \] for every $n\geq 1$, where $K_o$ is the cluster of the root vertex $o$. The proof of this inequality makes use of new universal bounds on the probabilities of certain two-arm events, which hold for every unimodular transitive graph.

math.PR↗
arXiv2019

Universality of high-dimensional spanning forests and sandpiles

We prove that the wired uniform spanning forest exhibits mean-field behaviour on a very large class of graphs, including every transitive graph of at least quintic volume growth and every bounded degree nonamenable graph. Several of our results are new even in the case of $\mathbb{Z}^d$, $d\geq 5$. In particular, we prove that every tree in the forest has spectral dimension $4/3$ and walk dimension $3$ almost surely, and that the critical exponents governing the intrinsic diameter and volume of the past of a vertex in the forest are $1$ and $1/2$ respectively. (The past of a vertex in the uniform spanning forest is the finite component that is disconnected from infinity when that vertex is deleted from the forest.) We obtain as a corollary that the critical exponent governing the extrinsic diameter of the past is $2$ on any transitive graph of at least five dimensional polynomial growth, and is $1$ on any bounded degree nonamenable graph. We deduce that the critical exponents describing the diameter and total number of topplings in an avalanche in the Abelian sandpile model are $2$ and $1/2$ respectively for any transitive graph with polynomial growth of dimension at least five, and are $1$ and $1/2$ respectively for any bounded degree nonamenable graph. In the case of $\mathbb{Z}^d$, $d\geq 5$, some of our results regarding critical exponents recover earlier results of Bhupatiraju, Hanson, and Járai (2017). In this case, we improve upon their results by showing that the tail probabilities in question are described by the appropriate power laws to within constant-order multiplicative errors, rather than the polylogarithmic-order multiplicative errors present in that work.

math.PR↗