Mark Kac Seminar 2009-2010

October 2, 2009

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Location: Utrecht, Achter de Dom 22, room 001

11:15-13:00

speaker: Artem Sapozhnikov (EURANDOM)

title: Invasion percolation ponds grow exponentially fast in 2D


abstract: 

 

Let G=(V,E) be an infinite connected graph in which a distinguished vertex, the origin, is chosen. The edges of G are assigned independent uniform random variables on [0,1], called weights. The invasion percolation cluster of the origin on G is defined as the limit of an increasing sequence (G_n) of connected sub-graphs of G as follows. Define G_0 to be the origin. Given G_n = (V_n,E_n), edge set E_{n+1} is obtained from E_n by adding to it the edge from the boundary of G_n with the smallest weight. Let G_{n+1} be the graph induced by the edge set E_{n+1}.

The first outlet is the invaded edge of largest weight. This edge exists for the invasion on the graphs that we consider in this talk. For k>1, the kth outlet is defined as the edge invaded after the (k-1)st outlet of largest weight. The graph induced by the edges invaded between the (k-1)st and the kth outlets is called the kth pond. The ponds are finite connected sub-graphs of G, and the invasion percolation cluster can be viewed as a chain of ponds separated by the outlets.

In this talk, we consider invasion percolation on two-dimensional lattices.
We give some basic relations between invasion percolation and critical Bernoulli percolation. We use these relations to prove almost sure upper and lower bounds on the number of outlets within distance n from the origin. We use these bounds to show that, almost surely, (a) the ponds grow exponentially fast and (b) the weights of the outlets decay exponentially fast to the percolation threshold.

(Joint work with Michael Damron.)
 

14:15-16:00

speaker: Wouter Kager (VU Amsterdam)

title: Diamond Aggregation


abstract:

Consider the following growth model on Z^2. Initially, only the origin is occupied and all other sites are vacant. The cluster of occupied sites is repeatedly expanded by starting a random walk in the origin and occupying the first vacant site it visits. This model was originally studied in the case where the random walk is simple random walk on the integer lattice. Here we base the model on a wide class of random walks enjoying a uniform layering property on the lattice, which simplifies many of the proofs.

In the first part of the seminar, we will see that for any uniformly layered walk, the limit shape of the occupied cluster is a diamond. In the second part we will specialize to uniformly layered walks which have a directional bias towards or away from the origin. We will study how the order of the fluctuations of the occupied cluster around its limit shape depends on the directional bias, and conjecture that an abrupt change takes place as the directional bias tends from outward to inward.
 

 

Mark Kac Seminar 2009-2010

 

last updated: 22 sep 2009 by Markus