The Expected Perimeter in Eden and Related Growth Processes

Following Richardson and using results of Kesten on First-passage percolation, we obtain an upper bound on the expected perimeter in an Eden Growth Process. Using results of the author from a problem in Statistical Mechanics, we show that the average perimeter of the lattice animals resulting from a very natural family of "growth histories" does not obey a similar bound.Comment: 11 page

Exact Scaling Functions for Self-Avoiding Loops and Branched Polymers

It is shown that a recently conjectured form for the critical scaling function for planar self-avoiding polygons weighted by their perimeter and area also follows from an exact renormalization group flow into the branched polymer problem, combined with the dimensional reduction arguments of Parisi and Sourlas. The result is generalized to higher-order multicritical points, yielding exact values for all their critical exponents and exact forms for the associated scaling functions.Comment: 5 pages; v2: factors of 2 corrected; v.3: relation with existing theta-point results clarified, some references added/update

Thin Animals

Lattice animals provide a discretized model for the theta transition displayed by branched polymers in solvent. Exact graph enumeration studies have given some indications that the phase diagram of such lattice animals may contain two collapsed phases as well as an extended phase. This has not been confirmed by studies using other means. We use the exact correspondence between the q --> 1 limit of an extended Potts model and lattice animals to investigate the phase diagram of lattice animals on phi-cubed random graphs of arbitrary topology (``thin'' random graphs). We find that only a two phase structure exists -- there is no sign of a second collapsed phase. The random graph model is solved in the thermodynamic limit by saddle point methods. We observe that the ratio of these saddle point equations give precisely the fixed points of the recursion relations that appear in the solution of the model on the Bethe lattice by Henkel and Seno. This explains the equality of non-universal quantities such as the critical lines for the Bethe lattice and random graph ensembles.Comment: Latex, 10 pages plus 6 ps/eps figure

Scaling prediction for self-avoiding polygons revisited

We analyse new exact enumeration data for self-avoiding polygons, counted by perimeter and area on the square, triangular and hexagonal lattices. In extending earlier analyses, we focus on the perimeter moments in the vicinity of the bicritical point. We also consider the shape of the critical curve near the bicritical point, which describes the crossover to the branched polymer phase. Our recently conjectured expression for the scaling function of rooted self-avoiding polygons is further supported. For (unrooted) self-avoiding polygons, the analysis reveals the presence of an additional additive term with a new universal amplitude. We conjecture the exact value of this amplitude.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure

1/d1/d Expansion for kk-Core Percolation

The physics of $k$-core percolation pertains to those systems whose constituents require a minimum number of $k$ connections to each other in order to participate in any clustering phenomenon. Examples of such a phenomenon range from orientational ordering in solid ortho-para ${\rm H}_2$ mixtures to the onset of rigidity in bar-joint networks to dynamical arrest in glass-forming liquids. Unlike ordinary ($k=1$) and biconnected ($k=2$) percolation, the mean field $k\ge3$-core percolation transition is both continuous and discontinuous, i.e. there is a jump in the order parameter accompanied with a diverging length scale. To determine whether or not this hybrid transition survives in finite dimensions, we present a $1/d$ expansion for $k$-core percolation on the $d$-dimensional hypercubic lattice. We show that to order $1/d^3$ the singularity in the order parameter and in the susceptibility occur at the same value of the occupation probability. This result suggests that the unusual hybrid nature of the mean field $k$-core transition survives in high dimensions.Comment: 47 pages, 26 figures, revtex