Uniqueness and multiplicity of infinite clusters

The Burton--Keane theorem for the almost-sure uniqueness of infinite clusters is a landmark of stochastic geometry. Let $\mu$ be a translation-invariant probability measure with the finite-energy property on the edge-set of a $d$-dimensional lattice. The theorem states that the number $I$ of infinite components satisfies $\mu(I\in\{0,1\})=1$. The proof is an elegant and minimalist combination of zero--one arguments in the presence of amenability. The method may be extended (not without difficulty) to other problems including rigidity and entanglement percolation, as well as to the Gibbs theory of random-cluster measures, and to the central limit theorem for random walks in random reflecting labyrinths. It is a key assumption on the underlying graph that the boundary/volume ratio tends to zero for large boxes, and the picture for non-amenable graphs is quite different.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/074921706000000040 in the IMS Lecture Notes--Monograph Series (http://www.imstat.org/publications/lecnotes.htm) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Branching Processes, and Random-Cluster Measures on Trees

Random-cluster measures on infinite regular trees are studied in conjunction with a general type of `boundary condition', namely an equivalence relation on the set of infinite paths of the tree. The uniqueness and non-uniqueness of random-cluster measures are explored for certain classes of equivalence relations. In proving uniqueness, the following problem concerning branching processes is encountered and answered. Consider bond percolation on the family-tree $T$ of a branching process. What is the probability that every infinite path of $T$, beginning at its root, contains some vertex which is itself the root of an infinite open sub-tree