Partially motivated by the desire to better understand the connectivity phase transition in fractal percolation, we introduce and study a class of continuum fractal percolation models in dimension d greater than or equal to 2. These include a scale invariant version of the classical (Poisson) Boolean model of stochastic geometry and (for d=2) the Brownian loop soup introduced by Lawler and Werner. The models lead to random fractal sets whose connectivity properties depend on a parameter lambda. In this paper we mainly study the transition between a phase where the random fractal sets are totally disconnected and a phase where they contain connected components larger than one point. In particular, we show that there are connected components larger than one point at the unique value of lambda that separates the two phases (called the critical point). We prove that such a behavior occurs also in Mandelbrot's fractal percolation in all dimensions d greater than or equal to 2. Our results show that it is a generic feature, independent of the dimension or the precise definition of the model, and is essentially a consequence of scale invariance alone. Furthermore, for d=2 we prove that the presence of connected components larger than one point implies the presence of a unique, unbounded, connected component.
We consider two variations on the Mandelbrot fractal percolation model. In the k-fractal percolation model, the d-dimensional unit cube is divided in N^d equal subcubes, k of which are retained while the others are discarded. The procedure is then iterated inside the retained cubes at all smaller scales. We show that the (properly rescaled) percolation critical value of this model converges to the critical value of ordinary site percolation on a particular d-dimensional lattice as N tends to infinity. This is analogous to the result of Falconer and Grimmett that the critical value for Mandelbr…
We show that fractal (or "Mandelbrot") percolation in two dimensions produces a set containing no directed paths, when the set produced has zero area. This improves a similar result by the first author in the case of constant retention probabilities to the case of retention probabilities approaching 1.
We study the porosity properties of fractal percolation sets $E\subset\mathbb{R}^d$. Among other things, for all $0<\varepsilon<\tfrac12$, we obtain dimension bounds for the set of exceptional points where the upper porosity of $E$ is less than $\tfrac12-\varepsilon$, or the lower porosity is larger than $\varepsilon$. Our method works also for inhomogeneous fractal percolation and more general random sets whose offspring distribution gives rise to a Galton-Watson process.
There are various notions of dimension in fractal geometry to characterise (random and non-random) subsets of $\mathbb R^d$. In this expository text, we discuss their analogues for infinite subsets of $\mathbb Z^d$ and, more generally, for infinite graphs. We then apply these notions to critical percolation clusters, where the various dimensions have different values.
We relate various concepts of fractal dimension of the limiting set C in fractal percolation to the dimensions of the set consisting of connected components larger than one point and its complement in C (the "dust"). In two dimensions, we also show that the set consisting of connected components larger than one point is a.s. the union of non-trivial Hölder continuous curves, all with the same exponent. Finally, we give a short proof of the fact that in two dimensions, any curve in the limiting set must have Hausdorff dimension strictly larger than 1.
A well studied family of random fractals called fractal percolation is discussed. We focus on the projections of fractal percolation on the plane. Our goal is to present stronger versions of the classical Marstrand theorem, valid for almost every realization of fractal percolation. The extensions go in three directions: {itemize} the statements work for all directions, not almost all, the statements are true for more general projections, for example radial projections onto a circle, in the case $\dim_H >1$, each projection has not only positive Lebesgue measure but also has nonempty interior. …
We show that there exists $0<α_0<1$ (depending on the parameters) such that the fractal percolation is almost surely purely $α$-unrectifiable for all $α>α_0$.
Fractal percolation has been introduced by Mandelbrot in 1974. We study the two-dimensional case, with integer subdivision index M and survival probability p. It is well known that there exists a non-trivial critical value p_c(M) such that a.s. the largest connected component in the limiting set K is a point for p<p_c(M) and with positive probability there is a connected component intersecting opposite sides of the unit square for p\geq p_c(M). For all M\geq 2, the value of p_c(M) is unknown. In this paper we present ideas to find lower and upper bounds, significantly sharper than those alread…
In this paper we study the radial and orthogonal projections and the distance sets of the random Cantor sets $E\subset \mathbb{R}^2 $ which are called Mandelbrot percolation or percolation fractals. We prove that the following assertion holds almost surely: if the Hausdorff dimension of $E$ is greater than 1 then the orthogonal projection to \textbf{every} line, the radial projection with \textbf{every} center, and distance set from \textbf{every} point contain intervals.
We study dimensional properties of visible parts of fractal percolation in the plane. Provided that the dimension of the fractal percolation is at least 1, we show that, conditioned on non-extinction, almost surely all visible parts from lines are 1-dimensional. Furthermore, almost all of them have positive and finite Hausdorff measure. We also verify analogous results for visible parts from points. These results are motivated by an open problem on the dimensions of visible parts.
We consider a semi-scale invariant version of the Poisson cylinder model which in a natural way induces a random fractal set. We show that this random fractal exhibits an existence phase transition for any dimension $d\geq 2,$ and a connectivity phase transition whenever $d\geq 4.$ We determine the exact value of the critical point of the existence phase transition, and we show that the fractal set is almost surely empty at this critical point. A key ingredient when analysing the connectivity phase transition is to consider a restriction of the full process onto a subspace. We show that this r…
\emph{Fractal percolation} or \emph{Mandelbrot percolation} is one of the most well studied families of random fractals. In this paper we study some of the geometric measure theoretical properties (dimension of projections and structure of slices) of these random sets. Although random, the geometry of those sets is quite regular. Our results imply that, denoting by $E\subset \mathbb{R}^2$ a typical realization of the fractal percolation on the plane, {itemize} If $\dim_{\rm H}E<1$ then for \textbf{all}lines $\ell$ the orthogonal projection $E_\ell$ of $E$ to $\ell$ has the same Hausdorff dimen…
For a measure mu supported on a compact connected subset of a Euclidean space which satisfies a uniform d-dimensional decay of the volume of balls we show that the maximal edge in the minimum spanning tree of n indepndent samples from mu is, with high probability (log n/n)^(1/d).
Given two independent Poisson point processes $Φ^{(1)},Φ^{(2)}$ in $R^d$, the continuum AB percolation model is the graph with points of $Φ^{(1)}$ as vertices and with edges between any pair of points for which the intersection of balls of radius $2r$ centred at these points contains at least one point of $Φ^{(2)}$. This is a generalization of the $AB$ percolation model on discrete lattices. We show the existence of percolation for all $d > 1$ and derive bounds for a critical intensity. We also provide a characterization for this critical intensity when $d = 2$. To study the connectivity probl…
Let F1 and F2 be independent copies of correlated fractal percolation, with Hausdorff dimensions dimH(F1) and dimH(F2). Consider the following question: does dimH(F1)+dimH(F2)>1 imply that their algebraic difference F1-F2 will contain an interval? The well known Palis conjecture states that `generically' this should be true. Recent work by Kuijvenhoven and the first author (arXiv:0811.0525) on random Cantor sets can not answer this question as their condition on the joint survival distributions of the generating process is not satisfied by correlated fractal percolation. We develop a new condi…
We consider fractal percolation (or Mandelbrot percolation) which is one of the most well studied example of random Cantor sets. Rams and the first author studied the projections (orthogonal, radial and co-radial) of fractal percolation sets on the plane. We extend their results to higher dimension.
We introduce a technique that uses projection properties of fractal percolation to establish dimension conservation results for sections of deterministic self-similar sets. For example, let $K$ be a self-similar subset of $\mathbb{R}^2$ with Hausdorff dimension $\dim_H K >1$ such that the rotational components of the underlying similarities generate the full rotation group. Then for all $ε>0$, writing $π_θ$ for projection onto the line $L_θ$ in direction $θ$, the Hausdorff dimensions of the sections satisfy $\dim_H (K\cap π_θ^{-1}x)> \dim_H K - 1 - ε$ for a set of $x \in L_θ$ of positive Lebes…
We study the size properties of a general model of fractal sets that are based on a tree-indexed family of random compacts and a tree-indexed Markov chain. These fractals may be regarded as a generalization of those resulting from the Moran-like deterministic or random recursive constructions considered by various authors. Among other applications, we consider various extensions of Mandelbrot's fractal percolation process.
Consider an anisotropic independent bond percolation model on the $d$-dimensional hypercubic lattice, $d\geq 2$, with parameter $p$. We show that the two point connectivity function $P_{p}(\{(0,\dots,0)\leftrightarrow (n,0,\dots,0)\})$ is a monotone function in $n$ when the parameter $p$ is close enough to 0. Analogously, we show that truncated connectivity function $P_{p}(\{(0,\dots,0)\leftrightarrow (n,0,\dots,0), (0,\dots,0)\nleftrightarrow\infty\})$ is also a monotone function in $n$ when $p$ is close to 1.
We study the effect of positive correlations on the critical threshold of site and bond percolation in a square lattice with d = 2. We propose two algorithms for generating dependent lattices with minimal correlation length and non-negative n-point correlations whose critical behavior is then compared with that of independent lattices. For site percolation, we show numerically that the introduction of this specific form of positive correlation results in a lower percolation threshold, i.e., higher connectivity. For bond percolation, the opposite is observed. In this case, however, we show that…
The fractal dimension of minimal spanning trees on percolation clusters is estimated for dimensions $d$ up to $d=5$. A robust analysis technique is developed for correlated data, as seen in such trees. This should be a robust method suitable for analyzing a wide array of randomly generated fractal structures. The trees analyzed using these techniques are built using a combination of Prim's and Kruskal's algorithms for finding minimal spanning trees. This combination reduces memory usage and allows for simulation of larger systems than would otherwise be possible. The path length fractal dimens…
We study Mandelbrot's percolation process in dimension $d \geq 2$. The process generates random fractal sets by an iterative procedure which starts by dividing the unit cube $[0,1]^d$ in $N^d$ subcubes, and independently retaining or discarding each subcube with probability $p$ or $1-p$ respectively. This step is then repeated within the retained subcubes at all scales. As $p$ is varied, there is a percolation phase transition in terms of paths for all $d \geq 2$, and in terms of $(d-1)$-dimensional "sheets" for all $d \geq 3$. For any $d \geq 2$, we consider the random fractal set produced at…
In this short note we consider mixed short-long range independent bond percolation models on $\Z^{k+d}$. Let $p_{uv}$ be the probability that the edge $(u,v)$ will be open. Allowing a $x,y$-dependent length scale and using a multi-scale analysis due to Aizenman and Newman, we show that the long distance behavior of the connectivity $τ_{xy}$ is governed by the probability $p_{xy}$. The result holds up to the critical point.
In this article we setup a dynamic device-to-device communication system where devices, given as a Poisson point process, move in an environment, given by a street system of random planar-tessellation type, via a random-waypoint model. Every device independently picks a target location on the street system using a general waypoint kernel, and travels to the target along the shortest path on the streets with an individual velocity. Then, any pair of devices becomes connected whenever they are on the same street in sufficiently close proximity, for a sufficiently long time. After presenting some…
We study the behavior of algebraic connectivity in a weighted graph that is subject to site percolation, random deletion of the vertices. Using a refined concentration inequality for random matrices we show in our main theorem that the (augmented) Laplacian of the percolated graph concentrates around its expectation. This concentration bound then provides a lower bound on the algebraic connectivity of the percolated graph. As a special case for $(n,d,λ)$-graphs (i.e., $d$-regular graphs on $n$ vertices with non-trivial eigenvalues less than $λ$ in magnitude) our result shows that, with high pr…
In the previous article (S. Matsutani and Y. Shimosako and Y. Wang, Physica A \bf{391} (2012) 5802-5809) we numerically investigated an electric potential problem with high contrast local conductivities ($γ_0$ and $γ_1$, $0<γ_0 \ll γ_1$) for a two-dimensional continuum percolation model (CPM). As numerical results, we showed there that the equipotential curves exhibit the fractal structure around the threshold $p_c$ and gave an approximated curve representing a relation between the homogenized conductivity and the volume fraction $p$ over $[p_c,1]$. In this article, using the duality of the co…
We show that fractal percolation sets in $\mathbb{R}^{d}$ almost surely intersect every hyperplane absolutely winning (HAW) set with full Hausdorff dimension. In particular, if $E\subset\mathbb{R}^{d}$ is a realization of a fractal percolation process, then almost surely (conditioned on $E\neq\emptyset$), for every countable collection $\left(f_{i}\right)_{i\in\mathbb{N}}$ of $C^{1}$ diffeomorphisms of $\mathbb{R}^{d}$, $\dim_{H}\left(E\cap\left(\bigcap_{i\in\mathbb{N}}f_{i}\left(\text{BA}_{d}\right)\right)\right)=\dim_{H}\left(E\right)$, where $\text{BA}_{d}$ is the set of badly approximable …
Loop percolation, also known as the dense O(1) loop model, is a variant of critical bond percolation in the square lattice Z^2 whose graph structure consists of a disjoint union of cycles. We study its connectivity pattern, which is a random noncrossing matching associated with a loop percolation configuration. These connectivity patterns exhibit a striking rationality property whereby probabilities of naturally-occurring events are dyadic rational numbers or rational functions of a size parameter n, but the reasons for this are not completely understood. We prove the rationality phenomenon in…
We investigate the problem of disseminating broadcast messages in wireless networks with time-varying links from a percolation-based perspective. Using a model of wireless networks based on random geometric graphs with dynamic on-off links, we show that the delay for disseminating broadcast information exhibits two behavioral regimes, corresponding to the phase transition of the underlying network connectivity. When the dynamic network is in the subcritical phase, ignoring propagation delays, the delay scales linearly with the Euclidean distance between the sender and the receiver. When the dy…
We characterize the existence of certain geometric configurations in the fractal percolation limit set $A$ in terms of the almost sure dimension of $A$. Some examples of the configurations we study are: homothetic copies of finite sets, angles, distances, and volumes of simplices. In the spirit of relative Szemerédi theorems for random discrete sets, we also consider the corresponding problem for sets of positive $ν$-measure, where $ν$ is the natural measure on $A$. In both cases we identify the dimension threshold for each class of configurations. These results are obtained by investigating t…
In high dimensional percolation at parameter $p < p_c$, the one-arm probability $π_p(n)$ is known to decay exponentially on scale $(p_c - p)^{-1/2}$. We show the same statement for the ratio $π_p(n) / π_{p_c}(n)$, establishing a form of a hypothesis of scaling theory. As part of our study, we provide sharp estimates (with matching upper and lower bounds) for several quantities of interest at the critical probability $p_c$. These include the tail behavior of volumes of, and chemical distances within, spanning clusters, along with the scaling of the two-point function at "mesoscopic distance" fr…
We develop a cluster expansion for the probability of full connectivity of high density random networks in confined geometries. In contrast to percolation phenomena at lower densities, boundary effects, which have previously been largely neglected, are not only relevant but dominant. We derive general analytical formulas that show a persistence of universality in a different form to percolation theory, and provide numerical confirmation. We also demonstrate the simplicity of our approach in three simple but instructive examples and discuss the practical benefits of its application to different…