The Fredrickson-Andersen 2-spin facilitated model on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ (FA-2f) is a paradigmatic interacting particle system with kinetic constraints (KCM) featuring dynamical facilitation, an important mechanism in condensed matter physics. In FA-2f a site may change its state only if at least two of its nearest neighbours are empty. Although the process is reversible w.r.t. a product Bernoulli measure, it is not attractive and features degenerate jump rates and anomalous divergence of characteristic time scales as the density $q$ of empty sites tends to $0$. A natural random variable encoding the above features is $τ_0$, the first time at which the origin becomes empty for the stationary process. Our main result is the sharp threshold \[τ_0=\exp\Big(\frac{d\cdotλ(d,2)+o(1)}{q^{1/(d-1)}}\Big)\quad \text{w.h.p.}\] with $λ(d,2)$ the sharp threshold constant for 2-neighbour bootstrap percolation on $\mathbb{Z}^d$, the monotone deterministic automaton counterpart of FA-2f. This is the first sharp result for a critical KCM and it compares with Holroyd's 2003 result on bootstrap percolation and its subsequent improvements. It also settles various controversies accumulated in the physics literature over the last four decades. Furthermore, our novel techniques enable completing the recent ambitious program on the universality phenomenon for critical KCM and establishing sharp thresholds for other two-dimensional KCM.
We study two kinetically constrained models in a quenched random environment. The first model is a mixed threshold Fredrickson-Andersen model on $\mathbb{Z}^{2}$, where the update threshold is either $1$ or $2$. The second is a mixture of the Fredrickson-Andersen $1$-spin facilitated constraint and the North-East constraint in $\mathbb{Z}^{2}$. We compare three time scales related to these models - the bootstrap percolation time for emptying the origin, the relaxation time of the kinetically constrained model, and the time for emptying the origin of the kinetically constrained model - and unde…
On the rooted $k$-ary tree we consider a 0-1 kinetically constrained spin model in which the occupancy variable at each node is re-sampled with rate one from the Bernoulli(p) measure iff all its children are empty. For this process the following picture was conjectured to hold. As long as $p$ is below the percolation threshold $p_c=1/k$ the process is ergodic with a finite relaxation time while, for $p>p_c$, the process on the infinite tree is no longer ergodic and the relaxation time on a finite regular sub-tree becomes exponentially large in the depth of the tree. At the critical point $p=p_…
Kinetically constrained models (KCM) are reversible interacting particle systems on $\mathbb Z^d$ with continuous time Markov dynamics of Glauber type, which represent a natural stochastic (and non-monotone) counterpart of the family of cellular automata known as $\mathcal U$-bootstrap percolation. KCM also display some of the peculiar features of the so-called "glassy dynamics", and as such they are extensively used in the physics literature to model the liquid-glass transition, a major and longstanding open problem in condensed matter physics. We consider two-dimensional KCM with update rule…
Kinetically constrained models (KCM) are reversible interacting particle systems on $\mathbb Z^d$ with continuous time Markov dynamics of Glauber type, which represent a natural stochastic (and non-monotone) counterpart of the family of cellular automata known as $\mathcal U$-bootstrap percolation. Furthermore, KCM have an interest in their own since they display some of the most striking features of the liquid-glass transition, a major and longstanding open problem in condensed matter physics. A key issue for KCM is to identify the scaling of the characteristic time scales when the equilibriu…
We study a family of Ising perceptron models with $\{0,1\}$-valued activation functions. This includes the classical half-space models, as well as some of the symmetric models considered in recent works. For each of these models we show that the free energy is self-averaging, there is a sharp threshold sequence, and the free energy is universal with respect to the disorder. A prior work of Xu (2019) used very different methods to show a sharp threshold sequence in the half-space Ising perceptron with Bernoulli disorder. Recent works of Perkins--Xu (2021) and Abbe--Li--Sly (2021) determined the…
Bootstrap percolation models have been extensively studied during the two past decades. In this article, we study the following "anisotropic" bootstrap percolation model: the neighborhood of a point (m,n) is the set \[\{(m+2,n),(m+1,n),(m,n+1),(m-1,n),(m-2,n),(m,n-1)\}.\] At time 0, sites are occupied with probability p. At each time step, sites that are occupied remain occupied, while sites that are not occupied become occupied if and only if three of more sites in their neighborhood are occupied. We prove that it exhibits a sharp metastability threshold. This is the first mathematical proof …
In the bootstrap percolation model, sites in an $L$ by $L$ square are initially independently declared active with probability $p$. At each time step, an inactive site becomes active if at least two of its four neighbours are active. We study the behaviour as $p \to 0$ and $L \to \infty$ simultaneously of the probability $I(L,p)$ that the entire square is eventually active. We prove that $I(L,p) \to 1$ if $\liminf p \log L > λ$, and $I(L,p) \to 0$ if $\limsup p \log L < λ$, where $λ= π^2/18$. We prove the same behaviour, with the same threshold $λ$, for the probability $J(L,p)$ that a site is …
This text describes the content of the Takagi lectures given by the author in Kyoto in 2017. The lectures present some aspects of the theory of sharp thresholds for boolean functions and its application to the study of phase transitions in statistical physics.
We determine under which conditions certain natural models of random constraint satisfaction problems have sharp thresholds of satisfiability. These models include graph and hypergraph homomorphism, the $(d,k,t)$-model, and binary constraint satisfaction problems with domain size 3.
We give a characterization of vertex-monotone properties with sharp thresholds in a Poisson random geometric graph or hypergraph. As an application we show that a geometric model of random k-SAT exhibits a sharp threshold for satisfiability.
We determine under which conditions certain natural models of random constraint satisfaction problems have sharp thresholds of satisfiability. These models include graph and hypergraph homomorphism, the $(d,k,t)$-model, and binary constraint satisfaction problems with domain size three.
We prove that the property of containing a $k$-regular subgraph in the random graph model $G(n,p)$ has a sharp threshold for $k\ge3$. We also show how to use similar methods to obtain an easy prove for the (known fact of) sharpness of having a non empty $k$-core for $k\ge3$.
The purpose of this expository note is to give the proof of a theorem of Bourgain with some additional details and updated notation. The theorem first appeared as an appendix to the breakthrough paper by Friedgut, \emph{Sharp Thresholds of graph properties and the $k$-SAT Problem}. Throughout, we use notation and definitions akin to those in O'Donnell's book, \emph{Analysis of Boolean Functions}.
The influence theorem for product measures on the discrete space {0,1}^N may be extended to probability measures with the property of monotonicity (which is equivalent to `strong positive-association'). Corresponding results are valid for probability measures on the cube [0,1]^N that are absolutely continuous with respect to Lebesgue measure. These results lead to a sharp-threshold theorem for measures of random-cluster type, and this may be applied to box-crossings in the two-dimensional random-cluster model.
Random geometric graphs result from taking $n$ uniformly distributed points in the unit cube, $[0,1]^d$, and connecting two points if their Euclidean distance is at most $r$, for some prescribed $r$. We show that monotone properties for this class of graphs have sharp thresholds by reducing the problem to bounding the bottleneck matching on two sets of $n$ points distributed uniformly in $[0,1]^d$. We present upper bounds on the threshold width, and show that our bound is sharp for $d=1$ and at most a sublogarithmic factor away for $d\ge2$. Interestingly, the threshold width is much sharper fo…
The class of critical bootstrap percolation models in two dimensions was recently introduced by Bollobás, Smith and Uzzell, and the critical threshold for percolation was determined up to a constant factor for all such models by the authors of this paper. Here we develop and refine the techniques introduced in that paper in order to determine a sharp threshold for the Duarte model. This resolves a question of Mountford from 1995, and is the first result of its type for a model with drift.
Consider the discrete cube $\{-1,1\}^N$ and a random collection of half spaces which includes each half space $H(x) := \{y \in \{-1,1\}^N: x \cdot y \geq κ\sqrt{N}\}$ for $x \in \{-1,1\}^N$ independently with probability $p$. Is the intersection of these half spaces empty? This is called the Ising perceptron model under Bernoulli disorder. We prove that this event has a sharp threshold; that is, the probability that the intersection is empty increases quickly from $ε$ to $1- ε$ when $p$ increases only by a factor of $1 + o(1)$ as $N \to \infty$.
Many NP-complete constraint satisfaction problems appear to undergo a "phase transition'' from solubility to insolubility when the constraint density passes through a critical threshold. In all such cases it is easy to derive upper bounds on the location of the threshold by showing that above a certain density the first moment (expectation) of the number of solutions tends to zero. We show that in the case of certain symmetric constraints, considering the second moment of the number of solutions yields nearly matching lower bounds for the location of the threshold. Specifically, we prove that …
We study sum-free sets in sparse random subsets of even order abelian groups. In particular, we determine the sharp threshold for the following property: the largest such set is contained in some maximum-size sum-free subset of the group. This theorem extends recent work of Balogh, Morris and Samotij, who resolved the case G = Z_{2n}, and who obtained a weaker threshold (up to a constant factor) in general.
We study the appearance of the giant component in random subgraphs of a given large finite graph G=(V,E) in which each edge is present independently with probability p. We show that if G is an expander with vertices of bounded degree, then for any c in ]0,1[, the property that the random subgraph contains a giant component of size c|V| has a sharp threshold.
For every $k \ge 1$, the $k$th cohomology group $H^k(X, \Q)$ of the random flag complex $X \sim X(n,p)$ passes through two phase transitions: one where it appears, and one where it vanishes. We describe the vanishing threshold and show that it is sharp. Using the same spectral methods, we also find a sharp threshold for the fundamental group $π_1(X)$ to have Kazhdan's property (T). Combining with earlier results, we obtain as a corollary that for every $k \ge 3$ there is a regime in which the random flag complex is rationally homotopy equivalent to a bouquet of $k$-dimensional spheres.
A key fact in the theory of Boolean functions $f : \{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ is that they often undergo sharp thresholds. For example: if the function $f : \{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ is monotone and symmetric under a transitive action with $\E_p[f] = \eps$ and $\E_q[f] = 1-\eps$ then $q-p \to 0$ as $n \to \infty$. Here $\E_p$ denotes the product probability measure on $\{0,1\}^n$ where each coordinate takes the value $1$ independently with probability $p$. The fact that symmetric functions undergo sharp thresholds is important in the study of random graphs and constraint satisfaction problems as well…
A sharp-threshold theorem is proved for box-crossing probabilities on the square lattice. The models in question are the random-cluster model near the self-dual point $p_{\mathrm {sd}}(q)=\sqrt{q}/(1+\sqrt{q})$, the Ising model with external field, and the colored random-cluster model. The principal technique is an extension of the influence theorem for monotonic probability measures applied to increasing events with no assumption of symmetry.
Let $d\geq 3$ be a constant and let $F$ be a $d$-regular graph on $[n]$ with not too many symmetries. By the union bound, the probability threshold for the existence of a spanning subgraph in $G(n,p)$ isomorphic to $F$ is at least $p^*(n)=(1+o(1))(e/n)^{2/d}$. We give a tight bound on the edge expansion of $F$ guaranteeing that the probability threshold for the appearance of a copy of $F$ has the same order of magnitude as $p^*$. We also prove that, within a slight strengthening of this bound, the probability threshold is asymptotically equal to $p^*$. In particular, it proves the conjecture o…
We investigate the Gibbs properties of the fuzzy Potts model on the d-dimensional torus with Kac interaction. We use a variational approach for profiles inspired by that of Fernandez, den Hollander and Martınez for their study of the Gibbs-non-Gibbs transitions of a dynamical Kac-Ising model on the torus. As our main result, we show that the mean-field thresholds dividing Gibbsian from non-Gibbsian behavior are sharp in the fuzzy Kac-Potts model with class size unequal two. On the way to this result we prove a large deviation principle for color profiles with diluted total mass densities and u…
Given a hypergraph $\mathcal{H}$, the $\mathcal{H}$-bootstrap process starts with an initial set of infected vertices of $\mathcal{H}$ and, at each step, a healthy vertex $v$ becomes infected if there exists a hyperedge of $\mathcal{H}$ in which $v$ is the unique healthy vertex. We say that the set of initially infected vertices percolates if every vertex of $\mathcal{H}$ is eventually infected. We show that this process exhibits a sharp threshold when $\mathcal{H}$ is a hypergraph obtained by randomly sampling hyperedges from an approximately $d$-regular $r$-uniform hypergraph satisfying some…
We consider the Erdős-Rényi evolution of random graphs, where a new uniformly distributed edge is added to the graph in every step. For every fixed $d\ge 1$, we show that with high probability, the graph becomes rigid in $\mathbb R^d$ at the very moment its minimum degree becomes $d$, and it becomes globally rigid in $\mathbb R^d$ at the very moment its minimum degree becomes $d+1$.
In r-neighbour bootstrap percolation on a graph G, a (typically random) set A of initially 'infected' vertices spreads by infecting (at each time step) vertices with at least r already-infected neighbours. This process may be viewed as a monotone version of the Glauber dynamics of the Ising model, and has been extensively studied on the d-dimensional grid $[n]^d$. The elements of the set A are usually chosen independently, with some density p, and the main question is to determine $p_c([n]^d,r)$, the density at which percolation (infection of the entire vertex set) becomes likely. In this pape…
Consider a random sequence of $N$ integers, each chosen uniformly and independently from the set $\{1,\dots,x\}$. Motivated by applications to factorisation algorithms such as Dixon's algorithm, the quadratic sieve, and the number field sieve, Pomerance in 1994 posed the following problem: how large should $N$ be so that, with high probability, this sequence contains a subsequence, the product of whose elements is a perfect square? Pomerance determined asymptotically the logarithm of the threshold for this event, and conjectured that it in fact exhibits a sharp threshold in $N$. More recently,…
In this work we consider the two-dimensional percolation model arising from the majority dynamics process at a given time $t\in\mathbb{R}_+$. We show the emergence of a sharp threshold phenomenon for the box crossing event at the critical probability parameter $p_c(t)$ with polynomial size window. We then use this result in order to obtain stretched-exponential bounds on the one-arm event probability in the subcritical phase. Our results are based on differential inequalities derived from the OSSS inequality, inspired by the recent developments by Ahlberg, Broman, Griffiths, and Morris and by …
We show that for each $r\ge 4$, in a density range extending up to, and slightly beyond, the threshold for a $K_r$-factor, the copies of $K_r$ in the random graph $G(n,p)$ are randomly distributed, in the (one-sided) sense that the hypergraph that they form contains a copy of a binomial random hypergraph with almost exactly the right density. Thus Jeff Kahn's recent asymptotically sharp bound for the threshold in Shamir's hypergraph matching problem implies a corresponding bound for the threshold for $G(n,p)$ to contain a $K_r$-factor. The case $r=3$ is more difficult, and has been settled by …
In $K$-means classification, a set of data will form clusters, i.e. classes, if the measured distances between data points (or some common point in each class) are below a certain threshold. With the assumption that the data points are randomly generated throughout some bounded region according to a certain probability distribution, we estimate the mean number of classes to form with high probability.
Recently, the authors showed that the critical probability for random Voronoi percolation in the plane is 1/2. A by-product of the method was a short proof of the Harris-Kesten Theorem concerning bond percolation in the planar square lattice. The aim of this paper is to show that the same techniques can be applied to many other planar percolation models, both to obtain short proofs of known results, and to prove new ones.
Two-dimensional bootstrap percolation is a cellular automaton in which sites become 'infected' by contact with two or more already infected nearest neighbors. We consider these dynamics, which can be interpreted as a monotone version of the Ising model, on an n x n square, with sites initially infected independently with probability p. The critical probability p_c is the smallest p for which the probability that the entire square is eventually infected exceeds 1/2. Holroyd determined the sharp first-order approximation: p_c \sim π^2/(18 log n) as n \to \infty. Here we sharpen this result, prov…
We address the following foundational question: what is the population, and sample, Frechet mean (or median) graph of an ensemble of inhomogeneous Erdos-Renyi random graphs? We prove that if we use the Hamming distance to compute distances between graphs, then the Frechet mean (or median) graph of an ensemble of inhomogeneous random graphs is obtained by thresholding the expected adjacency matrix of the ensemble. We show that the result also holds for the sample mean (or median) when the population expected adjacency matrix is replaced with the sample mean adjacency matrix. Consequently, the F…
A subset A of {0,1,...,n} is said to be a 2-additive basis for {1,2,...,n} if each j in {1,2,...,n} can be written as j=x+y, x,y in A, x<=y. If we pick each integer in {0,1,...,n} independently with probability p=p_n tending to 0, thus getting a random set A, what is the probability that we have obtained a 2-additive basis? We address this question when the target sum-set is [(1-alpha)n,(1+alpha)n] (or equivalently [alpha n, (2-alpha) n]) for some 0<alpha<1. Under either model, the Stein-Chen method of Poisson approximation is used, in conjunction with Janson's inequalities, to tease out a ver…
Bootstrap percolation is a type of cellular automaton on graphs, introduced as a simple model of the dynamics of ferromagnetism. Vertices in a graph can be in one of two states: `healthy' or `infected' and from an initial configuration of states, healthy vertices become infected by local rules. While the usual bootstrap processes are monotone in the sets of infected vertices, in this paper, a modification is examined in which infected vertices can return to a healthy state. Vertices are initially infected independently at random and the central question is whether all vertices eventually becom…
A major question in the study of the Erdős--Rényi random graph is to understand the probability that it contains a given subgraph. This study originated in classical work of Erdős and Rényi (1960). More recent work studies this question both in building a general theory of sharp versus coarse transitions (Friedgut and Bourgain 1999; Hatami, 2012) and in results on the location of the transition (Kahn and Kalai, 2007; Talagrand, 2010; Frankston, Kahn, Narayanan, Park, 2019; Park and Pham, 2022). In inference problems, one often studies the optimal accuracy of inference as a function of the amou…
We study biased Maker-Breaker positional games between two players, one of whom is playing randomly against an opponent with an optimal strategy. In this paper we consider the scenario when Maker plays randomly and Breaker is "clever", and determine the sharp threshold bias of classical graph games, such as connectivity, Hamiltonicity, and minimum degree-$k$. We treat the other case, that is when Breaker plays randomly, in a separate paper. The traditional, deterministic version of these games, with two optimal players playing, are known to obey the so-called probabilistic intuition. That is, …
The goal of this work is to propose a finite population counterpart to Eigen's model, which incorporates stochastic effects. We consider a Moran model describing the evolution of a population of size $m$ of chromosomes of length $\ell$ over an alphabet of cardinality $κ$. The mutation probability per locus is $q$. We deal only with the sharp peak landscape: the replication rate is $σ>1$ for the master sequence and 1 for the other sequences. We study the equilibrium distribution of the process in the regime where $\ell, m\to +\infty$, $q\to 0$, $\ell q \to a$, $m/\ell\toα$. We obtain an equatio…
For two correlated graphs which are independently sub-sampled from a common Erdős-Rényi graph $\mathbf{G}(n, p)$, we wish to recover their \emph{latent} vertex matching from the observation of these two graphs \emph{without labels}. When $p = n^{-α+o(1)}$ for $α\in (0, 1]$, we establish a sharp information-theoretic threshold for whether it is possible to correctly match a positive fraction of vertices. Our result sharpens a constant factor in a recent work by Wu, Xu and Yu.
