English

A short proof of the Harris-Kesten Theorem

Probability 2007-05-23 v3 Combinatorics

Abstract

We give a short proof of the fundamental result that the critical probability for bond percolation in the planar square lattice is equal to 1/2. The lower bound was proved by Harris, who showed in 1960 that percolation does not occur at p=1/2p=1/2. The other, more difficult, bound was proved by Kesten, who showed in 1980 that percolation does occur for any p>1/2p>1/2.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0410359,
  title  = {A short proof of the Harris-Kesten Theorem},
  author = {Bela Bollobas and Oliver Riordan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0410359},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

17 pages, 9 figures; typos corrected. To appear in the Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society