English

Stochastic domination and lifts of random variables in percolation theory

Probability 2026-03-16 v3 Combinatorics

Abstract

Consider some matrix waiting for its coefficients to be written. For each column, sample independently a Bernoulli random variable of some parameter pp. Seeing all this and possibly using extra randomness, Alice then chooses one spot in each column, in any way she wants. When the Bernoulli random variable of some column is equal to 1, the number 1 is written in the chosen spot. When the Bernoulli random variable of a column is 0, nothing is done on this column. We prove that, using extra randomness, it is possible for Bob to fill the empty entries with well chosen 0's and 1's so that the entries of the matrix are independent Bernoulli random variables of parameter pp. We investigate various generalisations and variations of this problem, and use this result to revisit and generalise (nonstrict) monotonicity of the percolation threshold pcp_c with respect to a form of graph-quotienting, namely fibrations. We also use this result to revisit the BK inequality. In a second part, which is independent of the first one, we revisit strict monotonicity of pcp_c with respect to fibrations, a result that naturally requires more assumptions than its nonstrict counterpart. We reprove the bond-percolation case of the result of Martineau--Severo without resorting to essential enhancements, using couplings instead.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.02427,
  title  = {Stochastic domination and lifts of random variables in percolation theory},
  author = {Sébastien Martineau and Rémy Poudevigne and Paul Rax},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.02427},
  year   = {2026}
}