Connectivity properties of Mandelbrot's percolation process (Q1090013): Difference between revisions

In J. Fluid Mech. 62, 331-358 (1974; Zbl 0289.76031) \textit{B. Mandelbrot} introduced a process in \([0,1]^ 2\) which he called ''canonical curdling'' and later used in his book(s) on fractals to generate self-similar random sets with Hausdorff dimension \(D\in (0,2)\). In this paper we will study the connectivity or percolation properties of these sets, proving all of the claims he made in Sect. 23 of: 'The fractal geometry of nature' (1982; Zbl 0504.28001) and a new one that he did not anticipate: There is a probability \(p_ c\in (0,1)\) so that if \(p<p_ c\) then the set is ''dustlike'' i.e., the largest connected component is a point, whereas if \(p\geq p_ c\) (notice the \(=)\) opposing sides are connected with positive probability, and furthermore if we tile the plane with independent copies of the system then there is with probability one a unique unbounded connected component which intersects a positive fraction of the tiles. More succinctly put the system has a first order phase transition.