Tricolor percolation and random paths in 3D (Q2637748)

In two dimensions, percolation on the faces of the hexagonal lattice has been thoroughly studied. In three dimensions, the same type of percolation is studied for the regular tesselation by truncated octahedra where each cell has six square and eight hexagonal faces and is independently colored by one of three colors according to a probability vector \(p\). A tricolor edge is defined to be an edge incident to one cell of each color, and finite loops or infinite paths of tricolor edges can be considered. The authors manage to prove that the probability simplex is divided into a compact phase in which the length of the tricolor loop passing through a fixed edge is a.s. finite and an extended phase where there exists a tricolor path with arbitrary length in some sense. A list of natural open problems is then discussed. The results of previous Monte Carlo simulations are recalled.