Explosive appearance of cores and bootstrap percolation on lattices

Abstract

Consider the process where the $n$ vertices of a square $2$-dimensional torus appear consecutively in a random order. We show that typically the size of the $3$-core of the corresponding induced unit-distance graph transitions from $0$ to $n-o(n)$ within a single step. Equivalently, by infecting the vertices of the torus in a random order, under two-neighbour bootstrap percolation, the size of the infected set transitions instantaneously from $o(n)$ to $n$. This hitting time result answers a question of Benjamini. We also study the much more challenging and general setting of bootstrap percolation on two-dimensional lattices for a variety of finite-range infection rules. In this case, powerful but fragile bootstrap percolation tools such as the rectangles process and the Aizenman-Lebowitz lemma become unavailable. We develop a new method complementing and replacing these standard techniques, thus allowing us to prove the above hitting time result for a wide family of threshold bootstrap percolation rules on the $2$-dimensional square lattice, including neighbourhoods given by large $\ell^p$ balls for $p\in[1,\infty]$.