Explore the connected component of a graph containing a fixed vertex by Breadth-first search. If the exploration discovers at least vertices, then before its th discovery at least of at most tested potential edges must be present. The tests are independent Bernoulli trials with parameter , so
The binomial distribution on the right has mean . For , the exponential Markov bound gives
for an absolute constant . The union bound over the choices of now gives
Taking with makes this probability tend to zero. This proves the subcritical component bound for a binomial random graph.
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Subcritical component bound for a binomial random graph Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
For every fixed , every component of has vertices with high probability. A breadth-first exploration is dominated by a branching process of mean ; its total progeny has an exponentially decreasing tail.