Identify a configuration with its set of open edges. Let count the connected components of a graph on the full graph vertex set, including isolated graph vertices. The random-cluster measure is
For and finite all its weights are positive. We compare , taking and .
The key fact is supermodularity of graph component count:
To prove it, orient the graph edges arbitrarily and let be the real span of their incidence vectors for edges in . Its dimension of a vector space is : on each connected component of a graph these vectors span the vectors whose coordinates sum to zero. Since and , the dimension formula for a sum of subspaces gives
which is exactly the component-count inequality.
Put and . The preceding inequality gives . In the ratio of the two sides of Holley's condition, the normalization constants and Bernoulli edge factors cancel, because . The ratio is therefore
By the Holley inequality, stochastically dominates . Thus increasing cluster weight suppresses every increasing event:
The random-cluster single-edge conditional probability confirms the mechanism: it is when the endpoints are already connected, and otherwise. Larger favours configurations with more separate components. The condition enters explicitly in the last factor .
The external direct sum of vector spaces consists of pairs with componentwise operations. For subspaces of one ambient space, the sum of vector subspaces is . The addition map from the external direct sum onto this subspace is surjective, with kernel . This kernel is isomorphic to the intersection. The rank-nullity theorem, together with , proves the dimension formula for a sum of subspaces.
For the supplied bases, solving for annihilating linear forms gives
Each basis has rank three, so these hyperplanes are the whole subspaces. The two independent equations make the intersection two-dimensional. Imposing the requested zero components yields
Both satisfy the two equations and are independent, since their first components differ while . Hence they form the required basis.
Let . Choose a basis of the intersection of vector subspaces, extend it to a basis of , and independently extend it to a basis of . The combined list
spans the sum of vector subspaces . It is also linearly independent: a vanishing linear combination says that a combination of the belongs to , and its expression in the chosen basis of forces all its coefficients to vanish; the coefficients of the then vanish in the same way. This proves the dimension formula for a sum of subspaces
Parametrize the two linear subspaces as
Putting a vector of in first forces its fourth coordinate to vanish; the remaining defining equation is then automatic. Thus
and the dimension formula gives .
The linear functional
vanishes on each displayed generator of and . Its kernel is three-dimensional because , so the inclusion between two three-dimensional subspaces is equality.
Row reduction of the matrices whose columns are the displayed spanning vectors gives
Row-reducing the matrix formed from all six columns gives
The dimension formula for a sum of subspaces now yields
For open-edge sets in a fixed finite graph, including isolated graph vertices in , one has . Incidence-vector spans have rank ; their union span is the sum of the two spans, while the intersection-edge span is contained in the intersection of spans. The vector-space dimension formula for a sum of subspaces proves submodularity of , equivalently supermodularity of .