Charles M. Newman 2026-11-05
Charles M. Newman studied critical behavior in percolation with Michael Aizenman. Their tree-diagram inequalities bound multipoint connection probabilities using two-point functions. A diagrammatic convergence criterion gives mean-field behavior for the percolation susceptibility exponent, connecting the geometry of large clusters with quantitative critical scaling.[ref]
Michael Aizenman 2026-11-05
Michael Aizenman coauthored tree-diagram inequalities for percolation with Charles M. Newman. Their work controls multipoint connectivity and gives a condition for the percolation susceptibility exponent to take its mean-field value. The method relates large-scale critical behavior to convergence properties of diagrams built from pairwise connection probabilities.[ref]
The percolation susceptibility exponent describes how the expected finite-cluster size diverges on approaching the percolation critical probability from below. If is the percolation susceptibility and a power law holds, then
Equivalently, . A stronger statement also specifies an amplitude ; existence of either form needs justification for the model in question.
For bond percolation on an infinite -regular tree, , there are vertices at distance from the root and a unique path to each. For ,
Thus and . This solvable geometry explains the simplest divergence, while more complicated lattices need not share its exponent. The tree-graph moment bound for a percolation cluster gives a route to proving the value one under suitable diagrammatic conditions.[ref]