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Let $\mathcal{T}$ be the set of three-vertex subsets and let $I_A$ indicate that $A$ forms a triangle. ThenIn particular $p\sim (6\alpha {)}^{1/3}/n$. We will use the Stein-Chen method with edge-sharing dependency neighborhoods, rather than wrongly treating triangle indicators as mutually independent.

Here is the needed Poisson approximation with dependency neighborhoods, together with its proof. For indicators $I_A$ with means $p_A$, let $B_A$ contain $A$ and suppose $I_A$ is independent of the entire family of indicators outside $B_A$. With $\mu ={\sum }_A{p}_A$ and $W={\sum }_A{I}_A$, defineThe total variation distance convention is $d_{TV}(P,Q)={\sup }_E|P(E)-Q(E)|$. We claimFor an indicator test function $g$ on the nonnegative integers, solve the Poisson Stein equationwith $\Vert \Delta f{\Vert }_{\infty }\le 1$. This elementary Stein factor can be proved as follows. Take the immigration--death process with immigration rate $\mu$ and per-particle death rate one. Starting at $k$, its time-$t$ distribution iswith independent summands. Its stationary law is that of $Z$. Coupling the initial particles with a stationary Poisson initial population makes the centered expectations decay at least as a constant times $(k+\mu )e^{-t}$, sois finite. Its generator equation is $\mu (u(k+1)-u(k))+k(u(k-1)-u(k))=g(k)-\mathbb{E}g(Z)$, obtained by integrating the semigroup derivative. Set $f(k)=u(k)-u(k-1)$ for $k\ge 1$; choose $f(0)=f(1)$, which does not affect the equation. To bound $\Delta f(k)$, couple the processes starting at $k-1,k,k+1$ by adding two independent initial particles. Both survive to time $t$ with probability $e^{-2t}$, and otherwise their second difference cancels in expectation. Since $|g(j+2)-2g(j+1)+g(j)|\le 2$,This proves the Stein factor for $k\ge 1$, and the chosen $f(0)$ handles $k=0$.

Put $W_A=W-{\sum }_{C\in B_A}{I}_C$. Independence gives $\mathbb{E}[I_{A}f(W_A+1)]=p_A\mathbb{E}f(W_A+1)$. Inserting this identity into the Stein equation yieldsThe first sum in absolute value is at most $b_1$, since the two arguments differ by ${\sum }_{C\in B_A}{I}_C$. In the second sum, on $I_A=1$ the arguments differ by ${\sum }_{C\in B_A\setminus \{A\}}{I}_C$, giving bound $b_2$. Taking the supremum over event indicators $g$ proves the claimed total variation distance bound.

For triangle $A$, choose $B_A$ to consist of $A$ itself and all triangles sharing an edge with $A$. There are exactly $1+3(n-3)$ such triangles. Every outside triangle uses none of the three edges of $A$, even if it shares one vertex, so $I_A$ is independent of their entire indicator family. For distinct neighboring triangles, their union has five edges and $\mathbb{E}(I_A{I}_C)=p^5$. ThereforeThe Stein-Chen method gives $d_{TV}(\mathcal{L}(X),\mathrm{Poisson}({\mu }_n))\to 0$. Coupling Poisson distributions of two means by adding an independent Poisson variable givesThis proves the Poisson limit for triangles in a binomial random graph:Applying the same bound to the event $\{1,2,\dots \}$ givesFor finite $n$ this is an approximation, not an exact formula: the error from $1-e^{-{\mu }_n}$ is at most $b_1+b_2$, and the error from $1-e^{-\alpha }$ is at most $b_1+b_2+|{\mu }_n-\alpha |$.

If $np\to 0$, the triangle count in a binomial random graph has expectation at most $(np{)}^3/6\to 0$, so the Markov inequality shows there are no triangles in a graph with probability tending to one. If $np\to \infty$, the triangle variance in a binomial random graph divided by the squared mean is $O((np{)}^{-3})+O((n^{2}p{)}^{-1})\to 0$. The second moment method then gives at least one triangle in a graph with probability tending to one. At the intermediate scale $np\to c\in (0,\infty )$, a nontrivial Poisson limit for triangles in a binomial random graph describes the count.