For , a disconnected graph has a component of size . The probability that a fixed -set has no crossing edge is at most . The union bound and bound the failure probability by . Split this sum at . The random k-out graph coupling extends the result to every fixed .
If the random k-out graph with is disconnected, one of its connected components of a graph has size . The lower bound follows because every vertex chooses two distinct neighbours inside its component. For a specified -set , absence of crossing edges requires every choice at a vertex in to stay in , and every choice outside to stay outside. Independence of choices at different vertices gives exactly
For , the two ratios are at most and . Indeed each of the factors , , is at most , and the complementary statement is identical. Put . The binomial coefficient bound follows by bounding the probability of successes in by one. Thus the union bound gives
For , the last summands are at most , whose sum from three tends to zero. For , they are at most , again summing to zero. Therefore
The proof bounds all possible small components rather than assuming the dependent undirected edges behave like a binomial random graph.
At each vertex independently, take a uniformly random permutation of the other vertices. Use its first two entries for the two-out choices and its first entries for the -out choices. Every unordered choice set has the prescribed uniform distribution, and choices at different vertices remain independent. This couples the random k-out graphs so that on the same vertex set. Adding edges cannot destroy graph connectivity. Consequently
This establishes connectivity of random k-out graphs for every fixed allowed .