Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 214 4 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
On a tree, every finite connected induced subgraph is itself a tree, and its only spanning tree contains all its edges. Thus the free uniform spanning forest is deterministic:Suppose for a contradiction that is a transient graph. By part (c), choose whose removal leaves two transient graph components . Let be their effective resistances to infinity measured from their respective endpoints.
In a wired finite exhaustion, the edge of resistance one is in parallel with the route from through to the wired boundary and back through to . The latter route has resistance , converging to . Consequently the limiting wired effective resistance isThe edge-inclusion formula for a uniform spanning tree, the one-edge case of the transfer-current theorem, states that an edge of conductance is present with probability . Passing to the wired limit and using givesBut under the free uniform spanning forest, is present with probability one. This contradicts . Therefore the tree is recurrent. Combined with part (b), this characterizes equality of the free and wired uniform spanning forests on locally finite unweighted trees.