Critical percolation and A+B --> 2A dynamics

Abstract: We study an interacting particle system in which moving particles activate dormant particles linked by the components of critical bond percolation. Addressing a conjecture from Beckman, Dinan, Durrett, Huo, and Junge for a continuous variant, we prove that the process can reach infinity in finite time i.e., explode. In particular, we prove that explosions occur almost surely on regular trees as well as oriented and unoriented two-dimensional integer lattices with sufficiently many particles per site. The oriented case requires an additional hypothesis about the existence and value of a certain critical exponent. We further prove that the process with one particle per site expands at a superlinear rate on integer lattices of any dimension. Some arguments use connections to critical first passage percolation, including a new result about the existence of an infinite path with finite passage time on the oriented two-dimensional lattice.