Percolation at the uniqueness threshold via subgroup relativization

Abstract: We study percolation on nonamenable groups at the uniqueness threshold $p_u$, the critical value that separates the phase in which there are infinitely many infinite clusters from the phase in which there is a unique infinite cluster. The number of infinite clusters at $p_u$ itself is a subtle question, depending on the choice of group, with only a relatively small number of examples understood. In this paper, we do the following: 1. Prove non-uniqueness at $p_u$ in a new class of examples, namely those groups that contain an amenable, $wq$-normal subgroup of exponential growth. Concrete new examples to which this result applies include lamplighters over nonamenable base groups. 2. Prove a co-heredity property of a certain strong form of non-uniqueness at $p_u$, stating that this property is inherited from a $wq$-normal subgroup to the entire group. Remarkably, this co-heredity property is the same as that proven for the vanishing of the first $\ell^2$ Betti number by Peterson and Thom (Invent. Math. 2011), supporting the conjecture that the two properties are equivalent. Our proof is based on the method of subgroup relativization, and relies in particular on relativized versions of uniqueness monotonicity, the equivalence of non-uniqueness and connectivity decay, the sharpness of the phase transition, and the Burton-Keane theorem. As a further application of the relative Burton-Keane theorem, we resolve a question of Lyons and Schramm (Ann. Probab. 1999) concerning intersections of random walks with percolation clusters.