Growth dichotomy for unimodular random rooted trees

Abstract

We show that the growth of a unimodular random rooted tree $(T,o)$ of degree bounded by $d$ always exists, assuming its upper growth passes the critical threshold $\sqrt{d-1}$. This complements Timar's work who showed the possible nonexistence of growth below this threshold. The proof goes as follows. By Benjamini-Lyons-Schramm, we can realize $(T,o)$ as the cluster of the root for some invariant percolation on the $d$-regular tree. Then we show that for such a percolation, the limiting exponent with which the lazy random walk returns to the cluster of its starting point always exists. We develop a new method to get this, that we call the 2-3-method, as the usual pointwise ergodic theorems do not seem to work here. We then define and prove the Cohen-Grigorchuk co-growth formula to the invariant percolation setting. This establishes and expresses the growth of the cluster from the limiting exponent, assuming we are above the critical threshold.

20 pages, 4 figure, subset of the previous version of arXiv:2205.06692 which we are splitting into three papers