Abstract. We investigate the large N behavior of the time the simple random walk on the discrete cylinder (Z Z/NZ Z) d × Z Z needs to disconnect the discrete cylinder. We show that when d ≥ 2, this time is roughly of order N 2d and comparable to the cover time of the slice (Z Z/NZ Z) d × {0}, but substantially larger than the cover timer of the base by the projection of the walk.
IntroductionConsider simple random walk on an infinite discrete cylinder having a base modeled on a d-dimensional discrete torus of side length N . In this note we investigate the following question of H.J. Hilhorst: what is the asymptotic behavior for large N of the time needed by the walk to disconnect the cylinder? When d = 1, it is straightforward to argue that this time is roughly of order N 2 and comparable to the time for the projection of the process to cover the base. We show here that things behave differently when d ≥ 2, and that in a suitable sense a massive clogging occurs inside the cylinder by the time the disconnection happens.Before discussing our results any further, we describe the model more precisely. For integer N ≥ 1, we consider the state spacethat we tacitly endow with its natural graph structure. We say that a finite subsetare contained in two distinct connected components of E\S. We denote with P x , x ∈ E, the canonical law on E l N of the simple random walk on E starting at x, and with (X n ) n≥0 the canonical process. We are principally interested in the disconnection time of E:(0.2)Under P x , x ∈ E, the Markov chain X . is irreducible, recurrent, and it is plain that T N < ∞, P x -a.s., for all x ∈ E . (0.3)A. Dembo: