On giant components and treewidth in the layers model

Abstract: Given an undirected $n$-vertex graph $G(V,E)$ and an integer $k$, let $T_k(G)$ denote the random vertex induced subgraph of $G$ generated by ordering $V$ according to a random permutation $\pi$ and including in $T_k(G)$ those vertices with at most $k-1$ of their neighbors preceding them in this order. The distribution of subgraphs sampled in this manner is called the \emph{layers model with parameter} $k$. The layers model has found applications in studying $\ell$-degenerate subgraphs, the design of algorithms for the maximum independent set problem, and in bootstrap percolation. In the current work we expand the study of structural properties of the layers model. We prove that there are $3$-regular graphs $G$ for which with high probability $T_3(G)$ has a connected component of size $\Omega(n)$. Moreover, this connected component has treewidth $\Omega(n)$. This lower bound on the treewidth extends to many other random graph models. In contrast, $T_2(G)$ is known to be a forest (hence of treewidth~1), and we establish that if $G$ is of bounded degree then with high probability the largest connected component in $T_2(G)$ is of size $O(\log n)$. We also consider the infinite two-dimensional grid, for which we prove that the first four layers contain a unique infinite connected component with probability $1$.