Critical window for the vacant set left by random walk on random regular graphs

Abstract: We consider the simple random walk on a random d-regular graph with n vertices, and investigate percolative properties of the set of vertices not visited by the walk until time un, where u > 0 is a fixed positive parameter. It was shown in [arXiv:1012.5117] that this so-called vacant set exhibits a phase transition at u = u*: there is a giant component if u < u* and only small components when u > u*. In this paper we show the existence of a critical window of size n^-1/3 around u*. In this window the size of the largest cluster is of order n^2/3.