A study of 2-ended graphs via harmonic functions

Abstract: We prove that every recurrent graph $G$ quasi-isometric to $\mathbb{R}$ admits an essentially unique Lipschitz harmonic function $h$. If $G$ is vertex-transitive, then the action of $Aut(G)$ preserves $\partial h$ up to a sign, a fact that we exploit to prove various combinatorial results about $G$. As a consequence, we prove the 2-ended case of the conjecture of Grimmett & Li that the connective constant of a non-degenerate vertex-transitive graph is at least the golden mean. Moreover, answering a question of Watkins from 1990, we construct a cubic, 2-ended, vertex-transitive graph which is not a Cayley graph.