Stabilizability and percolation in the infinite volume sandpile model

Abstract

We study the sandpile model in infinite volume on ℤ^d. In particular, we are interested in the question whether or not initial configurations, chosen according to a stationary measure μ, are μ-almost surely stabilizable. We prove that stabilizability does not depend on the particular procedure of stabilization we adopt. In d=1 and μ a product measure with density ρ=1 (the known critical value for stabilizability in d=1) with a positive density of empty sites, we prove that μ is not stabilizable.

Furthermore, we study, for values of ρ such that μ is stabilizable, percolation of toppled sites. We find that for ρ>0 small enough, there is a subcritical regime where the distribution of a cluster of toppled sites has an exponential tail, as is the case in the subcritical regime for ordinary percolation.