Critical polynomials in the nonplanar and continuum percolation models.

Exact or precise thresholds have been intensively studied since the introduction of the percolation model. Recently, the critical polynomial P_{B}(p,L) was introduced for planar-lattice percolation models, where p is the occupation probability and L is the linear system size. The solution of P_{B}=0 can reproduce all known exact thresholds and leads to unprecedented estimates for thresholds of unsolved planar-lattice models. In two dimensions, assuming the universality of P_{B}, we use it to study a nonplanar lattice model, i.e., the equivalent-neighbor lattice bond percolation, and the continuum percolation of identical penetrable disks, by Monte Carlo simulations and finite-size scaling analysis. It is found that, in comparison with other quantities, P_{B} suffers much less from finite-size corrections. As a result, we obtain a series of high-precision thresholds p_{c}(z) as a function of coordination number z for equivalent-neighbor percolation with z up to O(10^{5}) and clearly confirm the asymptotic behavior zp_{c}-1∼1/sqrt[z] for z→∞. For the continuum percolation model, we surprisingly observe that the finite-size correction in P_{B} is unobservable within uncertainty O(10^{-5}) as long as L≥3. The estimated threshold number density of disks is ρ_{c}=1.43632505(10), slightly below the most recent result ρ_{c}=1.43632545(8) of Mertens and Moore obtained by other means. Our work suggests that the critical polynomial method can be a powerful tool for studying nonplanar and continuum systems in statistical mechanics.