Percolation and best-choice problem for powers of paths.

The vertices of the kth power of a directed path with n vertices are exposed one by one to a selector in some random order. At any time the selector can see the graph induced by the vertices that have already appeared. The selector's aim is to choose online the maximal vertex (i.e. the vertex with no outgoing edges). We give upper and lower bounds for the asymptotic behaviour of pn, k(n)1/(k+1), where p(n,k) is the probability of success under the optimal algorithm. In order to derive the upper bound, we consider a model in which the selector obtains some extra information about the edges that have already appeared. We give the exact asymptotics of the probability of success under the optimal algorithm in this case. In order to derive the lower bound, we analyse a site percolation process on a sequence of the kth powers of a directed path with n vertices.