Let $G=(V,E)$ be a countable graph. The Bunkbed graph of $G$ is the product graph $G \times K_2$, which has vertex set $V\times \{0,1\}$ with “horizontal” edges inherited from $G$ and additional “vertical” edges connecting $(w,0)$ and $(w,1)$ for each $w \in V$. Kasteleyn’s Bunkbed conjecture states that for each $u,v \in V$ and $p\in [0,1]$, the vertex $(u,0)$ is at least as likely to be connected to $(v,0)$ as to $(v,1)$ under Bernoulli-$p$ bond percolation on the bunkbed graph. We prove that the conjecture holds in the $p \uparrow 1$ limit in the sense that for each finite graph $G$ there exists $\varepsilon (G)\gt 0$ such that the bunkbed conjecture holds for $p \geqslant 1-\varepsilon (G)$.

An old conjecture of Erdős and McKay states that if all homogeneous sets in an $n$-vertex graph are of order $O(\!\log n)$ then the graph contains induced subgraphs of each size from $\{0,1,\ldots, \Omega \big(n^2\big)\}$. We prove a bipartite analogue of the conjecture: if all balanced homogeneous sets in an $n \times n$ bipartite graph are of order $O(\!\log n)$, then the graph contains induced subgraphs of each size from $\{0,1,\ldots, \Omega \big(n^2\big)\}$.

Given a graphon $W$ and a finite simple graph $H$, with vertex set $V(H)$, denote by $X_n(H, W)$ the number of copies of $H$ in a $W$-random graph on $n$ vertices. The asymptotic distribution of $X_n(H, W)$ was recently obtained by Hladký, Pelekis, and Šileikis [17] in the case where $H$ is a clique. In this paper, we extend this result to any fixed graph $H$. Towards this we introduce a notion of $H$-regularity of graphons and show that if the graphon $W$ is not $H$-regular, then $X_n(H, W)$ has Gaussian fluctuations with scaling $n^{|V(H)|-\frac{1}{2}}$. On the other hand, if $W$ is $H$-regular, then the fluctuations are of order $n^{|V(H)|-1}$ and the limiting distribution of $X_n(H, W)$ can have both Gaussian and non-Gaussian components, where the non-Gaussian component is a (possibly) infinite weighted sum of centred chi-squared random variables with the weights determined by the spectral properties of a graphon derived from $W$. Our proofs use the asymptotic theory of generalised $U$-statistics developed by Janson and Nowicki [22]. We also investigate the structure of $H$-regular graphons for which either the Gaussian or the non-Gaussian component of the limiting distribution (but not both) is degenerate. Interestingly, there are also $H$-regular graphons $W$ for which both the Gaussian or the non-Gaussian components are degenerate, that is, $X_n(H, W)$ has a degenerate limit even under the scaling $n^{|V(H)|-1}$. We give an example of this degeneracy with $H=K_{1, 3}$ (the 3-star) and also establish non-degeneracy in a few examples. This naturally leads to interesting open questions on higher order degeneracies.