THEORY OF CONTINUUM PERCOLATION .1. GENERAL FORMALISM

The theoretical basis of continuum percolation has changed greatly sin ce its beginning as little more than an analog with lattice systems. N evertheless, there is yet no comprehensive theory of this field, A bas is for such a theory is provided hen with the introduction of the Pott s fluid, a system of interacting s-state spins which are free to move in the continuum. In the s-->1 limit, the Potts magnetization, suscept ibility, and correlation functions are directly related to the percola tion probability, the mean cluster size, and the pair connectedness, r espectively. Through the Hamiltonian formulation of the Potts fluid st andard methods of statistical mechanics can therefore be used in the c ontinuum percolation problem.