Non-amenable products are not treeable

Abstract

Let X and Y be infinite graphs, such that the automorphism group of X is nonamenable, and the automorphism group of Y has an infinite orbit. We prove that there is no automorphism-invariant measure on the set of spanning trees in the direct product X times Y. This implies that the minimal spanning forest corresponding to i.i.d. edge-weights in such a product, has infinitely many connected components almost surely.