Duality in inhomogeneous random graphs, and the cut metric

The classical random graph model $G(n,\lambda \mathrm{/}n)$ satisfies a `duality principle’, in that removing the giant component from a supercritical instance of the model leaves (essentially) a subcritical instance. Such principles have been proved for various models; they are useful since it is often much easier to study the subcritical model than to directly study small components in the supercritical model. Here we prove a duality principle of this type for a very general class of random graphs with independence between the edges, defined by convergence of the matrices of edge probabilities in the cut metric.