TITLE: Expected value of the distance square
QUESTION [10 upvotes]: Given two points $X,Y$ on two sides of square $[0,1]\times [0,1]$ ($X:(0,1/2),Y:(1,1/2)$ (PS: My original question is $X,Y$ on opposite of a square, but I think that's not the real case) )and $n$ points distributed uniformly(i.i.d) in the square (where $n$ is large, and $A$ denotes the set of $n$ points), can I caluculate the asymptotic behavior of the value $M(n)$, where $M$ is defined as
$$M(n)=E\left[\min_{B\subset A} \sum_{k=1}^{|B|+1} d(B_k,B_{k-1})^2\right]$$
where $B_k$ is the $k$th element of $B$,$B_0=X,B_{m+1}=Y$(We let $m=|B|$), and the expected value is taken over all the possible $A$ . That is to say, I would like to compute the expected value of the minimal weight defined as sum of the square of distance.
I know that when $n\to\infty,M(n)\to 0$. And in the $1$-dim case, this is easy, since it is only a Poisson process, and the distance between two consecutive points are surely exponential distribution.(Calculation suggests it's about $(n+3)/((n+1)(n+2))$,where $n$ is number of points added) But in the two dimensional case, I got stuck and don't know how to tackle it. This is a problem arouse from the calculation of the cost of a network. Any hint or reference are welcomed, Thanks!
(Some computer experiment suggests that the weight is about $\approx 1.1/\sqrt{n}=O(1/\sqrt{n})$. I also wonder if there are some similar results?)

REPLY [2 votes]: As was mentioned in the comments, the upper bound is easily found by the points along the straight line between X and Y (no matter where they lie on the border). The lower bound is more difficult and to work out all the details would take quite some time, but I'll give the needed ideas and some literature. First I would like to assume, that the number of points is not fixed $n$ but poisson distributed with parameter $n$. That is almost the same as you will have with high probability say between $n/2$ and $2n$ points then, which is enough for the purpose. Now you cover your square with smaller squares of sidelength $\sqrt{1/n}$ and calculate the probability that one of these squares contains no point. The number of points in a small square is poisson distributed with parameter $n \cdot (\sqrt{1/n})^2 = 1$. Hence you have for each of your small squares independently a probability of $e^{-1}$ that there is no point in it. Now there are 2 possible arguments:
We say a small square is black if it contains no points, otherwise we call it white. If there is no white path (i.e. connected set of small white squares) from $X$ to $Y$ then at least one step is larger than than the sidelength of a small square $\sqrt{1/n}$. Hence you obtain a lower bound of $1/n$. This argument may be refined, as you will have to take about $\sqrt{1/n}$ of these larger jumps. 
The general topic you need here is "percolation" and there is a wonderful book about it called "Percolation" from Geoffrey Grimmett. To refine the argument, you will find the tools you need in a paper of Martin called "linear growth for greedy lattice animals". As each path from $X$ to why is a greedy lattice animal of size at least $\sqrt{n}$ and if you chose your sidelength as $\sqrt{1/cn}$ you will for large enough $c$ obtain the result, that any path of lenght $\sqrt{n}$ has to contain at least $c_2 \sqrt{n}$ black cells. Hence your bound will become of order $\sqrt{n}/n$, which is what you wanted.