On planar graphs of uniform polynomial growth

Consider an infinite planar graph with uniform polynomial growth of degree d > 2. Many examples of such graphs exhibit similar geometric and spectral properties, and it has been conjectured that this is necessary. We present a family of counterexamples. In particular, we show that for every rational d > 2, there is a planar graph with uniform polynomial growth of degree d on which the random walk is transient, disproving a conjecture of Benjamini (Coarse Geometry and Randomness, Volume 2100 of Lecture Notes in Mathematics. Springer, Cham, 2011). By a well-known theorem of Benjamini and Schramm, such a graph cannot be a unimodular random graph. We also give examples of unimodular random planar graphs of uniform polynomial growth with unexpected properties. For instance, graphs of (almost sure) uniform polynomial growth of every rational degree d > 2 for which the speed exponent of the walk is larger than 1/d, and in which the complements of all balls are connected. This resolves negatively two questions of Benjamini and Papasoglou (Proc Am Math Soc 139(11):4105-4111, 2011).