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The proof by Barsky et. al. that there is no percolation in half-spaces proceeds by a dynamic renormalization argument. The proof couples critical percolation in the half-space $\mathbb{H}^d$ with a dependant site percolation model on $\mathbb{Z}^2$ such that if the block sizes in the renormalization are sufficiently large then the dependant percolation on $\mathbb{Z}^2$ is supercritical. Since the block size is still finite, the probability that a block is "good" is a polynomial in $p$ (the edge probability), and a continuity argument can then be used to show that if $\Theta(p_c)>0$ (for $\mathbb{H}^d$) then there is in fact $p < p_c$ for which the dependent percolation on $\mathbb{Z}^2$ is still supercritical, and so the half-space in fact already contained an infinite component at $p$.

While in principle I understand this style of proof, I realized that I don't understand this specific argument well enough to know just what goes wrong if we try to run the same argument on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ rather than $\mathbb{H}^d$. In fact, I don't even understand whether the reason it breaks down essentially technical, or whether there are good reasons to believe that the same line of attack is very unlikely to work for $\mathbb{Z}^d$. (One good reason to have the latter belief is that lots of smart people have thought about the problem without success, but that's not the kind of reason I mean.)

So: Why, and how badly, does the proof of "no percolation in half-spaces" fail for full spaces?

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  • $\begingroup$ Tentatively (I haven't looked at this paper), the restriction in space facilitates Markovianity of the construction, needed when iterating the "finite box with many initially wetted points may replicate itself in each of the (remaining) sides of the box with high probability". The equality of the critical value on Zˆ{d} and Zˆ{d-1} \times \{-M, .. M\}, $M \rightarrow \infty$, can be proved without this (see Grimmett and Marstrand 90). Somewhat related in spirit result is: Duminil-Copin, Sidoravicius, and Tassion. "Absence of infinite cluster for critical Bernoulli percolation on slabs." $\endgroup$
    – Achilleas
    Commented Nov 8, 2016 at 3:49

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