Explicit upper bounds on the threshold of one-dimensional long-range percolation

Abstract: We study bond percolation on the one-dimensional lattice in which two sites at distance $r$ are connected with probability $p_r=C/r<sup>{1+σ}$, where $0 < σ< 1$. An infinite cluster exists if $C$ exceeds a critical value $C_c(σ)$, which is not known exactly: the available results are the lower bound of Schulman, $C_c\ge1/[2ζ(1+σ)]$, and numerical estimates. Here we prove explicit upper bounds. We apply a second-moment argument to a family of random monotone paths whose steps have a heavy-tailed (Sibuya) distribution. Two such paths meet only a finite number of times, and their overlap is computed exactly by renewal theory. The result is a closed-form bound, which gives $C_c\leσ+O(σ<sup>2)$ as $σ\to0$ and is below $1$ for $σ&lt; 0.667$. Since the paths are monotone, the bound holds also for oriented percolation, and it determines the oriented threshold asymptotically: $C_c<sup>{\rightarrow}ζ(1+σ)\to1$ as $σ\to0$. A coarse-grained version of the argument, with blocks of sites in place of sites, gives an explicit bound $C_c &lt; 1$ for every $σ&lt; 1$. We compare the bounds with the known numerical values of $C_c$.