Liggett, Thomas M. Improved upper bounds for the contact process critical value. (English) Zbl 0832.60093 Ann. Probab. 23, No. 2, 697-723 (1995). The basic one-dimensional contact process is a typical interacting particle system. It exhibits the phase transitions with critical value \(\lambda_c\). The precise value \(\lambda_c\) remains unknown up to now. The best known bounds are \(1.539 < \lambda_c < 2\). The upper bound is due to R. Holley and the author [Ann. Probab. 6, 198-206 (1978; Zbl 0375.60111)]. The original proof is based on a renewal measure. The author develops a new technique. That is, using some perturbations of the measure instead of the original one. This needs a careful design and a lot of computations. In any case, the author is able to produce a new upper bound 1.942 by hand computation. Reviewer: Chen Mu-fa (Beijing) Cited in 12 Documents MSC: 60K35 Interacting random processes; statistical mechanics type models; percolation theory Keywords:contact process; phase transitions; critical value; upper bound Citations:Zbl 0375.60111 PDFBibTeX XMLCite \textit{T. M. Liggett}, Ann. Probab. 23, No. 2, 697--723 (1995; Zbl 0832.60093) Full Text: DOI