Height-weighted local extinction bound for the contact process (${\lambda }_2\ge 1/(2\sqrt{d})$)

Orient a degree-$(d+1)$ regular tree towards one end, and let height $g$ decrease along the unique parent edge and increase along the $d$ child edges. For $w_{\rho }(A)={\sum }_{x\in A}{\rho }^{g(x)}$, suppressing the occupied-target constraint only increases births, so its infinitesimal generator satisfies $L{w}_{\rho }\le [-1+\lambda ({\rho }^{-1}+d\rho )]w_{\rho }$. For $d>1$, choose $\rho =d^{-1/2}$. If $\lambda <1/(2\sqrt{d})$, the expected weight and the infection probability at each fixed site decay exponentially. The expected number of recoveries there equals its expected total occupation time, which is finite. Each infection episode ends almost surely at a recovery, so infinitely late infection is impossible. For $d=1$, take $\rho <1$ sufficiently close to one for each $\lambda <1/2$.