Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / iii / Paper 214 / 2 / a

Because $p<p_c={\tilde{p}}_c$, choose a finite set $S\ni 0$ with ${\varphi }_p(S)=\rho <1$. Let $L$ exceed the ${\ell }^{\infty }$-distance from $0$ to every endpoint of an edge in $\partial S$, and putOn the one-arm event to distance $n>L$, take the first oriented boundary edge $(x,y)\in \partial S$ used by an open self-avoiding path. The connection $0\stackrel{S}{\leftarrow }x$, the open edge $(x,y)$, and the remaining connection from $y$ to $\partial B(n)$ occur disjointly. The van den Berg-Kesten inequality and translation invariance therefore giveIteration yields $q_n\le {\rho }^{\lfloor n/L\rfloor }$ up to an inessential finite-scale adjustment. Since $p<1$, each of the finitely many remaining $q_n$ is strictly below one, so reducing the exponent if necessary produces a constant $c>0$ valid for every $n\ge 1$:This is the finite-size proof of exponential decay of subcritical percolation.