Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A user equipment (UE) may receive a synchronization signal block (SSB) including a physical layer cell identifier (PCI), where one or more resource elements carrying the SSB overlap with resource elements carrying a downlink shared channel associated with another PCI. The PCIs may be for a serving cell or another cell, such as a non-serving cell. The UE may also receive one or more demodulation reference signals (DMRSs) in the one or more resource elements in the downlink shared channel. The UE may determine whether overlap is permitted between the resource elements by comparing the PCIs of the SSB and the downlink shared channel. In some examples, once the UE determines whether resource element overlap is permitted, the UE may process the DMRSs.