The maximal hard-core model as a recoverable system: Gibbs measures and phase coexistence

Recoverable systems provide coarse models of data storage on the two-dimensional square lattice, where each site reconstructs its value from neighboring sites according to a specified local rule. To study the typical behavior of recoverable patterns, this work introduces an interaction potential on the local recovery regions of the lattice, which defines a corresponding interaction model. We establish uniqueness of the Gibbs measure at high temperature and derive bounds on the entropy in the zero- and low-temperature regimes. For the recovery rule under consideration, exactly recoverable configurations coincide with maximal independent sets of the grid. Relying on methods developed for the standard hard-core model, we show phase coexistence at high activity in the maximal case. Unlike the standard hard-core model, however, the maximal version admits nontrivial ground states even at low activity, and we manage to classify them explicitly. We further verify the Peierls condition for the associated contour model. Combined with the Pirogov-Sinai theory, this shows that each ground state gives rise to an extremal Gibbs measure, proving phase coexistence at low activity.