Wetting and layering for Solid-on-Solid II: Layering transitions, Gibbs states, and regularity of the free energy

Abstract

We consider the Solid-On-Solid model interacting with a wall, which is the statistical mechanics model associated with the integer-valued field $(\phi(x))_{x\in \mathbb Z^2}$, and the energy functional $$V(\phi)=\beta \sum_{x\sim y}|\phi(x)-\phi(y)|-\sum_{x}\left( h{\bf 1}_{\{\phi(x)=0\}}-\infty{\bf 1}_{\{\phi(x)<0\}} \right).$$ We prove that for $\beta$ sufficiently large, there exists a decreasing sequence $(h^*_n(\beta))_{n\ge 0}$, satisfying $\lim_{n\to\infty}h^*_n(\beta)=h_w(\beta),$ and such that: $(A)$ The free energy associated with the system is infinitely differentiable on $\mathbb R \setminus \left(\{h^*_n\}_{n\ge 1}\cup h_w(\beta)\right)$, and not differentiable on $\{h^*_n\}_{n\ge 1}$. $(B)$ For each $n\ge 0$ within the interval $(h^*_{n+1},h^*_n)$ (with the convention $h^*_0=\infty$), there exists a unique translation invariant Gibbs state which is localized around height $n$, while at a point of non-differentiability, at least two ergodic Gibbs state coexist. The respective typical heights of these two Gibbs states are $n-1$ and $n$. The value $h^*_n$ corresponds thus to a first order layering transition from level $n$ to level $n-1$. These results combined with those obtained in [23] provide a complete description of the wetting and layering transition for SOS.