Boundary induced phase transitions in driven lattice gases with meta-stable states

We study boundary induced phase transitions in a driven lattice gas exhibiting metastability. The phase diagram for open systems, parameterized by the input and output rates, consists of two regions corresponding to the free flow and jammed phase. Both have been entirely characterized. The microscopic states in the high density phase are shown to have an interesting striped structure, which survives in the thermodynamic limit.