On the uniqueness of Gibbs distributions with a non-negative and subcritical pair potential

Abstract: We prove that the distribution of a Gibbs process with non-negative pair potential is uniquely determined as soon as an associated Poisson-driven random connection model (RCM) does not percolate. Our proof combines disagreement coupling in continuum with a coupling of a Gibbs process and a RCM. The improvement over previous uniqueness results is illustrated both in theory and simulations.