Engineering Analysis of Unrecoverable Degenerate States in Large Language Models: Detection, Metrics, and Mitigation

This document presents a technical framework for identifying, measuring, and mitigating unrecoverable failure states in Large Language Models (LLMs). The work focuses on operationally irreversible collapse modes observed under bounded prompting and fixed runtime constraints. The contribution is not a theory of intelligence, but an engineering-grade failure analysis with reproducible protocols, quantitative metrics, and deployable early-warning mechanisms. The core outcome is the definition, detection, and characterization of Unrecoverable Degenerate States (UDS)—a class of failure states where the model enters a self-sustaining