We propose a new write channel model for bit-patterned media recording that reflects the data dependence of write synchronization errors. It is shown that this model accommodates both substitution-like errors and insertion-deletion errors whose statistics are determined by an underlying channel state process. We study information theoretic properties of the write channel model, including the capacity, symmetric information rate, Markov-1 rate and the zero-error capacity.

11 pages, 12 figures, journal