There exists a considerable similarity between the distribution of various metastable states (shown by the red diamond symbols in Fig.3) observed experimentally in the present case and the theoretical calculations recently demonstrated by Peeters et al [21]. In particular, the near absence of metastable configurations at the low field and the high field end indeed is remarkable. Figure 4 shows a portion of the M − H loop at 2.5 K (black solid symbols and curve) with arrows indicating the field sweep directions. In violet (open symbols and curve) and red (open symbols and curve) are shown typical measurements following the FCFS protocol (Protocol-II), with I1 and I2 (F1 and F2) denoting the respective initial (final) states. As can be observed, beyond a certain number of field shakes, further changes in the M values is notionally absent. Thus, F1 and F2 respectively indicate the limiting M values at the given field values. Figure 5 shows a portion of the magnetization hysteresis ( M − H ) loop at 2.5 K (black line) with arrows marking the field sweep directions. Also shown are various minor loops obtained via the FSL protocol (Protocol-III). The dotted arrows mark the evolution from the initial to the final states (different open symbols at various field values) following the above protocol. The inset shows a plot of changes in magnetization values via the FSL protocol at various field values. As can be clearly seen, the difference between the initial FC state and the final state obtained as a result of the subsequent field shake, peaks at intermediate field values. This reinforces the observations of Fig.3, that the metastability is maximal at intermediate field values in agreement with the theory [21]. Panel (a) of Fig. 6 shows a color scale contour plot of the evolution of the magnetic susceptibility values from the field cooled state following the FCTS protocol with negative temperature shakes obtained at 2.5 K. In panel (b) is shown a similar plot as panel (a) above, however, positive temperature shakes are employed in this case and the starting configuration corresponds to the final state in panel (a). Panels (a) and (b) respectively portray the hallmark of the phenomena of superheating and supercooling. As can be seen clearly, whereas in panel (a), a low temperature superconducting phase is superheated, in panel (b), a high field normal state is supercooled. A number of different factors contribute to the observed hysteresis in a typical M-H mea- surements, viz., (a) pinning, (b) geometrical barrier, (c) topological, (d) superheating and supercooling across the first order transition, etc. If the hysteresis is of a pinning induced nature, it is expected to increase with a decrease in field and attains a maximum at zero field. 6