No Arabic abstract
The lower-critical dimension for the existence of the Ising spin-glass phase is calculated, numerically exactly, as $d_L = 2.520$ for a family of hierarchical lattices, from an essentially exact (correlation coefficent $R^2 = 0.999999$) near-linear fit to 23 different diminishing fractional dimensions. To obtain this result, the phase transition temperature between the disordered and spin-glass phases, the corresponding critical exponent $y_T$, and the runaway exponent $y_R$ of the spin-glass phase are calculated for consecutive hierarchical lattices as dimension is lowered.
The locations of multicritical points on many hierarchical lattices are numerically investigated by the renormalization group analysis. The results are compared with an analytical conjecture derived by using the duality, the gauge symmetry and the replica method. We find that the conjecture does not give the exact answer but leads to locations slightly away from the numerically reliable data. We propose an improved conjecture to give more precise predictions of the multicritical points than the conventional one. This improvement is inspired by a new point of view coming from renormalization group and succeeds in deriving very consistent answers with many numerical data.
A novel order parameter $Phi$ for spin glasses is defined based on topological criteria and with a clear physical interpretation. $Phi$ is first investigated for well known magnetic systems and then applied to the Edwards-Anderson $pm J$ model on a square lattice, comparing its properties with the usual $q$ order parameter. Finite size scaling procedures are performed. Results and analyses based on $Phi$ confirm a zero temperature phase transition and allow to identify the low temperature phase. The advantages of $Phi$ are brought out and its physical meaning is established.
We present a simple strategy in order to show the existence and uniqueness of the infinite volume limit of thermodynamic quantities, for a large class of mean field disordered models, as for example the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model, and the Derrida p-spin model. The main argument is based on a smooth interpolation between a large system, made of N spin sites, and two similar but independent subsystems, made of N_1 and N_2 sites, respectively, with N_1+N_2=N. The quenched average of the free energy turns out to be subadditive with respect to the size of the system. This gives immediately convergence of the free energy per site, in the infinite volume limit. Moreover, a simple argument, based on concentration of measure, gives the almost sure convergence, with respect to the external noise. Similar results hold also for the ground state energy per site.
Spin glasses are a longstanding model for the sluggish dynamics that appears at the glass transition. However, spin glasses differ from structural glasses for a crucial feature: they enjoy a time reversal symmetry. This symmetry can be broken by applying an external magnetic field, but embarrassingly little is known about the critical behaviour of a spin glass in a field. In this context, the space dimension is crucial. Simulations are easier to interpret in a large number of dimensions, but one must work below the upper critical dimension (i.e., in d<6) in order for results to have relevance for experiments. Here we show conclusive evidence for the presence of a phase transition in a four-dimensional spin glass in a field. Two ingredients were crucial for this achievement: massive numerical simulations were carried out on the Janus special-purpose computer, and a new and powerful finite-size scaling method.
The ferromagnetic phase of an Ising model in d=3, with any amount of quenched antiferromagnetic bond randomness, is shown to undergo a transition to a spin-glass phase under sufficient quenched bond dilution. This general result, demonstrated here with the numerically exact renormalization-group solution of a d=3 hierarchical lattice, is expected to hold true generally, for the cubic lattice and for quenched site dilution. Conversely, in the ferromagnetic-spinglass-antiferromagnetic phase diagram, the spin-glass phase expands under quenched dilution at the expense of the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases. In the ferro-spinglass phase transition induced by quenched dilution reentrance is seen, as previously found for the ferro-spinglass transition induced by increasing the antiferromagnetic bond concentration.