On clusters and critical dimensions in spin glasses

We discuss the problem of critical dimensions in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model of a spin glass, using the presence of clusters above T_c. It is argued that these clusters are ramified. This fact accounts for the different (upper) critical dimensions of the spherical and Ising models. The special role of dimension four is pointed out.     

Complexity of vector spin glasses

We study the annealed complexity of the m-vector spin glasses in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick limit. The eigenvalue spectrum of the Hessian matrix of the Thouless-Anderson-Palmer free energy is found to consist of a continuous band of positive eigenvalues in addition to an isolated eigenvalue and (m-1) null eigenvalues due to rotational invariance. Rather surprisingly, the band does not extend to zero at any finite temperature. The isolated eigenvalue becomes zero in the thermodynamic limit, as in the Ising case (m=1), indicating that the same supersymmetry breaking recently found in Ising spin glasses occurs in vector spin glasses.     

The spin glass correlation length and the crossover from three to two dimensions

The identification of a time and temperature dependent spin glass correlation length, ξ(t,T), has consequences for samples of finite size. Previous experiments on layered samples show a suppression of the freezing temperature with decreasing sample thickness. The correlation length exceeding the finite sample thickness can explain these results. This novel analysis lends further credence to the correlation length paradigm of understanding spin glasses.     

Order parameters forn-vector spin glasses ind dimensions

We report Monte Carlo simulations of the time-dependent behavior of Edwards-Anderson spin glasses with Gaussian nearest-neighbor exchange, for both spin dimensionalityn and space dimensionalityd from 2 up to 6. A (nearly) logarithmic decay of the Edwards-Anderson order parameter with time is observed for alln and alld, similar to earlier studies forn=1. But the Monte Carlo data forn>1 suggest stronger than those forn=1 that all order parameters considered vanish in thermal equilibrium for nonzero temperature, because the decay forn>1 is faster at the temperatures of interest. For Heisenberg spins (n=3) no significant dependence of the Edwards-Anderson order parameterq on the size of the lattice was observed ford=2,3 and 4, whereas ford=5 and 6,q was smaller for smaller systems (in contrast to thed=5 Ising case). These results are the first Monte Carlo indication of a change in the bulk behavior of Heisenberg spin glasses at dimensionalityd=4. Quenching the system to zero temperature and then applying a field we find that the order parameter , measuring the alignment with respect to the state at zero field, is destroyed by a sufficiently strong magnetic field, for all observedn andd.Sonderforschungsbereich 125 Aachen-Jülich-Köln, FRG     

Thermodynamic glass transition in finite dimensions

Using an effective potential method, a replica formulism is set up for describing supercooled liquids near their glass transition. The resulting potential is equivalent to that for an Ising spin glass in a magnetic field. Results taken from the droplet picture of spin glasses are then used to provide an explanation of the main features of fragile glasses.     

Kosterlitz-thouless transition and self-duality in three dimensions

A class of self-dual globally symmetric Z_N models in three dimensions is presented. The limit N → ∞ is a type of anisotropic U(1) model (XY model) dual to a gas of integer point charges, interacting via a logarithmic potential in three dimensions. The latter is, at low temperature, nothing but a sine-Gordon theory with an anisotropic, logarithmic propagator. It therefore has a low-temperature Kosterlitz-Thouless phase and KT phase transition to a massive phase.The relation of the U(1) model to the thermodynamics of a helical magnet along the ferromagnetic-helical phase boundary in zero applied field (or to the smectic A to amectic C phase boundary in a liquid crystal) is indicated.     

On the mean-field spin glass transition

In this paper we analyze two main prototypes of disordered mean-field systems, namely the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (SK) and the Viana-Bray (VB) models, to show that, in the framework of the cavity method, the transition from the annealed regime to a broken replica symmetry phase can be thought of as the failure of the saturability property (detailed explained along the paper) of the overlap fluctuations which act as the order parameters of the theory. We show furthermore how this coincides with the lacking of the commutativity of the infinite volume limit with respect to a, suitably chosen, vanishing perturbing field inducing the transition as prescribed by standard statistical mechanics. This is another step towards a complete theory of disordered systems. As a well known consequence it turns out that the annealed and the replica symmetric regions must coincide, implying that the averaged overlap is zero in this phase. Within our framework the finding of the values of the critical point for the SK and line for the VB becomes available straightforwardly and the method is of a large generality and applicable to several other mean field models     

Anderson-Mott transition driven by spin disorder: spin glass transition and magnetotransport in amorphous GdSi

A zero temperature Anderson-Mott transition driven by spin disorder can be "tuned" by an applied magnetic field to achieve colossal magnetoconductance. Usually this is not possible since spin disorder by itself cannot localize a high density electron system. However, the presence of strong structural disorder can realize this situation, self-consistently generating a disordered magnetic ground state. We explore such a model, constructed to understand amorphous GdSi, and highlight the emergence of a spin glass phase, Anderson-Mott signatures in transport and tunneling spectra, and unusual magneto-optical conductivity. We solve a disordered strong coupling fermion-spin-lattice problem essentially exactly on finite systems and account for all the qualitative features observed in magnetism, transport, and the optical spectra in this system.     

Dynamics of vector spin glasses with random anisotropy

The dynamics of vector spin glasses with additional random anisotropy is investigated in the mean field approximation. We find a cross-over of the upper critical line from a behaviour of Heisenberg spins with a field-temperature dependence , for large fieldsH, to Ising like behaviourT _f –TT ^2/3 , for small fields and fixed anisotropy, in agreement with results of Kotliar and Sompolinsky. Here, andT _f are characteristic spin glass temperatures. In addition, one has a second line with reversed behaviour which presumably represents a cross-over line from weak to strong non-ergodicity. The local transverse susceptibility _T () varies for large fields and 0 along the upper critical line as ^vT , with a critical exponentV _T = 1/2 – 11D/60 J, whereD andJ are the anisotropy and exchange coupling constants, respectively. On the Ising-like part of the upper critical line one has isotropic spin glass parameters,q _L =q _T , and susceptibilities, and a critical exponent, which is similar to that of Ising spins along the de Almeida-Thouless line.Dedicated to B. Mühlschlegel on the occasion of his 60th birthdaySFB Aachen-Jülich-Köln     

Image restoration using the chiral Potts spin glass

We report on the image reconstruction (IR) problem by making use of the random chiral q-state Potts model, whose Hamiltonian possesses the same gauge invariance as the usual Ising spin glass model. We show that the pixel representation by means of the Potts variables is suitable for the gray-scale level image which cannot be represented by the Ising model. We find that the IR quality is highly improved by the presence of a glassy term, besides the usual ferromagnetic term under random external fields, as very recently pointed out by Nishimori and Wong. We give the exact solution of the infinite range model with q=3, the three-gray-scale-level case. In order to check our analytical result and the efficiency of our model, two-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out on real-world pictures with three and eight gray-scale levels.     

Quantum phase transition in spin glasses with multi-spin interactions

We examine the phase diagram of the p-interaction spin glass model in a transverse field. We consider a spherical version of the model and compare with results obtained in the Ising case. The analysis of the spherical model, with and without quantization, reveals a phase diagram very similar to that obtained in the Ising case. In particular, using the static approximation, reentrance is observed at low temperatures in both the quantum spherical and Ising models. This is an artifact of the approximation and disappears when the imaginary time dependence of the order parameter is taken into account. The resulting phase diagram is checked by accurate numerical investigation of the phase boundaries.     

Concentration dependence of the transition temperature in spin glasses

The transition temperature T_f of randomly distributed spins interacting via the RKKY interaction (spin glasses) has been calculated numerically within the spherical approximation. The dependence of T_f on the concentration c of magnetic impurities and on the damping of the interaction due to a finite mean free path of the conduction electrons is investigated for 10^?5 < c < 10^?1.     

Generalized Bose-Einstein phase transition in large-m component spin glasses

It is proposed to understand finite dimensional spin glasses using a 1/m expansion, where m is the number of spin components. It is shown that this approach predicts a replica symmetric state in finite dimensions. The point about which the expansion is made, the infinite-m limit, has been studied in the mean-field limit in detail and has a very unusual phase transition, rather similar to a Bose-Einstein phase transition but with N(2/5) macroscopically occupied low-lying states.     

The magnetic phase transition in amorphous ferromagnets and in spin glasses

The magnetic phase transition in materials with exchange disorder (amorphous ferromagnets, spin glasses) is discussed. In the critical temperature range the behavior of amorphous ferromagnetic transition metal-metalloid glasses is found to be similar to the one derived for a three-dimensional homogeneous Heisenberg ferromagnet. The most prominent difference between disordered and homogeneous materials is manifested in a large temperature range of deviations from the mean field behavior beyond the critical region, as observed experimentally for the temperature dependence of the linear susceptibility of amorphous ferromagnets and of the nonlinear susceptibility of spin glasses. A molecular field theory with correlations in space and time is developed, which relates the deviations from the mean field behavior to the interplay between the temperature dependent thermal correlations in the spin system and the spatial fluctuations of the material. Application to dynamical processes (kinetic critical slowing down) is discussed.     

Dynamics of vector spin glasses: The Gabay-Toulouse line

The dynamics of ann-component vector spin glass with infinite range interactions are investigated near and above the Gabay-Toulouse (GT) line. The local transverse susceptibility _T for 0 varies along the whole GT lineT _c1 (H) as ^v , with a field and temperature independent critical exponentv=1/2. The longitudinal susceptibility _L () remains analytic for all (T, H)T _c1 (H), except for a cross-over fromv=1 tov=1/2 forH0 at the freezing temperatureT=T _f . The dynamic susceptibilities _T () and _L () are already coupled above the GT line via self-energy terms. BelowT _c1 (H), this coupling is strongly enhanced by other mechanisms.     

Bounds on correlation decay for long-range vector spin glasses

We give upper bounds on the decay of correlation functions for long-rangeSO(N)-symmetric spin-glass models in one and two dimensions using McBryan-Spencer techniques. In doing so we extend recent results of Picco.