We show that the dynamics of simple disordered models, like the directed Trap Model and the Random Energy Model, takes place at a coexistence point between active and inactive dynamical phases. We relate the presence of a dynamic phase transition in these models to the extreme value statistics of the associated random energy landscape.
We show that the intermittent and self-similar fluctuations displayed by a slow crack during the propagation in a heterogeneous medium can be quantitatively described by an extension of a classical statistical model for fracture. The model yields the correct dynamical and morphological scaling, and allows to demonstrate that the scale invariance originates from the presence of a non-equilibrium, reversible, critical transition which in the presence of dissipation gives rise to self organized critical behaviour.
We review some applications of central limit theorems and extreme values statistics in the context of disordered systems. We discuss several problems, in particular concerning Random Matrix Theory and the generalisation of the Tracy-Widom distribution when the disorder has ``fat tails''. We underline the relevance of power-law tails for Directed Polymers and mean-field Spin Glasses, and we point out various open problems and conjectures on these matters. We find that in many instances the assumption of Gaussian disorder cannot be taken for granted.
The melting of the corner of a crystal is a classical, real-world, non-equilibrium statistical mechanics problem which has shown several connections with other branches of physics and mathematics. For a perfect, classical crystal in two and three dimensions the solution is known: the crystal melts reaching a certain asymptotic shape, which keeps expanding ballistically. In this paper, we move onto the quantum realm and show that the presence of quenched disorder slows down severely the melting process. Nevertheless, we show that there is no many-body localization transition, which could impede…
We study the energy absorption in real time of a disordered quantum spin chain subjected to coherent monochromatic periodic driving. We determine characteristic fingerprints of the well-known ergodic (Floquet-ETH for slow driving/weak disorder) and many-body localized (Floquet-MBL for fast driving/strong disorder) phases. In addition, we identify an intermediate regime, where the energy density of the system -- unlike the entanglement entropy a local and bounded observable -- grows logarithmically slowly over a very large time window.
An important prediction of Mode-Coupling-Theory (MCT) is the relationship between the power- law decay exponents in the β regime. In the original structural glass context this relationship follows from the MCT equations that are obtained making rather uncontrolled approximations and λ has to be treated like a tunable parameter. It is known that a certain class of mean-field spin-glass models is exactly described by MCT equations. In this context, the physical meaning of the so called parameter exponent λ has recently been unveiled, giving a method to compute it exactly in a static framework. I…
We investigate how information spreads in three paradigmatic one-dimensional models with spatial disorder. The models we consider are unitarily related to a system of free fermions and are thus manifestly integrable. We demonstrate that out-of-time-order correlators can spread slowly beyond the single-particle localization length, despite the absence of many-body interactions. This phenomenon is shown to be due to the nonlocal relationship between elementary excitations and the physical degrees of freedom. We argue that this non-locality becomes relevant for time-dependent correlation function…
Recent numerical work by Bardarson et. al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 017202 (2012)] revealed a slow, logarithmic in time, growth of entanglement entropy for initial product states in a putative many-body localized phase. We show that this surprising phenomenon results from the dephasing due to exponentially small interaction-induced corrections to the eigenenergies of different states. For weak interactions, we find that the entanglement entropy grows as ξln (Vt/\hbar), where V is the interaction strength, and ξis the single-particle localization length. The saturated value of the entanglement en…
This thesis presents original results in two domains of disordered statistical physics: logarithmic correlated Random Energy Models (logREMs), and localization transitions in long-range random matrices. In the first part devoted to logREMs, we show how to characterise their common properties and model--specific data. Then we develop their replica symmetry breaking treatment, which leads to the freezing scenario of their free energy distribution and the general description of their minima process, in terms of decorated Poisson point process. We also report a series of new applications of the Ja…
We study scaling properties of energy spreading in disordered strongly nonlinear Hamiltonian lattices. Such lattices consist of nonlinearly coupled local linear or nonlinear oscillators, and demonstrate a rather slow, subdiffusive spreading of initially localized wave p ackets. We use a fractional nonlinear diffusion equation as a heuristic model of this process, and confirm that the scaling predictions resulting from a self-similar solution of this equation are indeed applicable to all studied cases. We s how that the spreading in nonlinearly coupled linear oscillators slows down compared to …
We introduce the notion of transmission time to study the dynamics of disordered quantum spin chains and prove results relating its behavior to many-body localization properties. We also study two versions of the so-called Local Integrals of Motion (LIOM) representation of spin chain Hamiltonians and their relation to dynamical many-body localization. We prove that uniform-in-time dynamical localization expressed by a zero-velocity Lieb-Robinson bound implies the existence of a LIOM representation of the dynamics as well as a weak converse of this statement. We also prove that for a class of s…
We study extremely diluted spin models of neural networks in which the connectivity evolves in time, although adiabatically slowly compared to the neurons, according to stochastic equations which on average aim to reduce frustration. The (fast) neurons and (slow) connectivity variables equilibrate separately, but at different temperatures. Our model is exactly solvable in equilibrium. We obtain phase diagrams upon making the condensed ansatz (i.e. recall of one pattern). These show that, as the connectivity temperature is lowered, the volume of the retrieval phase diverges and the fraction of …
The mechanism of appearance of exponentially large number of metastable states in magnetic phases of disordered Ising magnets with short-range random exchange is suggested. It is based on the assumption that transitions into inhomogeneous magnetic phases results from the condensation of macroscopically large number of sparse delocalized modes near the localization threshold. The properties of metastable states in random magnets with zero ground state magnetization (dilute antiferromagnet, binary spin glass, dilute ferromagnet with dipole interaction) has been obtained in framework of this mech…
We study the asymptotic properties of fracture strength distributions of disordered elastic media by a combination of renormalization group, extreme value theory, and numerical simulation. We investigate the validity of the `weakest-link hypothesis' in the presence of realistic long-ranged interactions in the random fuse model. Numerical simulations indicate that the fracture strength is well described by the Duxbury-Leath-Beale (DLB) distribution which is shown to flow asymptotically to the Gumbel distribution. We explore the relation between the extreme value distributions and the DLB type a…
We present a two-dimensional theoretical model for the slow chemical corrosion of a thin film of a disordered solid by suitable etching solutions. This model explain different experimental results showing that the corrosion stops spontaneously in a situation in which the concentration of the etchant is still finite while the corrosion surface develops clear fractal features. We show that these properties are strictly related to the percolation theory, and in particular to its behavior around the critical point. This task is accomplished both by a direct analysis in terms of a self-organized ve…
In this article we discuss several aspects of the stochastic dynamics of spin models. The paper has two independent parts. Firstly, we explore a few properties of the multi-point correlations and responses of generic systems evolving in equilibrium with a thermal bath. We propose a fluctuation principle that allows us to derive fluctuation-dissipation relations for many-time correlations and linear responses. We also speculate on how these features will be modified in systems evolving slowly out of equilibrium, as finite-dimensional or dilute spin-glasses. Secondly, we present a formalism that…
We have discussed the classical failure of the fuse system, the dielectric breakdown and the quantum breakdown in the Anderson insulators. We have discussed how the extreme value statistics and the resulting Gumbel distribution arises in breakdown and failure processes, especially when the disorder concentration is low. At high concentration of disorder near the percolation threshold, we have discussed how the cross-over might take place from extreme value to percolation statistics. We have discussed the system size dependence that arises at the distribution of the failure current at low disor…
Anderson localization1 in a random system is sensitive to a distance dependence of the excitation transfer amplitude V(r). If V(r) decreases with the distance r slower than 1/r^d in a d-dimensional system then all excitations are delocalized at arbitrarily strong disordering, due to the resonant interaction of far separated quantum states (Fig. 1). At finite temperature T>0 the density of excitations is finite and they can influence each other by means of their interaction. Many body excitations involving simultaneous transitions of several single particle excitations create additional channel…
The physics of glasses can be studied from many viewpoints, from material scientists interested in the development of new materials to statistical physicists inventing new theoretical tools to deal with disordered systems. In these lectures I described a variety of physical phenomena observed in actual glassy materials, from disordered magnetic systems to soft gels. Despite the very large gap between experimental and numerical time windows, I showed that computer simulations represent an efficient theoretical tool which can shed light on the microscopic origins of glassy dynamics.
The energy of an elastic manifold in a random landscape at T=0 is shown numerically to obey a probability distribution that depends on size of the box it is put into. If the extent of the spatial fluctuations of the manifold is much less than that of the system, a cross-over takes place to the Gumbel-distribution of extreme statistics. If they are comparable, the distributions have non-Gaussian, stretched exponential tails. The low-energy and high-energy stretching exponents are roughly independent of the internal dimension and the fluctuation degrees of freedom.
We show that the dynamics of disordered charge density waves (CDWs) and spin density waves (SDWs) is a collective phenomenon. The very low temperature specific heat relaxation experiments are characterized by: (i) ``interrupted'' ageing (meaning that there is a maximal relaxation time); and (ii) a broad power-law spectrum of relaxation times which is the signature of a collective phenomenon. We propose a random energy model that can reproduce these two observations and from which it is possible to obtain an estimate of the glass cross-over temperature (typically $T_g \simeq 100 - 200$ mK). The…
We study the 3D Disordered Potts Model with p=5 and p=6. Our numerical simulations (that severely slow down for increasing p) detect a very clear spin glass phase transition. We evaluate the critical exponents and the critical value of the temperature, and we use known results at lower $p$ values to discuss how they evolve for increasing p. We do not find any sign of the presence of a transition to a ferromagnetic regime.
We present a theory of phase transition in quantum critical paraelectrics in presence of quenched random-Tc disorder using replica trick. The effects of disorder induced locally ordered regions and their slow dynamics are included by breaking the replica symmetry at vector level. The occurrence of a mixed phase at any finite value of disorder strength is argued. A broad power law distribution of quantum critical points and and its finite temperature consequences are predicted. Results are interesting in the context of a certain class of disordered materials near quantum phase transition.
Recently, different numerical studies of coarsening in disordered systems have shown the existence of a crossover from an initial, transient, power-law domain growth to a slower, presumably logarithmic, growth. However, due to the very slow dynamics and the long lasting transient regime, one is usually not able to fully enter the asymptotic regime when investigating the relaxation of these systems toward equilibrium. We here study two simple driven systems, the one-dimensional $ABC$ model and a related domain model with simplified dynamics, that are known to exhibit anomalous slow relaxation w…
The effect of ambient disorders and sequence heterogeneities on the reptation of a long polymer is studied with the aid of a disordered tube model. The dynamics of a random heteropolymer is found to be much slower than that of a homopolymer due to collective pinning effects. The asymptotic properties belong to the universality class of a directed path in (1+1)-dimensional random media.
Non-Gaussian diffusion has been intensively studied in recent years, which reflects the dynamic heterogeneity in the disordered media. The recent study on the non-Gaussian diffusion in a static disordered landscape suggests novel phenomena due to the quenched disorder. In this work, we further investigate the random walk in this landscape under various effective temperature $μ$, which continuously modulates the dynamic heterogeneity. We show in the long time limit, the trap dynamics on the landscape is equivalent to the quenched trap model, in which sub-diffusion appears for $μ<1$. The non-Gau…
We numerically investigate the quench expansion dynamics of an initially confined state in a two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii lattice in the presence of external disorder. The expansion dynamics is conveniently described in the control parameter space of the energy and norm densities. The expansion can slow down substantially if the expected final state is a non-ergodic non-Gibbs one, regardless of the disorder strength. Likewise stronger disorder delays expansion. We compare our results with recent studies for quantum many body quench experiments.
We investigate the role of disorder on the fracturing process of heterogeneous materials by means of a two-dimensional fuse network model. Our results in the extreme disorder limit reveal that the backbone of the fracture at collapse, namely the subset of the largest fracture that effectively halts the global current, has a fractal dimension of $1.22 \pm 0.01$. This exponent value is compatible with the universality class of several other physical models, including optimal paths under strong disorder, disordered polymers, watersheds and optimal path cracks on uncorrelated substrates, hulls of …
Self-sustained reaction fronts in a disordered medium subject to an external flow display self-affine roughening, pinning and depinning transitions. We measure spatial and temporal fluctuations of the front in $1+1$ dimensions, controlled by a single parameter, the mean flow velocity. Three distinct universality classes are observed, consistent with the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) class for fast advancing or receding fronts, the quenched KPZ class (positive-qKPZ) when the mean flow approximately cancels the reaction rate, and the negative-qKPZ class for slowly receding fronts. Both quenched KPZ …
The disordered microphases that develop in the high-temperature phase of systems with competing short-range attractive and long-range repulsive (SALR) interactions result in a rich array of distinct morphologies, such as cluster, void cluster and percolated (gel-like) fluids. These different structural regimes exhibit complex relaxation dynamics with significant relaxation heterogeneity and slowdown. The overall relationship between structure and configurational sampling schemes, however, remains largely uncharted. In this article, the disordered microphases of a schematic SALR model are thoro…
Do nonlinear waves destroy Anderson localization? Computational and experimental studies yield subdiffusive nonequilibrium wave packet spreading. Chaotic dynamics and phase decoherence assumptions are used for explaining the data. We perform a quantitative analysis of the nonequilibrium chaos assumption, and compute the time dependence of main chaos indicators - Lyapunov exponents and deviation vector distributions. We find a slowing down of chaotic dynamics, which does not cross over into regular dynamics up to the largest observed time scales, still being fast enough to allow for a thermaliz…
We study spectral properties and the dynamics after a quench of one-dimensional spinless fermions with short-range interactions and long-range random hopping. We show that a sufficiently fast decay of the hopping term promotes localization effects at finite temperature, which prevents thermalization even if the classical motion is chaotic. For slower decays, we find that thermalization does occur. However, within this model, the latter regime falls in an unexpected universality class, namely, observables exhibit a power-law (as opposed to an exponential) approach to their thermal expectation v…
Significant and persistent trajectory-to-trajectory variance are commonly observed in the particle tracking experiments, which have become a major challenge for the experiment data analysis. In this theoretical paper, we investigate the ergodicity recovery behavior, which helps to clarify the origin and the convergence of trajectory-to-trajectory fluctuation in various heterogeneous disordered media. The concepts of self-averaging and ergodicity are revisited in the context of trajectory analysis. The slow ergodicity recovery and the non-Gaussian diffusion in the annealed disordered media are …
Extreme-value distributions are studied in the context of a broad range of problems, from the equilibrium properties of low-temperature disordered systems to the occurrence of natural disasters. Our focus here is on the ground-state energy distribution of disordered many-body quantum systems. We derive an analytical expression that, upon tuning a parameter, reproduces with high accuracy the ground-state energy distribution of the systems that we consider. For some models, it agrees with the Tracy-Widom distribution obtained from Gaussian random matrices. They include transverse Ising models, t…
We establish the full groundstate phase diagram of disordered Bose-Hubbard model in two-dimensions at unity filling factor via quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Similarly to the three-dimensional case we observe extended superfluid regions persisting up to extremely large values of disorder and interaction strength which, however, have small superfluid fractions and thus low transition temperatures. In the vicinity of the superfluid--insulator transition of the pure system, we observe an unexpectedly weak---almost not resolvable---sensitivity of the critical interaction to the strength of (weak…
We perform novel energy and norm density resolved wave packet spreading studies in the disordered Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) lattice to confine energy density fluctuations. We map the locations of GP regimes of weak and strong chaos subdiffusive spreading in the 2D density control parameter space and observe strong chaos spreading over several decades. We obtain a renormalization of the ground state due to disorder, which allows for a new disorder-induced phase of disconnected insulating puddles of matter due to Lifshits tails. Inside this Lifshits phase, the wave packet spreading is substantially …
We study the dynamics and the resulting state after relaxation in a quasi-disordered integrable lattice system after a sudden quench. Specifically, we consider hard-core bosons in an isolated one-dimensional geometry in the presence of a quasi-periodic potential whose strength is abruptly changed to take the system out of equilibrium. In the delocalized regime, we find that the relaxation dynamics of one-body observables, such as the density, the momentum distribution function, and the occupation of the natural orbitals, follow, to a good approximation, power laws. In that regime, we also show…
The dynamics of a tracer particle in a glassy matrix of obstacles displays slow complex transport as the free volume approaches a critical value and the void space falls apart. We investigate the emerging subdiffusive motion of the test particle by extensive molecular dynamics simulations and characterize the spatio-temporal transport in terms of two-time correlation functions, including the time-dependent diffusion coefficient as well as the wavenumber-dependent intermediate scattering function. We rationalize our findings within the framework of critical phenomena and compare our data to a d…
We study the pinning dynamics of magnetic flux (vortex) lines in a disordered type-II superconductor. Using numerical simulations of a directed elastic line model, we extract the pinning time distributions of vortex line segments. We compare different model implementations for the disorder in the surrounding medium: discrete, localized pinning potential wells that are either attractive and repulsive or purely attractive, and whose strengths are drawn from a Gaussian distribution; as well as continuous Gaussian random potential landscapes. We find that both schemes yield power law distributions…
We investigate the equilibrium and off-equilibrium behaviors of systems at thermal first-order transitions (FOTs) when the boundary conditions favor one of the two phases. As a theoretical laboratory we consider the two-dimensional Potts model. We show that an anomalous finite-size scaling emerges in systems with open boundary conditions favoring the disordered phase, associated with a mixed regime where the two phases are spatially separated. Correspondingly, if the system is slowly heated across the transition, the characteristic times of the off-equilibrium dynamics scale with a power of th…
Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the slow dynamics of a hard sphere fluid confined in a disordered porous matrix. The presence of both discontinuous and continuous glass transitions as well as the complex interplay between single-particle and collective dynamics are well captured by a recent extension of mode-coupling theory for fluids in porous media. The degree of universality of the mode-coupling theory predictions for related models of colloids is studied by introducing size-disparity between fluid and matrix particles, as well as softness in the interactions.