In order to elucidate the relationship between rate-independent hysteresis and metastability in disordered systems driven by an external field, we study the Gaussian RFIM at T=0 on regular random graphs (Bethe lattice) of finite connectivity z and compute to O(1/z) (i.e. beyond mean-field) the quenched complexity associated with the one-spin-flip stable states with magnetization m as a function of the magnetic field H. When the saturation hysteresis loop is smooth in the thermodynamic limit, we find that it coincides with the envelope of the typical metastable states (the quenched complexity vanishes exactly along the loop and is positive everywhere inside). On the other hand, the occurence of a jump discontinuity in the loop (associated with an infinite avalanche) can be traced back to the existence of a gap in the magnetization of the metastable states for a range of applied field, and the envelope of the typical metastable states is then reentrant. These findings confirm and complete earlier analytical and numerical studies.
We consider the analytic solution of the zero temperature hysteresis in the random field Ising model on a Bethe lattice of coordination number $z$, and study how it approaches the mean field solution in the limit z-> \infty. New analytical results concerning the energy of the system along the hysteresis loop and first order reversal curves (FORC diagrams) are also presented.
We present a general analytic method to compute the number of metastable configurations as a function of the energy for a system of interacting Ising spins on the Bethe lattice. Our approach is based on the cavity method. We apply it to the case of ferromagnetic interactions, and also to the binary and Gaussian spin glasses. Most of our results are obtained within the replica symmetric ansatz, but we illustrate how replica symmetry breaking can be performed.
We present an exact treatment of the hysteresis behavior of the zero-temperature random-field Ising model on a Bethe lattice when it is driven by an external field and evolved according to a 2-spin-flip dynamics. We focus on lattice connectivities z=2 (the one-dimensional chain) and z=3. For the latter case, we demonstrate the existence of an out-of-equilibrium phase transition, in contrast with the situation found with the standard 1-spin-flip dynamics. We discuss the influence of the degree of cooperativity of the (local) spin dynamics of the nonequilibrium response on the system.
We analyze the energy terms corresponding to the spin-spin exchange and spin-random field coupling of the zero temperature random-field Ising model on the Bethe lattice driven by an external field with metastable dynamics. Exact results are calculated as a function of the standard deviation of the disorder and the coordination number z, and compared with numerical simulations on random graphs for z=4, for which a disorder-induced transition takes place.
We obtain exact expressions for the minor hysteresis loops in the ferromagnetic random field Ising model on a Bethe lattice at zero temperature in the case when the driving field is cycled infinitely slowly.
We present a numerical study of the zero-temperature response of the Gaussian random-field Ising model (RFIM) to a slowly varying external field, allowing the system to be trapped in microscopic configurations that are not fully metastable. This modification of the standard single-spin-flip dynamics results in an increase of dissipation (hysteresis) somewhat similar to that observed with a finite driving rate. We then study the distribution of avalanches along the hysteresis loop and perform a finite-size scaling analysis that shows good evidence that the critical exponents associated to the d…
We consider the Gaussian random field Ising model (RFIM) on the Bethe lattice at zero temperature in the presence of a uniform external field and derive the exact expressions of the two-point spin-spin and spin-random field correlation functions along the saturation hysteresis loop. To complete the analytical description and suggest possible approximations for the RFIM on Euclidian lattices we also compute the corresponding direct correlation functions (or proper vertices) and show that they decay rapidly with the distance in the weak-coupling/large disorder regime; their range, however, is no…
We present a formalism for computing the complexity of metastable states and the zero-temperature magnetic hysteresis loop in the soft-spin random-field model in finite dimensions. The complexity is obtained as the Legendre transform of the free-energy associated to a certain action in replica space and the hysteresis loop above the critical disorder is defined as the curve in the field-magnetization plane where the complexity vanishes; the nonequilibrium magnetization is therefore obtained without having to follow the dynamical evolution. We use approximations borrowed from condensed-matter t…
The random-field Ising model of hysteresis is generalized to dilute magnets and solved on a Bethe lattice. Exact expressions for the major and minor hysteresis loops are obtained. In the strongly dilute limit the model provides a simple and useful understanding of the shapes of hysteresis loops in magnetic rock samples.
We present exact expressions for hysteresis loops in the ferromagnetic random field Ising model in the limit of zero temperature and zero driving frequency for an arbitrary initial state of the model on a Bethe lattice. This work extends earlier results that were restricted to an initial state with all spins pointing parallel to each other.
We study the ferromagnetic random-field Ising model on random graphs of fixed connectivity z (Bethe lattice) in the presence of an external magnetic field $H$. We compute the number of single-spin-flip stable configurations with a given magnetization m and study the connection between the distribution of these metastable states in the H-m plane (focusing on the region where the number is exponentially large) and the shape of the saturation hysteresis loop obtained by cycling the field between $-\infty$ and $+\infty$ at T=0. The annealed complexity $Σ_A(m,H)$ is calculated for z=2,3,4 and the q…
We explore a macroscopic, algebraic approach to rate independent hysteresis using semigroup theory. A macroscopic description of metastable states relevant to rate independent hysteresis is introduced using field history. The semigroup structure of the history space is identified. Using semigroup theory and related mathematical techniques, the general relation between return point memory (RPM) and partial order is discovered. For hysteresis system with RPM, a variational principle is identified. The erasing properties of field histories are also characterized. The connection between this semig…
We study numerically the number of single-spin-flip stable states in the T=0 Random Field Ising Model (RFIM) on random regular graphs of connectivity $z=2$ and $z=4$ and on the cubic lattice. The annealed and quenched complexities (i.e. the entropy densities) of the metastable states with given magnetization are calculated as a function of the external magnetic field. The results show that the appearance of a (disorder-induced) out-of-equilibrium phase transition in the magnetization hysteresis loop at low disorder can be ascribed to a change in the distribution of the metastable states in the…
We study the energy landscape of the soft-spin random field model in the mean-field limit and compute analytically the quenched complexity of the metastable states as a function of their magnetization and energy at a given external magnetic field. The shape of the domain within which the complexity is positive (and the number of typical metastable states grows exponentially with system size) changes with the amount of disorder and becomes non-convex and disconnected at low disorder. As a consequence, phase transitions occur both at equilibrium and out of equilibrium along the saturation hyster…
A mean-field model of Ising spin glass with the Hamiltonian being a sum of the infinite-range ferromagnetic and random antiferromagnetic interactions is studied. It is shown that this model has phase transition in external magnetic field into inergodic spin glass phase with a number of metastable states. The thermodynamic properties of metastable states are studied at T=0 and near the transition. The relations between the characteristics of slow nonequilibrium processes in spin glass phase (such as hysteresis loop form, thermo-remanent and isothermal remanent magnetizations, field-cooled and z…
A numerical study is presented of the 3d Gaussian Random Field Ising Model at T=0 driven by an external field. Standard synchronous relaxation dynamics is employed to obtain the magnetization versus field hysteresis loops. The focus is on the analysis of the number and size distribution of the magnetization avalanches. They are classified as being non-spanning, 1d-spanning, 2d-spanning or 3d-spanning depending on whether or not they span the whole lattice in the different space directions. Moreover, finite-size scaling analysis enables identification of two different types of non-spanning aval…
We study the influence of vacancy concentration on the behaviour of the three dimensional Random Field Ising model with metastable dynamics. We focus our analysis on the number of spanning avalanches which allows for a clean determination of the critical line where the hysteresis loops change from continuous to discontinuous. By a detailed finite size scaling analysis we determine the phase diagram and prove numerically the critical exponents along the whole critical line. Finally we discuss the origin of the curvature of the critical line at high vacancy concentration.
The Random Field Ising Model (RFIM) is the simplest physical model reflecting effect of quenched disorder on the different types of phase transitions in solids. The presence of multiple energy minima in the RFIM is an important feature determining main physical properties of the systems with a field type of quenched disorder. In particular, according to computer simulations of Sethna at al. performed for a zero temperature RFIM, the irreversible loop of magnetization appears as direct result of their presence. In the present paper the analytic method based on the total number of energy minima …
In accordance with recent experiments the mean-field type theories predict the presence of numerous metastable minima (states) in the rugged free-energy landscape of frustrated disordered magnets. This multiplicity of long-lived states with lifetimes greater than $10^5 s$ makes the task to experimentally determine which of them has the lowest free energy (and thus what thermodynamic phase the sample is in) seem rather hopeless the more so as we do not know a protocol (such as field-cooling or zero-field-cooling) leading to the equilibrium state(s). Nevertheless here we show in the framework of…
Mean field-like approximations (including naive mean field, Bethe and Kikuchi and more general Cluster Variational Methods) are known to stabilize ordered phases at temperatures higher than the thermodynamical transition. For example, in the Edwards-Anderson model in 2-dimensions these approximations predict a spin glass transition at finite $T$. Here we show that the spin glass solutions of the Cluster Variational Method (CVM) at plaquette level do describe well actual metastable states of the system. Moreover, we prove that these states can be used to predict non trivial statistical quantiti…
The behaviour of the Random Anisotropy Ising model at T=0 under local relaxation dynamics is studied. The model includes a dominant ferromagnetic interaction and assumes an infinite anisotropy at each site along local anisotropy axes which are randomly aligned. Two different random distributions of anisotropy axes have been studied. Both are characterized by a parameter that allows control of the degree of disorder in the system. By using numerical simulations we analyze the hysteresis loop properties and characterize the statistical distribution of avalanches occuring during the metastable ev…
We study the hysteretic evolution of the random field Ising model (RFIM) at T=0 when the magnetization M is controlled externally and the magnetic field H becomes the output variable. The dynamics is a simple modification of the single-spin-flip dynamics used in the H-driven situation and consists in flipping successively the spins with the largest local field. This allows to perform a detailed comparison between the microscopic trajectories followed by the system with the two protocols. Simulations are performed on random graphs with connectivity z=4 (Bethe lattice) and on the 3-D cubic latti…
