Expansion for the free energy functionals of the Potts spin glass models with 3, 4 and 5 states up to the fourth order in $δq_{αβ}$ around the replica symmetric solution (RS) is investigated using a special quadrupole-like representation. The temperature dependence of the 1RSB order parameters is obtained in the vicinity of the point $T=T_c$ where the RS solution becomes unstable. The crossover from continuous to jumpwise behavior with increasing of number of states is derived analytically. The comparison is made of the free energy expansion for the Potts spin glass with that for other models.
We predict the locations of several multicritical points of the Potts spin glass model on the triangular lattice. In particular, continuous multicritical lines, which consist of multicritical points, are obtained for two types of two-state Potts (i.e., Ising) spin glasses with two- and three-body interactions on the triangular lattice. These results provide us with numerous examples to further verify the validity of the conjecture, which has succeeded in deriving highly precise locations of multicritical points for several spin glass models. The technique, called the direct triangular duality,…
Similarities between fragile glasses and spin glasses (SG) suggest the study of frustrated spin model to understand the complex dynamics of glasses above the glass transition. We consider a frustrated spin model with Ising spins and s-state Potts spins both with and without disorder. We study the two models by Monte Carlo simulations in two dimensions. The Potts spins mimic orientational degrees of freedom and the coupled frustrated Ising spins take into account for frustrating effects like the geometrical hindrance. We show that in this model dynamical transitions and crossovers are related t…
In this short note, we present supporting evidence for the replica symmetric approach to the random bond q-state Potts models. The evidence is statistically strong enough to reject the applicability of the Parisi replica symmetry breaking scheme to this class of models. The test we use is a generalization of one formerly proposed by Dotsenko et al. and consists in measuring scaling laws of disordered-averaged moments of the spin-spin correlation functions. Numerical results, obtained via Monte Carlo simulations for several values of q, are shown to be in fair agreement with the replica symmetr…
A continuous 3-state Potts model with an analog of spherical constraints is proposed and is shown to have an exact solution in the case of infinite-ranged interactions. "Spherical" 3-state Potts spin glass model is solved using the known properties of a large random matrix. For this model the results are identical to those obtained by the replica approach for replica symmetric solution.
In this paper we review the predictions of the replica approach on the probability distribution of the overlaps among replicas and on the sample to sample fluctuations of this probability. We stress the role of replica equivalence in obtaining relations which do not depend on the form of replica symmetry breaking. A comparison is done with the results obtained with a different rigorous approach. The role of the ultrametricity and of other algebraic properties in discussed. It is shown that the ultrametric solution can be obtained from a variational principle.
We prove the impossibility of recent attempts to decouple the Replica Symmetry Breaking (RSB) picture for finite-dimensional spin glasses from the existence of many thermodynamic (i.e., infinite-volume) pure states while preserving another signature RSB feature --- space filling relative domain walls between different finite-volume states. Thus revisions of the notion of pure states cannot shield the RSB picture from the internal contradictions that rule out its physical correctness in finite dimensions at low temperature in large finite volume.
We study the two-dimensional +/-J Ising model, three-state Potts model and four-state Potts model, by the numerical transfer matrix method to investigate the behaviour of the sample-to-sample fluctuations of the internal energy on the Nishimori line. The result shows a maximum at the multicritical point in all the models we investigated. The large sample-to-sample fluctuations of the internal energy as well as the existence of a singularity in these fluctuations imply that the bond configuration (or, equivalently, the distribution of frustrated plaquettes) may be experiencing a non-trivial cha…
We define modulated replica symmetry breaking (RSB)-schemes which combine tree- and wave-like structures. A modulated scheme and unmodulated RSB are applied at 1-step level to a semiconductor model with antiferromagnetic Korenblit-Shender interaction. By comparison of the free energies we find evidence that a T=0 phase transition in the ferrimagnetic phase leads to a transition between the different RSB-schemes. An embedding factor of Parisi block matrices with sublattice-asymmetrical size is employed as a new variational parameter in the modulated scheme.
The role of reflection symmetry breaking for the character of the appearance of replica symmetric spin glass state is investigated. We establish the following symmetry rule for classical systems with one order parameter in the replica symmetric mean field approximation. If in the pure system the transition to the ordered phase is of the second order, then in the corresponding random system the glass regime appears as a result of a phase transition; if the transition in the pure system is of the first order, then glass and ordered regimes grow continuously in the random system on cooling.
An one-step replica-symmetry-breaking solution for finite connectivity spin-glass models with K body interaction is constructed at finite temperature using the replica method and thermodynamic constraints. In the absence of external fields, this construction provides a general extension of replica symmetric solution at finite replica number to one-step replica-symmetry-breaking solution. It is found that this result is formally equivalent to that of the one-step replica-symmetry-breaking cavity method. To confirm the validity of the obtained solution, Monte Carlo simulations are performed for …
We compute numerically small window overlaps in the three dimensional Edwards Anderson spin glass. We show that they behave in the way implied by the Replica Symmetry Breaking Ansatz, that they do not qualitatively differ from the full volume overlap and do not tend to a trivial function when increasing the lattice volume. On the contrary we show they are affected by small finite volume effects, and are interesting tools for the study of the features of the spin glass phase.
We study a 7-state Potts glass model in three dimensions with first, second, and third neighbor interactions with a bimodal distribution of couplings by Monte Carlo simulations. Our results show the existence of a spin-glass transition at a finite temperature T_c, a discontinuous jump of an order parameter at T_c without latent heat, and a non-trivial structure of the order-parameter distribution below T_c. They are compatible with a one-step replica symmetry breaking.
The mathematically correct computation of the spin glasses free energy in the infinite range limit crowns 25 years of mathematic efforts in solving this model. The exact solution of the model was found many years ago by using a heuristic approach; the results coming from the heuristic approach were crucial in deriving the mathematical results. The mathematical tools used in the rigorous approach are quite different from those of the heuristic approach. In this note we will review the heuristic approach to spin glasses in the light of the rigorous results; we will also discuss some conjectures …
In a finite-connectivity spin-glass at the zero-temperature limit, long-range correlations exist among the unfrozen vertices (whose spin values being non-fixed). Such long-range frustrations are partially removed through the first-step replica-symmetry-broken (1RSB) cavity theory, but residual long-range frustrations may still persist in this mean-field solution. By way of population dynamics, here we perform a perturbation-percolation analysis to calculate the magnitude of long-range frustrations in the 1RSB solution of a given spin-glass system. We study two well-studied model systems, the m…
We investigate the p-state mean-field model of the Potts glass ($2\le p \le 4$) below the continuous phase transition to a glassy phase. We find that apart from a solution with a first hierarchical level of replica-symmetry breaking (1RSB), locally stable close to the transition point, there is a continuous full replica-symmetry breaking (FRSB) solution. The latter is marginally stable and has a higher free energy than the former. We argue that the true equilibrium is reached only by FRSB, being globally thermodynamically homogeneous, whereas 1RSB is only locally homogeneous.
Using an effective potential approach, we present a replica instanton theory for the dynamics of entropic droplets in glassy systems. Replica symmetry breaking in the droplet interface leads to a length scale dependent reduction of the droplet surface tension and changes the character of the dynamical heterogeneity and activated dynamics in glasses.
We report a transfer matrix study of the random bond $q-$state Potts model in the vicinity of the Ising model $q=2$. We draw attention to a precise determination of magnetic scaling dimensions in order to compare with perturbative results. Universality is checked by the computation of the spin-spin correlation function decay exponent obtained with different types of probability distributions of the coupling strengths. Our numerical data, compared to perturbative results for the second moment of the correlation function, obtained with both replica symmetry and replica symmetry breaking schemes,…
According to the droplet picture of spin glasses, the low-temperature phase of spin glasses should be replica symmetric. However, analysis of the stability of this state suggested that it was unstable and this instability lends support to the Parisi replica symmetry breaking picture of spin glasses. The finite-size scaling functions in the critical region of spin glasses below T_c in dimensions greater than 6 can be determined and for them the replica symmetric solution is unstable order by order in perturbation theory. Nevertheless the exact solution can be shown to be replica-symmetric. It i…
We expand asymptotically mean-field solutions of the $p<4$ Potts glass with various levels of replica-symmetry breaking below the transition temperature to the glassy phase. We find that the ordered phase is degenerate and solutions with one hierarchy of spin replicas and with the full continuous replica-symmetry breaking coexist for $p> p^{*} \approx 2.82$. The latter emerges immediately with the instability of the replica-symmetric one. Apart from these two solutions there exists also a succession of unstable states converging to the solution with the continuous replica-symmetry breaking tha…
The sample-to-sample fluctuations of the free energy in finite-dimensional Ising spin glasses are calculated, using the replica method, from higher order terms in the replica number $n$. It is shown that the Parisi symmetry breaking scheme does not give the correct answers for these higher order terms. A modified symmetry breaking scheme with the same stability is shown to resolve the problem.
The low-temperature instability of one-step replica symmetry breaking (1RSB) phase in 3-state Potts spin glass is obtained explicitly. The temperature of the instability is higher than the temperature where the 1RSB entropy becomes negative. The conjecture of the possibility of the low-temperature full RSB is supported.
Here we review the approach to glassy systems based on the replica method and we introduce the main ingredients of replica symmetry breaking. We explain why the replica method has been successful in spin glass and why it should be successful for real glasses.
We study the violation of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem in the three and four dimensional Gaussian Ising spin glasses using on and off equilibrium simulations. We have characterized numerically the function X(C) that determine the violation and we have studied its scaling properties. Moreover we have computed the function x(C) which characterize the breaking of the replica symmetry directly from equilibrium simulations. The two functions are numerically equal and in this way we have established that the conjectured connection between the violation of fluctuation dissipation theorem in th…
We present a general and powerful numerical method useful to study the density matrix of spin models. We apply the method to finite dimensional spin glasses, and we analyze in detail the four dimensional Edwards-Anderson model with Gaussian quenched random couplings. Our results clearly support the existence of replica symmetry breaking in the thermodynamical limit.
We address the question of geometrical as well as energetic properties of local excitations in mean field Ising spin glasses. We study analytically the Random Energy Model and numerically a dilute mean field model, first on tree-like graphs, equivalent to a replica symmetric computation, and then directly on finite connectivity random lattices. In the first model, characterized by a discontinuous replica symmetry breaking, we found that the energy of finite volume excitation is infinite whereas in the dilute mean field model, described by a continuous replica symmetry breaking, it slowly decre…
Symmetry considerations and a direct, Hubbard-Stratonovich type, derivation are used to construct a replica field-theory relevant to the study of the spin glass transition of short range models in a magnetic field. A mean-field treatment reveals that two different types of transitions exist, whenever the replica number n is kept larger than zero. The Sherrington-Kirkpatrick critical point in zero magnetic field between the paramagnet and replica magnet (a replica symmetric phase with a nonzero spin glass order parameter) separates from the de Almeida-Thouless line, along which replica symmetry…
The leading term for the average height of the barriers which could separate pure states in Ising spin glasses is calculated using instanton methods. It is finite in dimensions $d < 6$. Replica symmetry breaking requires that the barriers between pure states are infinite in the thermodynamic limit, as finite barriers allow thermal mixing of pure states. As a consequence, a replica symmetry broken phase cannot survive when $d < 6$. However, for $d > 6$ no similar instanton solution exists.
The analysis of the solution with full replica symmetry breaking in the vicinity of $T_c$ of a general spin glass model with reflection symmetry is performed. The leading term in the order parameter function expansion is obtained. Parisi equation for the model is written.
We solve the q-state Potts model with anti-ferromagnetic interactions on large random lattices of finite coordination. Due to the frustration induced by the large loops and to the local tree-like structure of the lattice this model behaves as a mean field spin glass. We use the cavity method to compute the temperature-coordination phase diagram and to determine the location of the dynamic and static glass transitions, and of the Gardner instability. We show that for q>=4 the model possesses a phenomenology similar to the one observed in structural glasses. We also illustrate the links between …
We analyze thermodynamic behavior of general $n$-component mean-field spin glass models in order to identify origin of the hierarchical structure of the order parameters from the replica-symmetry breaking solution. We derive a configurationally dependent free energy with local magnetizations and averaged local susceptibilities as order parameters. On an example of the replicated Ising spin glass we demonstrate that the hierarchy of order parameters in mean-field models results from the structure of inter-replica susceptibilities. These susceptibilities serve for lifting the degeneracy due to t…
After briefly describing the present status of the spin glass theory, we present a conjecture on the exact location of the multicritical point in the phase diagram of finite-dimensional spin glasses. The theory enables us to understand in a unified way many numerical results for two-, three- and four-dimensional models including the +-J Ising model, random Potts model, random lattice gauge theory, and random Zq model. It is also suggested from the same theoretical framework that models with symmetric distribution of randomness in exchange interaction have no finite-temperature transition on th…
We discuss a phase transition in spin glass models which have been rarely considered in the past, namely the phase transition that may take place when two real replicas are forced to be at a larger distance (i.e. at a smaller overlap) than the typical one. In the first part of the work, by solving analytically the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model in a field close to its critical point, we show that even in a paramagnetic phase the forcing of two real replicas to an overlap small enough leads the model to a phase transition where the symmetry between replicas is spontaneously broken. More importan…
We introduce a new disordered system, the Super-Potts model, which is a more frustrated version of the Potts glass. Its elementary degrees of freedom are variables that can take M values and are coupled via pair-wise interactions. Its exact solution on a completely connected lattice demonstrates that for large enough M it belongs to the class of mean-field systems solved by a one step replica symmetry breaking Ansatz. Numerical simulations by the parallel tempering technique show that in three dimensions it displays a phenomenological behaviour similar to the one of glass-forming liquids. The …
We study spin glasses on random lattices with finite connectivity. In the infinite connectivity limit they reduce to the Sherrington Kirkpatrick model. In this paper we investigate the expansion around the high connectivity limit. Within the replica symmetry breaking scheme at two steps, we compute the free energy at the first order in the expansion in inverse powers of the average connectivity (z), both for the fixed connectivity and for the fluctuating connectivity random lattices. It is well known that the coefficient of the 1/z correction for the free energy is divergent at low temperature…
We consider short-range Ising spin glasses in equilibrium at infinite system size, and prove that, for fixed bond realization and a given Gibbs state drawn from a suitable metastate, each translation- and locally-invariant function (for example, self-overlaps) of a single pure state in the decomposition of the Gibbs state takes the same value for all the pure states in that Gibbs state. We describe several significant applications to spin glasses.
We numerically calculate the exponent for the disorder averaged and fixed-sample decay of the energy-energy correlator in the q-state random-bond Potts model. Our results are in good agreement with a two-loop expansion (cond-mat/9910181) around q=2 recently found from perturbative renormalisation group techniques, fulfill the correlation length bound ν>= 2/d, and give further evidence against replica symmetry breaking in this class of models.
We review the approach to glasses based on the replica formalism. The replica approach presented here is a first principle's approach which aims at deriving the main glass properties from the microscopic Hamiltonian. In contrast to the old use of replicas in the theory of disordered systems, this replica approach applies also to systems without quenched disorder (in this sense, replicas have nothing to do with computing the average of a logarithm of the partition function). It has the advantage of describing in an unified setting both the behaviour near the dynamic transition (mode coupling tr…
In this note I present a simplified version of the recent computation (Mezard and Parisi 1998, 1999) of the properties of glasses in the low temperature phase in the framework of the replica theory, using an extension of the tools used in liquid theory. I will only consider here the case of the internal energy at T=0, which can be studied in a simple way without introducing replicas.
Infinite-range spin-glass models with Levy-distributed interactions show a freezing transition similar to disordered spin systems on finite connectivity random graphs. It is shown that despite diverging moments of the local field distribution this transition can be analyzed within the replica approach by working at imaginary temperature and using a variant of the replica method developed for diluted systems and optimization problems. The replica-symmetric self-consistent equation for the distribution of local fields illustrates how the long tail in the distribution of coupling strengths gives …
We investigate partition-function zeros of the many-body interacting spherical spin glass, the so-called $p$-spin spherical model, with respect to the complex temperature in the thermodynamic limit. We use the replica method and extend the procedure of the replica symmetry breaking ansatz to be applicable in the complex-parameter case. We derive the phase diagrams in the complex-temperature plane and calculate the density of zeros in each phase. Near the imaginary axis away from the origin, there is a replica symmetric phase having a large density. On the other hand, we observe no density in t…
We present the results of Monte Carlo simulations of two different 10-state Potts glasses with random nearest neighbor interactions on a simple cubic lattice. In the first model the interactions come from a \pm J distribution and in the second model from a Gaussian one, and in both cases the first two moments of the distribution are chosen to be equal to J_0=-1 and Delta J=1. At low temperatures the spin autocorrelation function for the \pm J model relaxes in several steps whereas the one for the Gaussian model shows only one. In both systems the relaxation time increases like an Arrhenius law…
In these two lectures I review our theoretical understanding of spin glasses paying a particular attention to the basic physical ideas. We introduce the replica method and we describe its probabilistic consequences (we stress the recently discovered importance of stochastic stability). We show that the replica method is not restricted to systems with quenched disorder. We present the consequences on the dynamics of the system when it slows approaches equilibrium are presented: they are confirmed by large scale simulations, while we are still awaiting for a direct experimental
Systems of globally coupled logistic maps (GCLM) can display complex collective behaviour characterized by the formation of synchronous clusters. In the dynamical clustering regime, such systems possess a large number of coexisting attractors and might be viewed as dynamical glasses. Glass properties of GCLM in the thermodynamical limit of large system sizes $N$ are investigated. Replicas, representing orbits that start from various initial conditions, are introduced and distributions of their overlaps are numerically determined. We show that for fixed-field ensembles of initial conditions, as…
We introduce a three replica potential useful to examine the structure of metastables states above the static transition temperature, in the spherical p-spin model. Studying the minima of the potential we are able to find which is the distance between the nearest equilibrium and local equilibrium states, obtaining in this way information on the dynamics of the system. Furthermore, the analysis of the potential at the dynamical transition temperature suggests that equilibrium states are not randomly distributed in the phase space.
A formalism capable of handling the first step of hierarchical replica symmetry breaking in finite-connectivity models is introduced. The emerging order parameter is claimed to be a probability distribution over the space of field distributions (or, equivalently magnetisation distributions) inside the cluster of states. The approach is shown to coincide with the previous works in the replica symmetric case and in the two limit cases m=0,1 where m is Parisi's break-point. As an application to the study of optimization problems, the ground-state properties of the random 3-Satisfiability problem …
This paper gives an introduction and brief overview of some of our recent work on the equilibrium thermodynamics of glasses. We have focused onto first principle computations in simple fragile glasses, starting from the two body interatomic potential. A replica formulation translates this problem into that of a gas of interacting molecules, each molecule being built of $m$ atoms, and having a gyration radius (related to the cage size) which vanishes at zero temperature. We use a small cage expansion, valid at low temperatures, which allows to compute the cage size, the specific heat (which fol…
We introduce a new parameter to investigate replica symmetry breaking transitions using finite-size scaling methods. Based on exact equalities initially derived by F. Guerra this parameter is a direct check of the self-averaging character of the spin-glass order parameter. This new parameter can be used to study models with time reversal symmetry but its greatest interest concerns models where this symmetry is absent. We apply the method to long-range and short-range Ising spin glasses with and without magnetic field as well as short-range multispin interaction spin glasses.
We consider an infinite-range spherical p-spin glass model with an additional r-spin ferromagnetic interaction, both statically using a replica analysis and dynamically via a generating functional method. For r>2 we find that there are first order transitions to ferromagnetic phases. For r<p there are two ferromagnetic phases, one non-glassy replica symmetric and one exhibiting glassy one-step replica symmetry breaking and aging, whereas for r>=p only the replica symmetric phase exists.
The low-temperature phase of discontinuous mean-field spin glasses is generally described by a one-step replica symmetry breaking (1RSB) Ansatz. The Gardner transition, i.e. a very-low-temperature phase transition to a full replica symmetry breaking (FRSB) phase, is often regarded as an inessential, and somehow exotic phenomenon. In this paper we show that the metastable states which are relevant for the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of such systems are always in a FRSB phase. The only exceptions are (to the best of our knowledge) the p-spin spherical model and the random energy model (REM). We …
We present a first principle scheme to compute the rigidity, i. e. the shear-modulus of structural glasses at finite temperatures using the cloned liquid theory, which combines the replica theory and the liquid theory. With the aid of the replica method which enables disentanglement of thermal fluctuations in liquids into intra-state and inter-state fluctuations, we extract the rigidity of metastable amorphous solid states in the supercooled liquid and glass phases. The result can be understood intuitively without replicas. As a test case, we apply the scheme to the supercooled and glassy stat…
We compute the shear modulus of amorphous hard and soft spheres, using the exact solution in infinite spatial dimensions that has been developed recently. We characterize the behavior of this observable in the whole phase diagram, and in particular around the glass and jamming transitions. Our results are consistent with other theoretical approaches, that are unified within this general picture, and they are also consistent with numerical and experimental results. Furthermore, we discuss some properties of the out-of-equilibrium dynamics after a deep quench close to the jamming transition, and…
The variational principle (VP) has been used to capture the metastable states of a glass-forming molecular system without quenched disorder. It has been shown that VP naturally leads to a self-consistent random field Ginzburg-Landau model (RFGLM). In the framework of one-step replica symmetry breaking (1-RSB) the general solution of RFGLM is discussed in the vicinity of the spinodal temperature T_{A} in terms of ``hidden'' formfactors $\tilde g(k)$, g_{0}(k) and $Δ(k)$. The self-generated disorder spontaneously arises. It is argued that at T < T_{A} the activated dynamics is dominant.
Potts glasses are prototype models that have been used to understand the structural glass transition. However, in finite space dimensions a glass transition remains to be detected in the 10-state Potts glass. Using a one-dimensional model with long-range power-law interactions we present evidence that a glass transition below the upper critical dimension can exist for short-range systems at low enough temperatures. Gaining insights into the structural glass transition for short-range systems using spin models is thus potentially possible, yet difficult.
Simulational studies of spin glasses in the last decade have focussed on the so-called replicon exponent $α$ as a means of determining whether the low-temperature phase of spin glasses is described by the replica symmetry breaking picture of Parisi or by the droplet-scaling picture. On the latter picture, it should be zero, but we shall argue that it will only be zero for systems of linear dimension $L > L^*$. The crossover length $L^*$ may be of the order of hundreds of lattice spacings in three dimensions and approach infinity in 6 dimensions. We use the droplet-scaling picture to show that …
uch experimental and theoretical efforts have been devoted in the past twenty years to search for a genuine thermodynamic reentrant phase transition from a ferromagnetic to either a paramagnetic or spin glass phase in disordered ferromagnets. So far, no real system or theoretical model of a short-range spin glass system has been shown to convincingly display such a reentrant transition. We present here results from Migdal-Kadanoff real-space renormalization-group calculations that provide for the first time strong evidence for ferromagnetic to paramagnetic reentrance in Potts spin glasses on h…
