Quasiclassical frustration

We study the dissipative properties of a harmonic oscillator subject to two independent heat baths, one of which couples to its position and the other one to its momentum. This model describes a large spin impurity in a ferromagnet. We find that some effects of the two heat baths partially cancel each other. Most notably, oscillations may remain underdamped for arbitrarily strong coupling. This effect is a direct consequence of the mutually conjugate character of position and momentum. For a single dissipative bath coupled linearly to both position and momentum, no underdamped regime is possible for strong coupling. The dynamics of purity loss for one and two wave packets is also investigated

Frustration in Biomolecules

Biomolecules are the prime information processing elements of living matter. Most of these inanimate systems are polymers that compute their structures and dynamics using as input seemingly random character strings of their sequence, following which they coalesce and perform integrated cellular functions. In large computational systems with a finite interaction-codes, the appearance of conflicting goals is inevitable. Simple conflicting forces can lead to quite complex structures and behaviors, leading to the concept of "frustration" in condensed matter. We present here some basic ideas about frustration in biomolecules and how the frustration concept leads to a better appreciation of many aspects of the architecture of biomolecules, and how structure connects to function. These ideas are simultaneously both seductively simple and perilously subtle to grasp completely. The energy landscape theory of protein folding provides a framework for quantifying frustration in large systems and has been implemented at many levels of description. We first review the notion of frustration from the areas of abstract logic and its uses in simple condensed matter systems. We discuss then how the frustration concept applies specifically to heteropolymers, testing folding landscape theory in computer simulations of protein models and in experimentally accessible systems. Studying the aspects of frustration averaged over many proteins provides ways to infer energy functions useful for reliable structure prediction. We discuss how frustration affects folding, how a large part of the biological functions of proteins are related to subtle local frustration effects and how frustration influences the appearance of metastable states, the nature of binding processes, catalysis and allosteric transitions. We hope to illustrate how Frustration is a fundamental concept in relating function to structural biology.Comment: 97 pages, 30 figure

Glass transition in models with controlled frustration

A class of models with self-generated disorder and controlled frustration is studied. Between the trivial case, where frustration is not present at all, and the limit case, where frustration is present over every length scale, a region with local frustration is found where glassy dynamics appears. We suggest that in this region, the mean field model might undergo a p-spin like transition, and increasing the range of frustration, a crossover from a 1-step replica symmetry breaking to a continuous one might be observed.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Overfrustrated and Underfrustrated Spin-Glasses in d=3 and 2: Evolution of Phase Diagrams and Chaos Including Spin-Glass Order in d=2

In spin-glass systems, frustration can be adjusted continuously and considerably, without changing the antiferromagnetic bond probability p, by using locally correlated quenched randomness, as we demonstrate here on hypercubic lattices and hierarchical lattices. Such overfrustrated and underfrustrated Ising systems on hierarchical lattices in d=3 and 2 are studied. With the removal of just 51 % of frustration, a spin-glass phase occurs in d=2. With the addition of just 33 % frustration, the spin-glass phase disappears in d=3. Sequences of 18 different phase diagrams for different levels of frustration are calculated in both dimensions. In general, frustration lowers the spin-glass ordering temperature. At low temperatures, increased frustration favors the spin-glass phase (before it disappears) over the ferromagnetic phase and symmetrically the antiferromagnetic phase. When any amount, including infinitesimal, frustration is introduced, the chaotic rescaling of local interactions occurs in the spin-glass phase. Chaos increases with increasing frustration, as seen from the increased positive value of the calculated Lyapunov exponent $\lambda$, starting from $\lambda =0$ when frustration is absent. The calculated runaway exponent $y_R$ of the renormalization-group flows decreases with increasing frustration to $y_R=0$ when the spin-glass phase disappears. From our calculations of entropy and specific heat curves in d=3, it is seen that frustration lowers in temperature the onset of both long- and short-range order in spin-glass phases, but is more effective on the former. From calculations of the entropy as a function of antiferromagnetic bond concentration p, it is seen that the ground-state and low-temperature entropy already mostly sets in within the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases, before the spin-glass phase is reached.Comment: Published version, 18 phase diagrams, 12 figures, 10 page

Supersolidity, entropy and frustration

We study the properties of t-t'-V model of hard-core bosons on the triangular lattice that can be realized in optical lattices. By mapping to the spin-1/2 XXZ model in a field, we determine the phase diagram of the t-V model where the supersolid characterized by the ordering pattern (x,x,-2x') ("ferrimagnetic" or SS A) is a ground state for chemical potential \mu >3V. By turning on either temperature or t' at half-filling \mu =3V, we find a first order transition from SS A to the elusive supersolid characterized by the (x,-x,0) ordering pattern ("antiferromagnetic" or SS C). In addition, we find a large region where a superfluid phase becomes a solid upon raising temperature at fixed chemical potential. This is an analog of the Pomeranchuk effect driven by the large entropic effects associated with geometric frustration on the triangular lattice.Comment: 4 pages, igures, LaTe

Combined effect of frustration and dimerization in ferrimagnetic chains and square lattice

Within the zero-temperature linear spin-wave theory we have investigated the effect of frustration and dimerization of a Heisenberg system with alternating spins $s_{1}$ and $s_{2}$ on one- and two-dimensional lattices. The combined effect most visibly appears in the elementary excitation spectra. In contrast to the ground state energy that decreases with dimerization and increases with frustration, the excitation energies are shown to be suppressed in energy by both dimerization and frustration. The threshold value of frustration that signals a transition from a classical ferrimagnetic state to a spiral state, decreases with dimerization, showing that dimerization further helps in the phase transition. The correlation length and sublattice magnetization decrease with both dimerization and frustration indicating the destruction of the long-range classical ferrimagnetic. The linear spin wave theory shows that in the case of a square lattice, dimerization initially opposes the frustration-led transition to a spiral magnetic state, but then higher magnitudes of lattice deformation facilitate the transition. It also shows that the transition to spiral state is inhibited in a square lattice beyond a certain value of dimerization.Comment: 8 pages, latex, 12 postscript figure