Spin glasses without time-reversal symmetry and the absence of a genuine structural glass transition

We study the three-spin model and the Ising spin glass in a field using Migdal-Kadanoff approximation. The flows of the couplings and fields indicate no phase transition, but they show even for the three-spin model a slow crossover to the asymptotic high-temperature behaviour for strong values of the couplings. We also evaluated a quantity that is a measure of the degree of non-self-averaging, and we found that it can become large for certain ranges of the parameters and the system sizes. For the spin glass in a field the maximum of non-self-averaging follows for given system size a line that resembles the de Almeida-Thouless line. We conclude that non-self-averaging found in Monte-Carlo simulations cannot be taken as evidence for the existence of a low-temperature phase with replica-symmetry breaking. Models similar to the three-spin model have been extensively discussed in order to provide a description of structural glasses. Their theory at mean-field level resembles the mode-coupling theory of real glasses. At that level the one-step replica symmetry approach breaking predicts two transitions, the first transition being dynamical and the second thermodynamical. Our results suggest that in real finite dimensional glasses there will be no genuine transitions at all, but that some features of mean-field theory could still provide some useful insights.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

Numerical Study of Competing Spin-Glass and Ferromagnetic Order

Two and three dimensional random Ising models with a Gaussian distribution of couplings with variance $J$ and non-vanishing mean value $J_0$ are studied using the zero-temperature domain-wall renormalization group (DWRG). The DWRG trajectories in the ($J_0,J$) plane after rescaling can be collapsed on two curves: one for $J_0/J > r_c$ and other for $J_0/J < r_c$. In the first case the DWRG flows are toward the ferromagnetic fixed point both in two and three dimensions while in the second case flows are towards a paramagnetic fixed point and spin-glass fixed point in two and three dimensions respectively. No evidence for an extra phase is found.Comment: a bit more data is taken, 5 pages, 4 eps figures included, to appear in PR

Ownership and control in a competitive industry

We study a differentiated product market in which an investor initially owns a controlling stake in one of two competing firms and may acquire a non-controlling or a controlling stake in a competitor, either directly using her own assets, or indirectly via the controlled firm. While industry profits are maximized within a symmetric two product monopoly, the investor attains this only in exceptional cases. Instead, she sometimes acquires a noncontrolling stake. Or she invests asymmetrically rather than pursuing a full takeover if she acquires a controlling one. Generally, she invests indirectly if she only wants to affect the product market outcome, and directly if acquiring shares is profitable per se. --differentiated products,separation of ownership and control,private benefits of control