Ground-state energy fluctuations in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model

The probability distribution function (PDF) of the ground-state energy in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spin-glass model is numerically determined by collecting a large statistical sample of ground states, computed using a genetic algorithm. It is shown that the standard deviation of the ground-state energy per spin scales with the number of spins, N, as N^{-\rho} with \rho \simeq 0.765, but the value \rho=3/4 is also compatible with the data, while the previously proposed value \rho=5/6 is ruled out. The PDF satisfies finite-size scaling with a non-Gaussian asymptotic PDF, which can be fitted remarkably well by the Gumbel distribution for the m-th smallest element in a set of random variables, with m \simeq 6.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures. Some changes in the text, references corrected, plot of Tracy-Widom distribution adde

Improving free-energy estimates from unidirectional work measurements: theory and experiment

We derive analytical expressions for the bias of the Jarzynski free-energy estimator from N nonequilibrium work measurements, for a generic work distribution. To achieve this, we map the estimator onto the Random Energy Model in a suitable scaling limit parametrized by (log N)/m, where m measures the width of the lower tail of the work distribution, and then compute the finite-N corrections to this limit with different approaches for different regimes of (log N)/m. We show that these expressions describe accurately the bias for a wide class of work distributions, and exploit them to build an improved free-energy estimator from unidirectional work measurements. We apply the method to optical tweezers unfolding/refolding experiments on DNA hairpins of varying loop size and dissipation, displaying both near-Gaussian and non-Gaussian work distributions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Reply to Comment on "Triviality of the Ground State Structure in Ising Spin Glasses"

We reply to the comment of Marinari and Parisi [cond-mat/0002457 v2] on our paper [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 5126 (1999) and cond-mat/9906323]. We show that the data in the comment are affected by strong finite-size corrections. Therefore the original conclusion of our paper still stands.Comment: Reply to comment cond-mat/0002457 on cond-mat/9906323. Final version with minor change

Order-parameter fluctuations in Ising spin glasses at low temperatures

We present a numerical study of the order-parameter fluctuations for Ising spin glasses in three and four dimensions at very low temperatures and without an external field. Accurate measurements of two previously introduced parameters, A and G, show that the order parameter is not self-averaging, consistent with a zero-temperature thermal exponent value \theta' \simeq 0, and confirm the validity of the relation G=1/3 in the thermodynamic limit in the whole low-temperature phase, as predicted by stochastic stability arguments.Comment: 7 pages, 7 eps figures, RevTe

Monte Carlo Simulations of Spin Glasses at Low Temperatures

We report the results of Monte Carlo simulations on several spin glass models at low temperatures. By using the parallel tempering (Exchange Monte Carlo) technique we are able to equilibrate down to low temperatures, for moderate sizes, and hence the data should not be affected by critical fluctuations. Our results for short range models are consistent with a picture proposed earlier that there are large scale excitations which cost only a finite energy in the thermodynamic limit, and these excitations have a surface whose fractal dimension is less than the space dimension. For the infinite range Viana-Bray model, our results obtained for a similar number of spins are consistent with standard replica symmetry breaking.Comment: 12 pages, 21 postscript figures included. Replaced by published versio