Liquid-glass transition in equilibrium

We show in numerical simulations that a system of two coupled replicas of a binary mixture of hard spheres undergoes a phase transition in equilibrium at a density slightly smaller than the glass transition density for an unreplicated system. This result is in agreement with the theories that predict that such a transition is a precursor of the standard ideal glass transition. The critical properties are compatible with those of an Ising system. The relations of this approach to the conventional approach based on configurational entropy are briefly discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, version accepted for publication in the Physical Review

Glue Ball Masses and the Chameleon Gauge

We introduce a new numerical technique to compute mass spectra, based on difference method and on a new gauge fixing procedure. We show that the method is very effective by test runs on a $SU(2)$ lattice gauge theory.Comment: latex format, 10 pages, 4 figures added in uufiles forma

DD-dimensional Arrays of Josephson Junctions, Spin Glasses and qq-deformed Harmonic Oscillators

We study the statistical mechanics of a $D$-dimensional array of Josephson junctions in presence of a magnetic field. In the high temperature region the thermodynamical properties can be computed in the limit $D \to \infty$, where the problem is simplified; this limit is taken in the framework of the mean field approximation. Close to the transition point the system behaves very similar to a particular form of spin glasses, i.e. to gauge glasses. We have noticed that in this limit the evaluation of the coefficients of the high temperature expansion may be mapped onto the computation of some matrix elements for the $q$-deformed harmonic oscillator

A pedagogical introduction to the replica method for fragile glasses

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.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure Talk given at Andalo, March 1999; minor errors have been correcte

Replica analysis of partition-function zeros in spin-glass models

We study the partition-function zeros in mean-field spin-glass models. We show that the replica method is useful to find the locations of zeros in a complex parameter plane. For the random energy model, we obtain the phase diagram in the plane and find that there are two types of distribution of zeros: two-dimensional distribution within a phase and one-dimensional one on a phase boundary. Phases with a two-dimensional distribution are characterized by a novel order parameter defined in the present replica analysis. We also discuss possible patterns of distributions by studying several systems.Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures; minor change

Small Window Overlaps Are Effective Probes of Replica Symmetry Breaking in 3D Spin Glasses

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.Comment: 9 pages plus 5 figure

On the Use of Optimized Monte Carlo Methods for Studying Spin Glasses

We start from recently published numerical data by Hatano and Gubernatis cond-mat/0008115 to discuss properties of convergence to equilibrium of optimized Monte Carlo methods (bivariate multi canonical and parallel tempering). We show that these data are not thermalized, and they lead to an erroneous physical picture. We shed some light on why the bivariate multi canonical Monte Carlo method can fail.Comment: 6 pages, 5 eps figures include

Temperature chaos in 3D Ising Spin Glasses is driven by rare events

Temperature chaos has often been reported in literature as a rare-event driven phenomenon. However, this fact has always been ignored in the data analysis, thus erasing the signal of the chaotic behavior (still rare in the sizes achieved) and leading to an overall picture of a weak and gradual phenomenon. On the contrary, our analysis relies on a large-deviations functional that allows to discuss the size dependencies. In addition, we had at our disposal unprecedentedly large configurations equilibrated at low temperatures, thanks to the Janus computer. According to our results, when temperature chaos occurs its effects are strong and can be felt even at short distances.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

On the most compact regular lattice in large dimensions: A statistical mechanical approach

In this paper I will approach the computation of the maximum density of regular lattices in large dimensions using a statistical mechanics approach. The starting point will be some theorems of Roger, which are virtually unknown in the community of physicists. Using his approach one can see that there are many similarities (and differences) with the problem of computing the entropy of a liquid of perfect spheres. The relation between the two problems is investigated in details. Some conjectures are presented, that need further investigation in order to check their consistency.Comment: 27 page

Four loop results for the 2D O(n) nonlinear sigma model with 0-loop and 1-loop Symanzik actions

We present complete three loop results and preliminary four loop results for the 2D O(n) nonlinear sigma model with 0-loop and 1-loop Symanzik improved actions. This calculation aims to test the improvement in the numerical precision that the combination of Symanzik actions and effective couplings can give in Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: LATTICE99(spin models). 3 pages, contains espcrc2.sty fil