Inherent Structures in m-component Spin Glasses

We observe numerically the properties of the infinite-temperature inherent structures of m-component vector spin glasses in three dimensions. An increase of m implies a decrease of the amount of minima of the free energy, down to the trivial presence of a unique minimum. For little m correlations are small and the dynamics are quickly arrested, while for larger m low-temperature correlations crop up and the convergence is slower, to a limit that appears to be related with the system size.Comment: Version accepted in Phys. Rev. B, 10 pages, 11 figure

On the Effects of Changing the Boundary Conditions on the Ground State of Ising Spin Glasses

We compute and analyze couples of ground states of 3D spin glass systems with the same quenched noise but periodic and anti-periodic boundary conditions for different lattice sizes. We discuss the possible different behaviors of the system, we analyze the average link overlap, the probability distribution of window overlaps (among ground states computed with different boundary conditions) and the spatial overlap and link overlap correlation functions. We establish that the picture based on Replica Symmetry Breaking correctly describes the behavior of 3D Spin Glasses.Comment: 25 pages with 11 ps figures include

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 origin of ultrametricity

In this paper we show that in systems where the probability distribution of the the overlap is non trivial in the infinity volume limit, the property of ultrametricity can be proved in general starting from two very simple and natural assumptions: each replica is equivalent to the others (replica equivalence or stochastic stability) and all the mutual information about a pair of equilibrium configurations is encoded in their mutual distance or overlap (separability or overlap equivalence).Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur

A numerical study of the overlap probability distribution and its sample-to-sample fluctuations in a mean-field model

In this paper we study the fluctuations of the probability distributions of the overlap in mean field spin glasses in the presence of a magnetic field on the De Almeida-Thouless line. We find that there is a large tail in the left part of the distribution that is dominated by the contributions of rare samples. Different techniques are used to examine the data and to stress on different aspects of the contribution of rare samples.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure

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

The mean field theory of spin glasses: the heuristic replica approach and recent rigorous results

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 that may be useful to derive the solution of the model in an alternative way.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure; lecture at the Flato Colloquia Day, Thursday 27 November, 200

SCALING AND INTERMITTENCY IN BURGERS' TURBULENCE

We use the mapping between Burgers' equation and the problem of a directed polymer in a random medium in order to study the fully developped turbulence in the $N$ dimensional forced Burgers' equation. The stirring force corresponds to a quenched (spatio temporal) random potential for the polymer. The properties of the inertial regime are deduced from a study of the directed polymer on length scales smaller than the correlation length of the potential. From this study we propose an Ansatz for the velocity field in the large Reynolds number limit of the forced Burgers' equation in $N$ dimensions. This Ansatz allows us to compute exactly the full probability distribution of the velocity difference $u(r)$ between points separated by a distance $r$ much smaller than the correlation length of the forcing. We find that the moments $$ scale as $r^{\zeta(q)}$ with $\zeta(q) \equiv 1$ for all $q \geq 1$. This strong `intermittency' is related to the large scale singularities of the velocity field, which is concentrated on a $N-1$ dimensional froth-like structure.Comment: 35 pages latex, 4 ps figures in separate uufiles package