Thermodynamic glass transition in a spin glass without time-reversal symmetry
Abstract
Spin glasses are a longstanding model for the sluggish dynamics that appears at the glass transition. However, spin glasses differ from structural glasses for a crucial feature: they enjoy a time reversal symmetry. This symmetry can be broken by applying an external magnetic field, but embarrassingly little is known about the critical behaviour of a spin glass in a field. In this context, the space dimension is crucial. Simulations are easier to interpret in a large number of dimensions, but one must work below the upper critical dimension (i.e., in d<6) in order for results to have relevance for experiments. Here we show conclusive evidence for the presence of a phase transition in a four-dimensional spin glass in a field. Two ingredients were crucial for this achievement: massive numerical simulations were carried out on the Janus special-purpose computer, and a new and powerful finite-size scaling method.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1202.5593,
title = {Thermodynamic glass transition in a spin glass without time-reversal symmetry},
author = {Janus Collaboration and R. A. Baños and A. Cruz and L. A. Fernandez and J. M. Gil-Narvion and A. Gordillo-Guerrero and M. Guidetti and D. Iñiguez and A. Maiorano and E. Marinari and V. Martin-Mayor and J. Monforte-Garcia and A. Muñoz Sudupe and D. Navarro and G. Parisi and S. Perez-Gaviro and J. J. Ruiz-Lorenzo and S. F. Schifano and B. Seoane and A. Tarancon and P. Tellez and R. Tripiccione and D. Yllanes},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1202.5593},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
10 pages, 6 figures