Recent high precision experimental results on spin-glass films ask for a detailed understanding of the domain-growth dynamics of two-dimensional spin glasses. To achieve this goal, we numerically simulate the out-equilibrium dynamics of the Ising spin glass for a time that spans close to twelve orders of magnitude (from picoseconds to order of a second), in systems large enough to avoid finite-size effects. We find that the time-growth of the size of the glassy domains is excellently described by a single scaling function. A single time-scale tau (T) controls the dynamics. tau (T) diverges upon approaching the T = 0 critical point. The divergence of tau (T -> 0) is Arrhenius-like, with a barrier height that depends very mildly on temperature. The growth of this barrier-height is best described by critical dynamics. As a side product we obtain an impressive confirmation of universality of the equilibrium behavior of two-dimensional spin-glasses.
The statics-dynamics correspondence in spin glasses relate non-equilibrium results on large samples (the experimental realm) with equilibrium quantities computed on small systems (the typical arena for theoretical computations). Here we employ statics-dynamics equivalence to study the Ising spin-glass critical behavior in three dimensions. By means of Monte Carlo simulation, we follow the growth of the coherence length (the size of the glassy domains), on lattices too large to be thermalized. Thanks to the large coherence lengths we reach, we are able to obtain accurate results in excellent agreement with the best available equilibrium computations. To do so, we need to clarify the several physical meanings of the dynamic exponent close to the critical temperature.
The statics-dynamics correspondence in spin glasses relate nonequilibrium results on large samples (the experimental realm) with equilibrium quantities computed on small systems (the typical arena for theoretical computations). Here we employ statics-dynamics equivalence to study the Ising spin-glass critical behavior in three dimensions. By means of Monte Carlo simulation, we follow the growth of the coherence length (the size of the glassy domains), on lattices too large to be thermalized. Thanks to the large coherence lengths we reach, we are able to obtain accurate results in excellent agreement with the best available equilibrium computations. To do so, we need to clarify the several physical meanings of the dynamic exponent close to the critical temperature.
I present an analysis of the dynamic behavior of short-range Ising spin glasses observed in stochastic simulations. The time dependence of the order parameter q(t)=〈
Sx(0)
Sx(t)〉\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}---which is the same as that of the structure factor---and the time dependence of the related dynamic correlation functions have been recorded with good statistics and very long observation times. The spin-glass model with a symmetric distribution of discrete nearest-neighbor \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}J interactions on a simple-cubic lattice was used. Simulations were performed with a special fast computer, allowing for the first-time investigation of the equilibrium dynamics for a wide range of temperatures (0.7\ensuremath{\le}kT/J\ensuremath{\le}5.0) and lattice sizes (
83,
163,
323, and
643). I have found that the empirical formula q(t)=${\mathrm{ct}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}x}$exp(-\ensuremath{\omega}${t}^{\ensuremath{\beta}}$) with temperature-dependent exponents x(T) and \ensuremath{\beta}(T) describes the decay very well at all temperatures above the spin-glass transition. In the spin-glass phase, only the algebraic decay q(t)=${\mathrm{ct}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}x}$ could be observed, with different temperature dependences of the exponent x(T). The dynamic scaling hypothesis and finite-size scaling explain well the observed temperature and size dependence of the data, and the functional form of the correlation functions is com- patible with the scaling form if corrections to scaling are taken into account. The scaling behavior and the dynamic and static critical exponents found in my simulations are in reasonable agreement with recent experiments performed on insulating spin glasses, showing that despite its simplicity the discrete model of spin glasses analyzed in this work displays behavior similar to that seen in nature.
We consider the nonequilibrium behavior of the spin-glass ordered phase within the droplet scaling theory introduced previously. The fundamental long-time nonequilibrium process is assumed to be the thermally activated growth of spin-glass ordered domains. The remanent magnetization, m(t), in zero field is found to decay at long times as m(t)\ensuremath{\sim}${R}_{t}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\lambda}}$, where
Rt\ensuremath{\sim}(lnt${)}^{1/\ensuremath{\psi}}$ is the linear domain size, \ensuremath{\psi} is the previously introduced barrier exponent describing the growth of activation-barrier heights with length scale, and \ensuremath{\lambda} is a new nonequilibrium dynamic exponent, satisfying the relation \ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\ge}d/2 for d-dimensional systems. The effects of waiting for partial equilibration before making a measurement are studied in various regimes. The effects of quenching first to one temperature and then to another are also examined. Such experiments can, in principle, be used to obtain information about the relative rate of dynamic evolution as well as the overlap between the equilibrium states at different temperatures. In particular, the length scale ${L}_{\ensuremath{\Delta}T}$, below which equilibrium correlations at temperatures T and T+\ensuremath{\Delta}T are similar, plays an important role. The decay of m(t) and the growth of spin-glass order after a quench are examined in Monte Carlo simulations of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model.
We have studied numerically the dynamics of spin glasses with Ising and
XY symmetry (gauge glass) in space dimensions 2, 3, and 4. The nonequilibrium spin-glass susceptibility ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{ne}}({t}_{\mathrm{w}},T)$ and the nonequilibrium energy per spin,
ene(tw,T), of samples of large size
Lb are measured as a function of anneal time
tw after a quench to temperatures
T. The two observables are compared to the equilibrium spin-glass susceptibility ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{eq}}(L,T)$ and the equilibrium energy
eeq(L,T), respectively, measured as functions of temperature
T and system size
L for a range of system sizes. For any time and temperature a nonequilibrium time-dependent length scale
L∗(tw,T) can be defined by writing ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{ne}}({t}_{\mathrm{w}},T)={\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\mathrm{eq}}({L}^{*},T)$ (or the equivalent expression for the energy). Our analysis shows that for all systems studied, an ``effective dynamical critical exponent'' parametrization
L∗(tw,T)=A(T)t1∕z(T) fits the data well at each temperature within the whole temperature range studied, which extends from well above the critical temperature
Tc to near
T=0 for dimension 2 or to well below
Tc for the other space dimensions studied. In addition, the data suggest that the dynamical exponent
z varies smoothly when crossing the transition temperature.