Abstract We study a large- N bosonic quantum mechanical sigma-model with a spherical target space subject to disordered interactions, more colloquially known as the p -spin spherical model. Replica symmetry is broken at low temperatures and for sufficiently weak quantum fluctuations, which drives the system into a spin glass (SG) phase. The first half of this paper is dedicated to a discussion of this model’s thermodynamics, with particular emphasis on the marginally stable SG . This phase exhibits an emergent conformal symmetry in the strong coupling regime, which dictates its thermodynamic properties. It is associated with an extensive number of nearby states in the free energy landscape. We discuss in detail an elegant approximate solution to the SG equations, which interpolates between the conformal regime and an ultraviolet-complete short distance solution. In the second half of this paper we explore the real-time dynamics of the model and uncover quantum chaos as measured by out-of-time-order four-point functions, both numerically and analytically. We find exponential Lyapunov growth, which intricately depends on the model’s couplings and becomes strongest in the quantum critical regime. We emphasize that the SG phase also exhibits quantum chaos, albeit with parametrically smaller Lyapunov exponent than in the replica symmetric phase. An analytical calculation in the marginal SG phase suggests that this Lyapunov exponent vanishes in a particular infinite coupling limit. We comment on the potential meaning of these observations from the perspective of holography.
Abstract We study a large- N bosonic quantum mechanical sigma-model with a spherical target space subject to disordered interactions, more colloquially known as the p -spin spherical model. Replica symmetry is broken at low temperatures and for sufficiently weak quantum fluctuations, which drives the system into a spin glass (SG) phase. The first half of this paper is dedicated to a discussion of this model’s thermodynamics, with particular emphasis on the marginally stable SG . This phase exhibits an emergent conformal symmetry in the strong coupling regime, which dictates its thermodynamic properties. It is associated with an extensive number of nearby states in the free energy landscape. We discuss in detail an elegant approximate solution to the SG equations, which interpolates between the conformal regime and an ultraviolet-complete short distance solution. In the second half of this paper we explore the real-time dynamics of the model and uncover quantum chaos as measured by out-of-time-order four-point functions, both numerically and analytically. We find exponential Lyapunov growth, which intricately depends on the model’s couplings and becomes strongest in the quantum critical regime. We emphasize that the SG phase also exhibits quantum chaos, albeit with parametrically smaller Lyapunov exponent than in the replica symmetric phase. An analytical calculation in the marginal SG phase suggests that this Lyapunov exponent vanishes in a particular infinite coupling limit. We comment on the potential meaning of these observations from the perspective of holography.
We study a quantum extension of the spherical p-spin-glass model using the imaginary-time replica formalism. We solve the model numerically and we discuss two analytical approximation schemes that capture most of the features of the solution. The phase diagram and the physical properties of the system are determined in thermodynamic equilibrium and under conditions of marginal stability. In both cases, the phase diagram consists of two qualitatively different regions. If the transition temperature is higher than a certain value T∗, quantum effects are qualitatively irrelevant and the phase transition is second order, as in the classical case. When quantum fluctuations depress the transition temperature below T∗, the transition becomes first order. The susceptibility is discontinuous and shows hysteresis across the first-order line. This behavior is reminiscent of that observed in the dipolar Ising spin-glass ${\mathrm{LiHo}}_{x}{\mathrm{Y}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{F}}_{4}$ in an external transverse magnetic field. We discuss the thermodynamics and the stationary dynamics of both states. The spectrum of magnetic excitations of the equilibrium spin-glass state is gapped, leading to an exponentially small specific heat at low temperatures. That of the marginally stable state is gapless and its specific heat varies linearly with temperature, as generally observed in glasses at low temperature. We show that the properties of the marginally stable state are closely related to those obtained in studies of the real-time dynamics of the system weakly coupled to a quantum thermal bath. Finally, we discuss a possible application of our results to the problem of polymers in random media.
These lecture notes provide an introduction to quantum spin glasses, with a particular emphasis on their application to open problems in cosmology and holography. Focusing on the spherical p-spin model, we develop a complete and self-contained analysis of its thermodynamic and dynamical properties. We introduce the replica method, discuss both replica-symmetric and one-step replica symmetry-broken solutions, and characterise the resulting glassy phase. The framework is then extended to the quantum model, where we study the emergence of slow dynamics and the role of quantum correlations through Euclidean and real-time correlation functions. Finally, we explore how concepts such as replica symmetry breaking and disorder naturally arise in cosmological and holographic systems related to black hole fragmentation, highlighting spin glass models as useful theoretical laboratories for these phenomena. These notes are based on a series of lectures held during the La Ricotta Summer School: The Disordered Universe 2025 from 21 July to 1 August 2025.
We study the quenched disordered magnetic system, which is obtained from the 2D SO(3) quantum Heisenberg model, on a square lattice, with nearest neighbors interaction, by taking a Gaussian random distribution of couplings centered in an antiferromagnetic coupling, J¯>0 and with a width ΔJ. Using coherent spin states we can integrate over the random variables and map the system onto a field theory, which is a generalization of the SO(3) nonlinear sigma model with different flavors corresponding to the replicas, coupling parameter proportional to J¯ and having a quartic spin interaction proportional to the disorder (ΔJ). After deriving the CP1 version of the system, we perform a calculation of the free energy density in the limit of zero replicas, which fully includes the quantum fluctuations of the CP1 fields zi. We, thereby obtain the phase diagram of the system in terms of (T,J¯,ΔJ). This presents an ordered antiferromagnetic (AF) phase, a paramagnetic (PM) phase and a spin-glass (SG) phase. A critical curve separating the PM and SG phases ends at a quantum critical point located between the AF and SG phases, at T=0. The Edwards–Anderson order parameter, as well as the magnetic susceptibilities are explicitly obtained in each of the three phases as a function of the three control parameters. The magnetic susceptibilities show a Curie-type behavior at high temperatures and exhibit a clear cusp, characteristic of the SG transition, at the transition line. The thermodynamic stability of the phases is investigated by a careful analysis of the Hessian matrix of the free energy. We show that all principal minors of the Hessian are positive in the limit of zero replicas, implying in particular that the SG phase is stable.
In the present paper we analyze the critical properties of a quantum spherical spin-glass model with short-range random interactions. Since the model allows for rigorous detailed calculations, we can show how the effective partition function calculated with the help of the replica method for the spin-glass fluctuating fields ${Q}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\gamma}}(\stackrel{P\vec}{k}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{1}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{2})$ separates into a mean-field contribution for ${Q}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\alpha}}(0;\ensuremath{\omega};\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\omega})$ and a strictly short-range partition function for the fields ${Q}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\ne}\ensuremath{\gamma}}(\stackrel{P\vec}{k}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{1}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{2})$. Here $\ensuremath{\alpha},\ensuremath{\gamma}=1,\dots{},n$ are replica indices. The mean-field part WMF coincides with previous results. The short-range part WSR describes a phase transition in a Q3-field theory, where the fluctuating fields depend on a space variable $\stackrel{P\vec}{r}$ and times ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{1}$ and ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{2}$. This we analyze using the renormalization group with dimensional regularization and minimal subtraction of dimensional poles. By generalizing standard field theory methods to our particular situation, we can identify the critical dimensionality as dc=5 at very low temperatures due to the dimensionality shift Dc=dc+1=6. We then perform an ${ϵ}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ expansion to order one loop to calculate the critical exponents by solving the renormalization-group equations.
We consider quantum rotors or Ising spins in a transverse field on a d-dimensional lattice, with random, frustrating, short-range, exchange interactions. The quantum dynamics are associated with a finite moment of inertia for the rotors, and with the transverse field for the Ising spins. For a suitable distribution of exchange constants, these models display spin-glass and quantum paramagnet phases and a zero-temperature (T) quantum transition between them. An earlier exact solution for the critical properties of a model with infinite-range interactions cna be reproduced by minimization of a Landau effective-action functional for the model in finite d with short-range interactions. The functional is expressed in terms of a composite spin field which is bilocal in time. The mean-field phase diagram near the T=0 critical point is mapped out as a function of T, strength of the quantum coupling, and applied fields. The spin-glass phase has replica symmetry breaking; but, as in the classical Ising spin glass, the order parameter becomes replica symmetric as T\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0. Next we examine the consequences of fluctuations about the mean field for the critical properties. Above d=8, and with certain restrictions on the values of the Landau couplings, we find that the transition is controlled by a Gaussian fixed point with mean-field critical exponents. For couplings not attracted by the Gaussian fixed point above d=8, and for all physical couplings below d=8, we find runaway renormalization-group flows to strong coupling. General scaling relations that should be valid even at the strong-coupling fixed point are proposed and compared with Monte Carlo simulations.
The infinite-range M-component models of quantum rotors and anharmonic oscillators coupled by random exchange interactions with Gaussian distributions are considered. Both models exhibit a quantum phase transition separating the spin glass and disordered phases where the quantum effects are regulated by a parameter \ensuremath{\Delta} (inverse momentum of inertia for rotor model and inverse mass for oscillator model) parametrizing the kinetic energy. The models allow, in the limit M\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}, for an exact solution in both the spin glass and disordered phases. Employing the quantum finite-temperature real-time description, we examine the static and dynamic properties of the systems without making use of the n-replica method. We find that the dynamical solution is marginally stable in the spin-glass phase with a constant static susceptibility below the spin-glass freezing temperature. A closed-form solution for the averaged free energy has been obtained and various thermodynamic functions are derived. In particular, the entropy is always positive in the spin-glass plane and goes to zero with a T3 dependency in the low-temperature region. This is in contrast to the classical M-component Heisenberg model in the M\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty} limit.