The relaxational modes and aging of the Glauber dynamics of the mean-field spin-glass model, SK model, are studied by a numerical diagonalization technique and Monte Carlo simulations. We found that the aging process of the model is understood as hierarchical growth of quasi-equilibrium domain in the phase-space. The fascinating features of aging effects of spin-glasses revealed by experiments 1) have arose much theoretical interest in recent years, which includes various phenomenologies 2) 3) , analytic predictions 4) and numerical simulations. 5) 6) In order to seek for concrete information to provide theoretical base, we study the relaxational
The crossover between quasiequilibrium and nonequilibrium spin-glass dynamics has been studied in Monte Carlo simulations of two- and three-dimensional short-range Ising spin-glass systems. The spin system was quenched in zero field to a low temperature T. After equilibrating for a time
tw, a weak magnetic field was applied and the time dependence of the magnetization M(t) and the spin autocorrelation function q(t) was studied. Our results show that the relaxation rate S(t)=\ensuremath{\partial}M(t)/\ensuremath{\partial}
log10(t) exhibits a maximum at t\ensuremath{\approxeq}
tw. If the temperature is lowered or raised, immediately prior to the field application, the apparent age (
ta) of the system, as defined by the maximum in relaxation rate, is shifted to longer or shorter time scales, respectively. No significant differences between the aging behavior in two and three dimensions are found. The relation \ensuremath{\chi}(t)=[1-q(t)]/T holds only for short time scales (t\ensuremath{\ll}
tw), clear deviations are found at longer time scales (t>
tw). Since this relation should according to the fluctuation-dissipation theorem hold for a system in equilibrium, this result is interpreted as an indication of a crossover between equilibrium and nonequilibrium dynamics. Our results are qualitatively in agreement with experiments as well as with theoretical models for the nonequilibrium spin-glass dynamics.
The Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (SK) spin glass model (1975) is studied by Monte Carlo simulation. Below T c there is a spectrum of relaxation times which diverge like exp(cN 1 4/) as N, the number of spins, tends to infinity. In zero field, h, there is one more timescale, tau eg , which is the time to turn over all the spins. Averaging over samples (ln tau eg ) j (=ln tau eg ) varies as N 1 2/. However, ln tau eg is not a self-averaging quantity and there are large sample-to-sample variations even for N to infinity . For h>>h*=T/N 1 2/, where T is the temperature, fluctuations on timescale tau eg may not occur. Above the Almeida-Thouless line (1978) relaxation times are finite and the SK solution is correct. Below this line, the results agree well with Parisi's theory (1983) if the latter is correctly interpreted.
Experimentally derived physical properties of 3d Ising spin glasses are discussed and compared to what is anticipated from theory and simulations of model systems. It is found that the spin glass experiences a zero-field phase transition to a low-temperature spin-glass phase, that there is no phase transition in a magnetic field and that nonequilibrium and chaos effects often dominate the dynamics of the low-temperature glassy phase. These results are in agreement with findings from Monte Carlo simulations and with properties derived from the droplet model.