We have used dynamic simulations to estimate certain critical exponents for spin glasses with ± J and Gaussian near-neighbour interactions in dimensions 3 and 4. The two types of system do not appear to be in the same universality class in either dimension.
We compare simulation data from different sources on two canonical three-dimensional Ising spin glasses (ISGs): the binomial $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}J$ near-neighbor interaction ISG and the Gaussian interaction ISG. We allow for the possibility of corrections to finite size scaling and estimate the correction exponent w. Consistent estimates for the critical temperatures Tg and for the critical exponents for each system are obtained. The data strongly indicate that critical exponents in the two systems are significantly different from each other. These results thus confirm a breakdown of standard universality rules in Ising spin glasses.
Continuous phase transitions are catalogued into universality classes, families of systems having identical values of all the exponents governing the critical behaviour of their different physical properties. Numerical simulations have been carried out on Ising Spin Glasses in dimension three, using a technique where corrections to finite size scaling can be controled. The data show that the critical exponents vary strongly as a function of the kurtosis of the interaction distribution, a parameter which from the standard point of view should not be pertinent. This observation implies that for spin glasses the renormalization group analysis should not be approached in a the same way as in the case of canonical second order transitions; a much richer structure of universality classes would appear to exist for spin glasses.
Extensive simulations are made on Ising Spin Glasses (ISG) with Gaussian, Laplacian and bimodal interaction distributions in dimension four. Standard finite size scaling analyses near and at criticality provide estimates of the critical inverse temperatures βc, critical exponents, and critical values of a number of dimensionless parameters. Independent estimates are obtained for βc and the exponent ν from thermodynamic derivative peak data. A detailed explanation is given of scaling in the thermodynamic limit with the ISG scaling variable τ=1−β2/βc2 and the appropriate scaling expressions. Data over the entire paramagnetic range of temperatures are analysed in order to obtain further estimates of the critical exponents together with correction to scaling terms. The Privman-Fisher ansatz then leads to compact scaling expressions for the whole paramagnetic regime and for all sample sizes L. Comparisons between the 4d ISG models show that the critical dimensionless parameters characteristic of a universality class, and the susceptibility and correlation length critical exponents γ and ν, depend on the form of the interaction distribution. From these observations it can be deduced that critical exponents are not universal in ISGs, at least in dimension four.
Extensive simulations are made of the spin glass susceptibility and correlation length in five dimension Ising Spin Glasses (ISGs) with Gaussian and bimodal interaction distributions. Once the transition temperature is accurately established using a standard criterion, critical exponents and correction terms can be readily estimated by extrapolating measurements made in the thermodynamic limit regime. The data show that the critical exponents of the susceptibility γ and of the correlation length ν depend on the form of the interaction distribution. This observation implies that quite generally critical exponents are not universal in ISGs.