We study domain-wall excitations in two-dimensional random-bond Ising spin systems on a square lattice with side length L, subject to two different continuous disorder distributions. In both cases an adjustable parameter allows to tune the disorder so as to yield a transition from a spin-glass ordered ground state to a ferromagnetic groundstate. We formulate an auxiliary graph-theoretical problem in which domain walls are given by undirected shortest paths with possibly negative distances. Due to the details of the mapping, standard shortest-path algorithms cannot be applied. To solve such shortest-path problems we have to apply minimum-weight perfect-matching algorithms. We first locate the critical values of the disorder parameters, where the ferromagnet to spin-glass transition occurs for the two types of the disorder. For certain values of the disorder parameters close to the respective critical point, we investigate the system size dependence of the width of the the average domain-wall energy (~L^\theta) and the average domain-wall length (~L^df). Performing a finite-size scaling analysis for systems with a side length up to L=512, we find that both exponents remain constant in the spin-glass phase, i.e. \theta ~- 0.28 and df~1.275. This is consistent with conformal field theory, where it seems to be possible to relate the exponents from the analysis of Stochastic Loewner evolutions (SLEs) via df-1=3/[4(3+\theta)]. Finally, we characterize the transition in terms of ferromagnetic clusters of spins that form, as one proceeds from spin-glass ordered to ferromagnetic ground states.
We study domain-wall excitations in two-dimensional random-bond Ising spin systems on a square lattice with side length L, subject to two different continuous disorder distributions. In both cases an adjustable parameter allows to tune the disorder so as to yield a transition from a spin-glass ordered ground state to a ferromagnetic groundstate. We formulate an auxiliary graph-theoretical problem in which domain walls are given by undirected shortest paths with possibly negative distances. Due to the details of the mapping, standard shortest-path algorithms cannot be applied. To solve such shortest-path problems we have to apply minimum-weight perfect-matching algorithms. We first locate the critical values of the disorder parameters, where the ferromagnet to spin-glass transition occurs for the two types of the disorder. For certain values of the disorder parameters close to the respective critical point, we investigate the system size dependence of the width of the the average domain-wall energy (~L^\theta) and the average domain-wall length (~L^df). Performing a finite-size scaling analysis for systems with a side length up to L=512, we find that both exponents remain constant in the spin-glass phase, i.e. \theta - 0.28 and df1.275. This is consistent with conformal field theory, where it seems to be possible to relate the exponents from the analysis of Stochastic Loewner evolutions (SLEs) via df-1=3/[4(3+\theta)]. Finally, we characterize the transition in terms of ferromagnetic clusters of spins that form, as one proceeds from spin-glass ordered to ferromagnetic ground states.
We study domain-wall excitations in two-dimensional random-bond Ising spin systems on a square lattice with side length L, subject to two different continuous disorder distributions. In both cases an adjustable parameter allows tuning of the disorder so as to yield a transition from a spin-glass ordered ground state to a ferromagnetic ground state. We formulate an auxiliary graph-theoretical problem in which domain walls are given by undirected shortest paths with possibly negative distances. Due to the details of the mapping, standard shortest-path algorithms cannot be applied. To solve such shortest-path problems we have to apply minimum-weight perfect-matching algorithms. We first locate the critical values of the disorder parameters, where the ferromagnet to spin-glass transition occurs for the two types of the disorder. For certain values of the disorder parameters close to the respective critical point, we investigate the system size dependence of the width of the average domain-wall energy $(\ensuremath{\sim}{L}^{\ensuremath{\theta}})$ and the average domain-wall length $(\ensuremath{\sim}{L}^{{d}_{f}})$. Performing a finite-size scaling analysis for systems with a side length up to L=512, we find that both exponents remain constant in the spin-glass phase, i.e., $\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\approx}\ensuremath{-}0.28$ and ${d}_{f}\ensuremath{\approx}1.275$. This is consistent with conformal field theory, where it seems to be possible to relate the exponents from the analysis of stochastic Loewner evolutions via ${d}_{f}\ensuremath{-}1=3/[4(3+\ensuremath{\theta})]$. Finally, we characterize the transition in terms of ferromagnetic clusters of spins that form, as one proceeds from spin-glass ordered to ferromagnetic ground states.
With the help of exact ground states obtained by a polynomial algorithm we compute the domain wall energy Δ at zero temperature for the bond-random and the site-random Ising spin glass model in two dimensions. We find that in both models the stability of the ferromagnetic and the spin glass order ceases to exist at a unique concentration p c for the ferromagnetic bonds. In the vicinity of this critical point, the size and concentration dependence of the first and second moment of the domain wall energy are, for both models, described by a common finite-size scaling form. Moreover, below this concentration the stiffness exponent turns out to be slightly negative, θ S = − 0.056(6), indicating the absence of any intermediate spin glass phase at non-zero temperature.
The statistics of the ground-state and domain-wall energies for the two-dimensional random-bond Ising model on square lattices with independent, identically distributed bonds having probability p of ${J}_{ij}=\ensuremath{-}1$ and $(1\ensuremath{-}p)$ of Jij=+1 are studied. We are able to consider large samples of up to 3202 spins by using sophisticated matching algorithms. We study $L\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}L$ systems, but we also consider $L\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}M$ samples, for different aspect ratios R=L∕M. We find that the scaling behavior of the ground-state energy and its sample-to-sample fluctuations inside the spin-glass region $({p}_{c}\ensuremath{\leqslant}p\ensuremath{\leqslant}1\ensuremath{-}{p}_{c})$ are characterized by simple scaling functions. In particular, the fluctuations exhibit a cusplike singularity at pc. Inside the spin-glass region, the average domain-wall energy converges to a finite nonzero value as the sample size becomes infinite, holding R fixed. Here, large finite-size effects are visible, which can be explained for all p by a single exponent $\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\approx}2∕3$, provided higher-order corrections to scaling are included. Finally, we confirm the validity of aspect-ratio scaling for $R\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$: the distribution of the domain-wall energies converges to a Gaussian for $R\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$, although the domain walls of neighboring subsystems of size $L\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}L$ are not independent.
For the Ising model with Gaussian random coupling of average J0 and unit variance, the zero-temperature spin-glass--ferromagnetic transition as a function of the control parameter J0 can be studied via the size-L-dependent renormalized coupling defined as the domain-wall energy ${J}^{R}(L)\ensuremath{\equiv}{E}_{\text{GS}}^{(\text{AF})}(L)\ensuremath{-}{E}_{\text{GS}}^{(\text{F})}(L)$ (i.e., the difference between the ground-state energies corresponding to antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic boundary conditions in one direction). We study numerically the critical exponents of this zero-temperature transition within the Migdal-Kadanoff approximation as a function of the dimension d=2,3,4,5,6. We then compare with the mean-field spherical model. Our main conclusion is that in low dimensions, the critical stiffness exponent ${\ensuremath{\theta}}^{c}$ is clearly bigger than the spin-glass stiffness exponent ${\ensuremath{\theta}}^{\text{SG}}$, but that they turn out to coincide in high enough dimension and in the mean-field spherical model. We also discuss the finite-size scaling properties of the averaged value and of the width of the distribution of the renormalized couplings.
The concept of Schramm-Loewner evolution provides a unified description of domain boundaries of many lattice spin systems in two dimensions, possibly even including systems with quenched disorder. Here, we study domain walls in the random-field Ising model. Although, in two dimensions, this system does not show an ordering transition to a ferromagnetic state, in the presence of a uniform external field spin domains percolate beyond a critical field strength. Using exact ground-state calculations for very large systems, we examine ground-state domain walls near this percolation transition finding strong evidence that they are conformally invariant and satisfy the domain Markov property, implying compatibility with Schramm-Loewner evolution (SLE κ ) with parameter κ = 6. These results might pave the way for new field-theoretic treatments of systems with quenched disorder.
The standard short-range two-dimensional Ising spin glass is numerically well accessible, in particular, because there are polynomial-time ground-state algorithms. On the other hand, in contrast to higher dimensional spin glasses, it does not exhibit a rich behavior, i.e., no ordered phase at finite temperature. Here, we investigate whether long-range correlated bonds change this behavior. This would still keep the model numerically well accessible while exhibiting a more interesting behavior. The bonds are drawn from a Gaussian distribution with a two-point correlation for bonds at distance r that decays as (1+r^{2})^{-a/2}, a≥0. We study numerically with exact algorithms the ground-state and domain-wall excitations. Our results indicate that the inclusion of bond correlations still does not lead to a spin-glass order at any finite temperature. A further analysis reveals that bond correlations have a strong effect at local length scales, inducing ferro- and antiferromagnetic domains into the system. The length scale of ferro- and antiferromagnetic order diverges exponentially as the correlation exponent approaches a critical value, a→a_{crit}=0. Thus, our results suggest that the system becomes a ferro- or antiferromagnet only in the limit a→0.