Numerical study of realistic spin glass models

Terufumi Yokota

Annamária Kiss, Gergely Zaránd, Izabella Lovas

We construct a complete numerically exact solution of a mean-field quantum spin glass model---the transverse field Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model---by implementing a continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method in the presence of full replica symmetry breaking. We extract the full numerically exact phase diagram, displaying a glassy phase with continuous replica symmetry breaking at small transverse fields and low temperatures. A paramagnetic phase emerges once thermal and quantum fluctuations melt the spin glass. We characterize both phases by extracting the order parameter as well as the static and dynamical local spin susceptibilities. The static susceptibility shows a plateau in the glassy phase, but it remains smooth across the phase boundary. For the imaginary part of the dynamical susceptibility, we find an Ohmic, i.e., linear in $\ensuremath{\omega}$, scaling for small frequencies $\ensuremath{\omega}$, with a slope independent of the transverse field. These results compare qualitatively well with ac susceptibility measurements on a dipole-coupled three-dimensional Ising magnet---the ${\mathrm{LiHo}}_{x}{\mathrm{Y}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{F}}_{4}$ compound---in a transverse magnetic field. Our work provides a general framework for the exact numerical solution of mean-field quantum glass models, and it constitutes an important step towards understanding glassiness in realistic systems.

S. S. Makler, E. V. Anda

Michele Castellana

We propose a novel renormalization-group (RG) method for non-mean-field models of spin glasses, which leads to the emergence of a novel order parameter. Unlike previous approaches where the RG procedure is based on a priori notions on the system, our analysis follows a minimality principle, where no a priori assumption is made. We apply our approach to a spin-glass model built on a hierarchical lattice. In the RG decimation procedure, a novel order parameter spontaneously emerges from the system symmetries, and self-similarity features of the RG transformation only. This order parameter is the projection of the spin configurations on the ground state of the system. Kadanoff's majority rule for ferromagnetic systems is replaced by a more complex scheme, which involves such a novel order parameter. The ground state thus acts as a pattern which translates spin configurations from one length scale to another. The rescaling RG procedure is based on a minimal, information-theory approach and, combined with the decimation, it yields a complete RG transformation. Below the upper critical dimension, the predictions for the critical exponent $\ensuremath{\nu}$, which describes the critical divergence of the correlation length, are in excellent agreement with numerical simulations from both this and previous studies. Overall, this study opens new avenues in the understanding of the critical ordering of realistic spin glasses, and it can be applied to spin-glass models on a cubic lattice and nearest-neighbor couplings which directly model spin-glass materials, such as AuFe, CuMn, and other magnetic alloys.

I. Morgenstern

R. N. Bhatt, A. P. Young