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arXiv:cond-mat/0302207 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General

On the use of finite-size scaling to measure spin-glass exponents

Adam C. Carter, Alan J. Bray, M A Moore

Published May 12, 2003• 3 citations
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Abstract

Finite-size scaling (FSS) is a standard technique for measuring scaling exponents in spin glasses. Here we present a critique of this approach, emphasizing the need for all length scales to be large compared to microscopic scales. In particular we show that the replacement, in FSS analyses, of the correlation length by its asymptotic scaling form can lead to apparently good scaling collapses with the wrong values of the scaling exponents.

DOI
10.1088/0305-4470/36/21/301

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Finite-size scaling (FSS) is a standard technique for measuring scaling exponents in spin glasses. Here we present a critique of this approach, emphasizing the need for all length scales to be large compared to microscopic scales. In particular we show that the replacement, in FSS analyses, of the correlation length by its asymptotic scaling form can lead to apparently good scaling collapses with the wrong values of the scaling exponents.
We show numerically that correlation length at the critical point in the five-dimensional Ising model varies with system size LLL as L5∕4{L}^{5∕4}L5∕4, rather than proportional to LLL, as in standard finite-size scaling (FSS) theory. Our results confirm a hypothesis that FSS expressions in dimension ddd greater than the upper critical dimension of 4 should have LLL replaced by Ld∕4{L}^{d∕4}Ld∕4 for cubic samples with periodic boundary conditions. We also investigate numerically the logarithmic corrections to FSS in d=4d=4d=4.
We determine accurate values of ordering temperatures and critical exponents for Ising-spin-glass transitions in four dimensions, using a combination of finite-size scaling and nonequilibrium scaling techniques. We find that the exponents $\ensuremath{\eta}$ and zzz vary with the form of the interaction distribution, indicating nonuniversality at Ising-spin-glass transitions. These results confirm conclusions drawn from numerical data for three dimensions.
We present a unified view of finite-size scaling (FSS) in dimension d above the upper critical dimension, for both free and periodic boundary conditions. We find that the modified FSS proposed some time ago to allow for violation of hyperscaling due to a dangerous irrelevant variable applies only to k=0 fluctuations, and "standard" FSS applies to k≠0 fluctuations. Hence the exponent η describing power-law decay of correlations at criticality is unambiguously η=0. With free boundary conditions, the finite-size "shift" is greater than the rounding. Nonetheless, using T-T(L), where T(L) is the finite-size pseudocritical temperature, rather than T-T(c), as the scaling variable, the data do collapse onto a scaling form that includes the behavior both at T(L), where the susceptibility χ diverges like L(d/2), and at the bulk T(c), where it diverges like L(2). These claims are supported by large-scale simulations on the five-dimensional Ising model.
Finite-size scaling (FSS) for a critical phase transition (t=0t=0t=0) states that within a window of size ∣t∣∼L−1/ν|t|\sim L^{-1/ν}∣t∣∼L−1/ν, the scaling behavior of any observable QQQ in a system of linear size LLL asymptotically follows a scaling form as Q(t,L)=LYQQ~(tL1/ν)Q(t,L)=L^{Y_Q}\tilde{Q}(tL^{1/ν})Q(t,L)=LYQ​Q~​(tL1/ν), where ννν is the correlation-length exponent, YQY_QYQ​ is an FSS exponent and Q~(x){\tilde Q}(x)Q~​(x) is a function of the scaled distance-to-criticality x≡tL1/νx \equiv tL^{1/ν}x≡tL1/ν. We systematically study the asymptotic scaling behavior of Q~(∣x∣→∞){\tilde Q}(|x|\to\infty)Q~​(∣x∣→∞) for a broad variety of observables by requiring that the FSS and infinite-system critical behaviors match with each other in the crossover critical regime with t→0t \to 0t→0 and ∣x∣→∞|x|\to\infty∣x∣→∞. This crossover FSS theory predicts that when the criticality is approached at a slower speed as ∣t∣∼L−λ|t|\sim L^{-λ}∣t∣∼L−λ with λ<1/νλ<1/νλ<1/ν, the FSS becomes λλλ-dependent and the exponent can be derived. As applications, explosive percolation and high-dimensional percolation are considered. For the former, it is shown that the widely observed anomalous phenomena at the infinite-system criticality t=0t=0t=0 can be attributed to the mixing effects of the standard FSS behaviors around the pseudocritical point in an event-based ensemble. For the latter, FSS exponents are found to be different at the infinite-system critical and the pseudocritical point if free boundary conditions are used, and they are related to each other by using the crossover FSS theory. From these observations, the FSS of percolation systems falls into three classifications. Extensive simulations are carried out to affirm these predictions.
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{T}_{g}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.
We have calculated finite-size correlation lengths for strips of the square-lattice Ising spin glass using the transfer-matrix method. In order to minimize sampling errors we study strip lengths up to 5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}106{10}^{6}106 lattice spacings. A phenomenological renormalization-group analysis indicates that there are strong corrections to simple power-law scaling near the zero-temperature critical point, as is to be expected near a lower critical dimension. We examine models with Gaussian, exp(-J2{J}^{2}J2/2), and exponential, exp(-\ensuremath{\Vert}J\ensuremath{\Vert}), distributions of couplings; the Gaussian distribution shows stronger finite-size corrections. The correlation-length exponent is estimated to be \ensuremath{\nu}=4.2\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5, although we do not want to rule out the possibility that \ensuremath{\nu} is significantly larger than this.