This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.110.054131.

We have studied the diluted Heisenberg spin glass model in a three-component random field for the commonly used one-dimensional long-range model where the probability that two spins separated by a distance r interact with one another falls as 1/r^{2σ}, for two values of σ, 0.75 and 0.85. No de Almeida-Thouless line is expected at these σ values. The spin glass correlation length ξ_{SG} varies with the random field as expected from the Imry-Ma argument and the droplet scaling picture of spin glasses. However, when ξ_{SG} becomes comparable to the system size L, there are departures which we attribute to the features deriving from the replica symmetry breaking picture of spin glasses. For the case σ=0.85 these features go away for system sizes with L>L^{*}, where L^{*} is large (≈4000-8000 lattice spacings). In the case of σ=0.75 we have been unable to study large enough systems to determine its value of L^{*}. We sketch a renormalization group scenario to explain how these features could arise. In this scenario finite size effects on the droplet scaling picture in low-dimensional spin glasses produce some aspects of Parisi's replica symmetry breaking theory of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model.

One of the key predictions of Parisi's broken replica symmetry theory of spin glasses is the existence of a phase transition in an applied field to a state with broken replica symmetry. This transition takes place at the de Almeida-Thouless (AT) line in the h-T plane. We have studied this line in the power-law diluted Heisenberg spin glass in which the probability that two spins separated by a distance r interact with each other falls as 1/r(2 sigma). In the presence of a random vector field of variance h(r)(2) the phase transition is in the universality class of the Ising spin glass in a field. Tuning sigma is equivalent to changing the dimension d of the short-range system, with the relation being d = 2/(2 sigma - 1) for sigma < 2/3. We have found by numerical simulations that h(AT)(2)similar to (2/3 - sigma ) implying that the AT line does not exist below six dimensions and that the Parisi scheme is not appropriate for spin glasses in three dimensions.

One of the key predictions of Parisi's broken replica symmetry theory of spin glasses is the existence of a phase transition in an applied field to a state with broken replica symmetry. This transition takes place at the de Almeida-Thouless (AT) line in the $h-T$ plane. We have studied this line in the power-law diluted Heisenberg spin glass in which the probability that two spins separated by a distance $r$ interact with each other falls as $1/r^{2\sigma}$. In the presence of a random vector-field of variance $h_r^2$ the phase transition is in the universality class of the Ising spin glass in a field. Tuning $\sigma$ is equivalent to changing the dimension $d$ of the short-range system, with the relation being $d =2/(2\sigma -1)$ for $\sigma < 2/3$. We have found by numerical simulations that $h_{\text{AT}}^2 \sim (2/3 -\sigma)$ implying that the AT line does not exist below $6$ dimensions and that the Parisi scheme is not appropriate for spin glasses in three dimensions.

We have studied in detail the M-p balanced spin-glass model, especially the case p=4. These types of model have relevance to structural glasses. The models possess two kinds of broken replica states; those with one-step replica symmetry breaking (1RSB) and those with full replica symmetry breaking (FRSB). To determine which arises requires studying the Landau expansion to quintic order. There are nine quintic-order coefficients, and five quartic-order coefficients, whose values we determine for this model. We show that it is only for 2≤M<2.4714⋯ that the transition at mean-field level is to a state with FRSB, while for larger M values there is either a continuous transition to a state with 1RSB (when M≤3) or a discontinuous transition for M>3. The Gardner transition from a 1RSB state at low temperatures to a state with FRSB also requires the Landau expansion to be taken to quintic order. Our result for the form of FRSB in the Gardner phase is similar to that found when 2≤M<2.4714⋯, but differs from that given in the early paper of Gross et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 304 (1985)0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.55.304]. Finally we discuss the effects of fluctuations on our mean-field solutions using the scheme of Höller and Read [Phys. Rev. E 101, 042114 (2020)2470-004510.1103/PhysRevE.101.042114] and argue that such fluctuations will remove both the continuous 1RSB transition and discontinuous 1RSB transitions when 8>d≥6 leaving just the FRSB continuous transition. We suggest values for M and p which might be used in simulations to confirm whether fluctuation corrections do indeed remove the 1RSB transitions.

We study the de Almeida-Thouless (AT) line in the one-dimensional power-law diluted XY spin-glass model, in which the probability that two spins separated by a distance r interact with each other, decays as 1/r^{2σ}. Tuning the exponent σ is equivalent to changing the space dimension of a short-range model. We develop a heat bath algorithm to equilibrate XY spins; using this in conjunction with the standard parallel tempering and overrelaxation sweeps, we carry out large-scale Monte Carlo simulations. For σ=0.6, which is in the mean-field regime above six dimensions-it is similar to being in 10 dimensions-we find clear evidence for an AT line. For σ=0.75 and σ=0.85, which are in the non-mean-field regime and similar to four and three dimensions, respectively, our data is like that found in previous studies of the Ising and Heisenberg spin glasses when reducing the temperature at fixed field. For σ=0.75, there is evidence from finite-size-scaling studies for an AT transition but for σ=0.85, the evidence for a transition is nonexistent. We have also studied these systems at fixed temperature varying the field and discovered that at both σ=0.75 and at σ=0.85 there is evidence of an AT transition! Confusingly, the correlation length and spin-glass susceptibility as a function of the field are both entirely consistent with the predictions of the droplet picture and hence the nonexistence of an AT line. In the usual finite-size critical point scaling studies used to provide evidence for an AT transition, there is seemingly good evidence for an AT line at σ=0.75 for small values of the system size N, which is strengthening as N is increased, but for N>2048 the trend changes and the evidence then weakens as N is further increased. We have also studied with fewer bond realizations the system at σ=0.70, which is the analog of a system with short-range interactions just below six dimensions, and found that it is similar in its behavior to the system at σ=0.75 but with larger finite-size corrections. The evidence from our simulations points to the complete absence of the AT line in dimensions outside the mean-field region and to the correctness of the droplet picture. Previous simulations which suggested there was an AT line can be attributed to the consequences of studying systems which are just too small. The collapse of our data to the droplet scaling form is poor for σ=0.75 and to some extent also for σ=0.85, when the correlation length becomes of the order of the length of the system, due to the existence of excitations which only cost a free energy of O(1), just as envisaged in the TNT picture of the ordered state of spin glasses. However, for the case of σ=0.85 we can provide evidence that for larger system sizes, droplet scaling will prevail even when the correlation length is comparable to the system size.

The free-energy landscape of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (SK) Ising spin glass is simple in the framework of the Thouless-Anderson-Palmer (TAP) equations as each solution (which are minima of the free energy) has associated with it a nearby index-one saddle point. The free-energy barrier to escape the minimum is just the difference between the saddle point free energy and that at its associated minimum. This difference is calculated for the states with free energies f>f_{c}. It is very small for these states, decreasing as 1/N^{2}, where N is the number of spins in the system. These states are not marginally stable. We argue that such small barriers are why numerical studies never find these states when N is large. Instead, the states that are found are those that have marginal stability. For them the barriers are at least of O(1). f_{c} is the free energy per spin below which the states develop broken replica-symmetry-like overlaps with each other. In the regime f<f_{c} we can only offer some possibilities based around scaling arguments. One of these suggest that the barriers might become as large as N^{1/3}. That might be consistent with recent numerical studies on the Viana-Bray model, which were at variance with the expectations of Cugliandolo and Kurchan for the SK model.

Simulational studies of spin glasses since the early 2010s have focused on the so-called replicon exponent α as a means of determining whether the low-temperature phase of spin glasses is described by the replica symmetry breaking picture of Parisi or by the droplet-scaling picture. On the latter picture, it should be zero, but we shall argue that it will only be zero for systems of linear dimension L>L^{*}. The crossover length L^{*} may be of the order of hundreds of lattice spacings in three dimensions and approach infinity in six dimensions. We use the droplet-scaling picture to show that the apparent nonzero value of α when L<L^{*} should be 2θ, where θ is the domain wall energy scaling exponent. This formula is in reasonable agreement with the reported values of α.

The fully connected Ising p-spin model has for p > 2 a discontinuous phase transition from the paramagnetic phase to a stable state with one-step replica symmetry breaking (1RSB). However, simulations in three dimension do not look like these mean-field results and have features more like those which would arise with full replica symmetry breaking (FRSB). To help understand how this might come about we have studied in the fully connected p-spin model the state of two-step replica symmetry breaking (2RSB). It has a free energy degenerate with that of 1RSB, but the weight of the additional peak in P(q) vanishes. We expect that the state with full replica symmetry breaking (FRSB) is also degenerate with that of 1RSB. We suggest that finite-size effects will give a nonvanishing weight to the FRSB features, as also will fluctuations about the mean-field solution. Our conclusion is that outside the fully connected model in the thermodynamic limit, FRSB is to be expected rather than 1RSB.

A central concept in the droplet picture of spin glasses is the interface free energy [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] δF , and the associated stiffness exponent θ defined by δF ∼ l where l is the length scale of the excitation. If θ > 0 the spin glass state is stable at finite temperature, whereas if θ < 0 at T = 0 large scale excitations cost very little energy so the spin glass state will be unstable at finite temperature. The value of θ at T = 0 has been estimated numerically, in many calculations, for short range spin glass models from the effects of changes in boundary conditions, see e.g. Refs. [6, 7, 8, 9]. It is therefore surprising that no attempt has so far been made to determine the interface free energy from boundary condition changes using the alternative “Replica Symmetry Breaking” (RSB) [10, 11] scenario for the spin glass state. In this paper we calculate θ analytically in high dimensions using the replica method and show that it conflicts with expectations from the droplet picture, and numerical work on systems in lower dimensions.

We have studied a class of marginally jammed states in a system of hard disks confined in a narrow channel-a quasi-one-dimensional system-whose exponents are not those predicted by theories valid in the infinite dimensional limit. The exponent γ which describes the distribution of small gaps takes the value 1 rather than the infinite dimensional value 0.41269⋯. Our work shows that there exist jammed states not found within the tiling approach of Ashwin and Bowles. The most dense of these marginal states is an unusual state of matter that is asymptotically crystalline.

The Gardner length scale xi is the correlation length in the vicinity of the Gardner transition, which is a transition in glasses where the phase space of the glassy phase fractures into smaller sub-basins on experimental time scales. We argue that xi grows like root B-infinity/G(infinity), where B-infinity is the bulk modulus and G(infinity) is the shear modulus, both measured in the high-frequency limit of the glassy state. We suggest that xi might be inferred from stress-stress correlation functions, which is more practical for experimental investigation than studying two copies of the system, which can only be done in numerical simulations. Our arguments are illustrated by explicit calculations for a system of disks moving in a narrow channel, which is solved exactly by transfer matrix techniques.

The leading term for the average height of the barriers which could separate pure states in Ising spin glasses is calculated using instanton methods. It is finite in dimensions d < 6. Replica symmetry breaking requires that the barriers between pure states are infinite in the thermodynamic limit, as finite barriers allow thermal mixing of pure states. As a consequence, a replica symmetry broken phase cannot survive when d < 6. However, for d > 6 no similar instanton solution exists.

We show that the only solutions of the Thouless-Anderson-Palmer (TAP) equations for the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model of Ising spin glasses which can be found by iteration are those whose free energy lies on the border between replica-symmetric and broken-replica-symmetric states, when the number of spins N is large. Convergence to this same borderline also happens in quenches from a high-temperature initial state to a locally stable state where each spin is parallel to its local field; both are examples of self-organized criticality. At this borderline the band of eigenvalues of the Hessian associated with a solution extends to zero, so the states reached have marginal stability. We have also investigated the factors which determine the free-energy difference between a stationary solution corresponding to a saddle point and its associated minimum, which is the barrier which has to be surmounted to escape from the vicinity of a TAP minimum or pure state.

The Gardner transition is the transition that at mean-field level separates a stable glass phase from a marginally stable phase. This transition has similarities with the de Almeida-Thouless transition of spin glasses. We have studied a well-understood problem, that of disks moving in a narrow channel, which shows many features usually associated with the Gardner transition. We show that some of these features are artifacts that arise when a disk escapes its local cage during the quench to higher densities. There is evidence that the Gardner transition becomes an avoided transition, in that the correlation length becomes quite large, of order 15 particle diameters, even in our quasi-one-dimensional system.

The fractal dimension of domain walls produced by changing the boundary conditions from periodic to antiperiodic in one spatial direction is studied using both the strong-disorder renormalization group algorithm and the greedy algorithm for the Edwards-Anderson Ising spin-glass model for up to six space dimensions. We find that for five or fewer space dimensions, the fractal dimension is lower than the space dimension. This means that interfaces are not space filling, thus implying that replica symmetry breaking is absent in space dimensions fewer than six. However, the fractal dimension approaches the space dimension in six dimensions, indicating that replica symmetry breaking occurs above six dimensions. In two space dimensions, the strong-disorder renormalization group results for the fractal dimension are in good agreement with essentially exact numerical results, but the small difference is significant. We discuss the origin of this close agreement. For the greedy algorithm there is analytical expectation that the fractal dimension is equal to the space dimension in six dimensions and our numerical results are consistent with this expectation.

The de Almeida-Thouless (AT) line in Ising spin glasses is the phase boundary in the temperature T and magnetic field h plane below which replica symmetry is broken. Using perturbative renormalization group (RG) methods, we show that, when the dimension d of space is just above six, there is a multicritical point (MCP) on the AT line, which separates a low-field regime, in which the critical exponents have mean-field values, from a high-field regime, where the RG flows run away to infinite coupling strength; as d approaches six from above, the MCP approaches the zero-field critical point exponentially in 1/(d-6). Thus, on the AT line, perturbation theory for the critical properties breaks down at a sufficiently large magnetic field even above 6 dimensions, as well as for all nonzero fields when d≤6, as was known previously. We calculate the exponents at the MCP to first order in ϵ=d-6>0. The fate of the MCP as d increases from just above six to infinity is not known.

We relate the structure factor S(k→0) in a system of jammed hard spheres of number density ρ to its complexity per particle Σ(ρ) by the formula S(k→0)=-1/[ρ^{2}Σ^{″}(ρ)+2ρΣ^{'}(ρ)]. We have verified this formula for the case of jammed disks in a narrow channel, for which it is possible to find Σ(ρ) and S(k) analytically. Hyperuniformity, which is the vanishing of S(k→0), will therefore not occur if the complexity is nonzero. An example is given of a jammed state of hard disks in a narrow channel which is hyperuniform when generated by dynamical rules that produce a nonextensive complexity.

We have studied numerically the states reached in a quench from various temperatures in the one-dimensional fully-connected Kotliar, Anderson and Stein Ising spin glass model. This is a model where there are long-range interactions between the spins which falls off as a power sigma of their separation. We have made a detailed study in particular of the energies of the states reached in a quench from infinite temperature and their overlaps, including the spin glass susceptibility. In the regime where sigma <= 1/2, where the model is similar to the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model, we find that the spin glass susceptibility diverges logarithmically with increasing N, the number of spins in the system, whereas for sigma <= 1/2 it remains finite. We attribute the behavior for sigma <= 1/2 to self-organized critical behavior, where the system after the quench is close to the transition between states which have trivial overlaps and those with the non-trivial overlaps associated with replica symmetry breaking. We have also found by studying the distribution of local fields that the states reached in the quench have marginal stability but only when sigma <= 1/2.