The following article is Free article

Nature of the spin-glass phase at experimental length scales

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and

Published 28 June 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd
, , Citation R Alvarez Baños et al J. Stat. Mech. (2010) P06026 DOI 10.1088/1742-5468/2010/06/P06026

1742-5468/2010/06/P06026

Abstract

We present a massive equilibrium simulation of the three-dimensional Ising spin glass at low temperatures. The Janus special-purpose computer has allowed us to equilibrate, using parallel tempering, L = 32 lattices down to T ≈ 0.64Tc. We demonstrate the relevance of equilibrium finite size simulations to understanding experimental non-equilibrium spin glasses in the thermodynamical limit by establishing a time-length dictionary. We conclude that non-equilibrium experiments performed on a timescale of 1 h can be matched with equilibrium results on L ≈ 110 lattices. A detailed investigation of the probability distribution functions of the spin and link overlap, as well as of their correlation functions, shows that Replica Symmetry Breaking is the appropriate theoretical framework for the physically relevant length scales. Besides, we improve over existing methodologies in ensuring equilibration in parallel tempering simulations.

Export citation and abstract BibTeX RIS

Please wait… references are loading.
10.1088/1742-5468/2010/06/P06026