Density of States and Critical Behavior of the Coulomb Glass

TL;DR

This study uses zero-temperature and finite-temperature simulations to analyze the density of states and phase transitions in the Coulomb glass, confirming some theoretical predictions while challenging others.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive simulation-based analysis of the Coulomb glass's density of states and phase behavior, highlighting discrepancies with mean-field theory.

Findings

Density of states matches Efros-Shklovskii prediction in 3D

No thermodynamic glass transition observed at low temperatures

Transition to a distorted Wigner crystal occurs over a broad disorder range

Abstract

We present zero-temperature simulations for the single-particle density of states of the Coulomb glass. Our results in three dimensions are consistent with the Efros and Shklovskii prediction for the density of states. Finite-temperature Monte Carlo simulations show no sign of a thermodynamic glass transition down to low temperatures, in disagreement with mean-field theory. Furthermore, the random-displacement formulation of the model undergoes a transition into a distorted Wigner crystal for a surprisingly broad range of the disorder strength.