Universality and Deviations in Disordered Systems

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the probability of large deviations in free energy for mean-field spin-glass models, revealing universal behaviors and deviations from Gaussian fluctuations through advanced replica and loop expansion techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a universal distribution for small free energy deviations in full-Replica-Symmetry-Breaking models, supported by analytical and numerical evidence.

Findings

Probability of large deviations scales as exp(-N^2 L_2(Δf))

L_2(Δf) scales as (Δf)^{12/5} for SK model

L_2(Δf) scales as (Δf)^3 for spherical model

Abstract

We compute the probability of positive large deviations of the free energy per spin in mean-field Spin-Glass models. The probability vanishes in the thermodynamic limit as $P(\Delta f) \propto \exp[-N^2 L_2(\Delta f)]$. For the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model we find $L_2(\Delta f)=O(\Delta f)^{12/5}$ in good agreement with numerical data and with the assumption that typical small deviations of the free energy scale as $N^{1/6}$. For the spherical model we find $L_2(\Delta f)=O(\Delta f)^{3}$ in agreement with recent findings on the fluctuations of the largest eigenvalue of random Gaussian matrices. The computation is based on a loop expansion in replica space and the non-gaussian behaviour follows in both cases from the fact that the expansion is divergent at all orders. The factors of the leading order terms are obtained resumming appropriately the loop expansion and display universality, pointing to the existence of a single universal distribution describing the small deviations of any model in the full-Replica-Symmetry-Breaking class.