Marginal Stability in Structural, Spin and Electron Glasses

TL;DR

This paper explores the concept of marginal stability across various glassy systems, linking pseudo-gaps and crackling phenomena, and offers a unifying framework for understanding their avalanche responses.

Contribution

It demonstrates the broad applicability of marginal stability principles to diverse systems like spin glasses, electron glasses, and amorphous solids, unifying their phenomenology.

Findings

Marginal stability relates to pseudo-gaps in local field distributions.

A connection exists between marginal stability and crackling noise.

The framework applies to systems with long-range interactions.

Abstract

We revisit the concept of marginal stability in glasses, and determine its range of applicability in the context of avalanche-type response to slow external driving. We argue that there is an intimate connection between a pseudo-gap in the distribution of local fields and crackling in systems with long-range interactions. We show how the principle of marginal stability offers a unifying perspective on the phenomenology of systems as diverse as spin and electron glasses, hard spheres, pinned elastic interfaces and the plasticity of soft amorphous solids.