Lack of a thermodynamic finite-temperature spin-glass phase in the two-dimensional randomly-coupled ferromagnet

TL;DR

This study uses large-scale Monte Carlo simulations to investigate a two-dimensional spin glass model, finding no finite-temperature spin-glass phase, thus challenging previous zero-temperature predictions.

Contribution

It provides the first large-scale simulation evidence that contradicts earlier zero-temperature results regarding finite-temperature spin-glass transitions in this model.

Findings

System remains paramagnetic at finite temperatures in the thermodynamic limit.

Zero-temperature simulations may be misleading due to large corrections to scaling.

Abstract

The search for problems where quantum adiabatic optimization might excel over classical optimization techniques has sparked a recent interest in inducing a finite-temperature spin-glass transition in quasi-planar topologies. We have performed large-scale finite-temperature Monte Carlo simulations of a two-dimensional square-lattice bimodal spin glass with next-nearest ferromagnetic interactions claimed to exhibit a finite-temperature spin-glass state for a particular relative strength of the next-nearest to nearest interactions [Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 4616 (1996)]. Our results show that the system is in a paramagnetic state in the thermodynamic limit, despite zero-temperature simulations [Phys. Rev. B 63, 094423 (2001)] suggesting the existence of a finite-temperature spin-glass transition. Therefore, deducing the finite-temperature behavior from zero-temperature simulations can be dangerous when corrections to scaling are large.