Study of the de Almeida-Thouless (AT) line in the one-dimensional diluted power-law XY spin glass

TL;DR

This study investigates the existence of the Almeida-Thouless (AT) line in a one-dimensional diluted XY spin glass with power-law interactions, providing evidence that the AT line does not exist outside the mean-field regime and supporting the droplet picture.

Contribution

The paper introduces a heat bath algorithm for XY spins and uses large-scale Monte Carlo simulations to analyze the AT line across different regimes, clarifying previous conflicting results.

Findings

Evidence of an AT line at $\sigma=0.6$ (mean-field regime).

No evidence of an AT line at $\sigma=0.85$ in finite systems.

Support for the droplet picture over the replica symmetry breaking picture.

Abstract

We study the AT line in the one-dimensional power-law diluted XY spin glass model, in which the probability that two spins separated by a distance $r$ interact with each other, decays as $1/r^{2\sigma}$. We develop a heat bath algorithm to equilibrate XY spins; using this in conjunction with the standard parallel tempering and overrelaxation sweeps, we carry out large scale Monte Carlo simulations. For $\sigma=0.6$ which is in the mean-field regime, we find clear evidence for an AT line. For $\sigma = 0.75$, there is evidence from finite size scaling studies for an AT transition but for $\sigma = 0.85$, the evidence for a transition is non-existent. We have also studied these systems at fixed temperature varying the field and discovered that at both $\sigma = 0.75$ and at $\sigma =0.85$ there is evidence of an AT transition! Confusingly, the correlation length and spin glass susceptibility as a function of the field are both entirely consistent with the predictions of the droplet picture and hence the non-existence of an AT line. The evidence from our simulations points to the complete absence of the AT line in dimensions outside the mean-field region and to the correctness of the droplet picture. Previous simulations which suggested there was an AT line can be attributed to the consequences of studying systems which are just too small. The collapse of our data to the droplet scaling form is poor for $\sigma = 0.75$ and to some extent also for $\sigma = 0.85$, when the correlation length becomes of the order of the length of the system, due to the existence of excitations which only cost a free energy of $O(1)$, just as envisaged in the TNT picture of the ordered state of spin glasses. However, for the case of $\sigma = 0.85$ we can provide evidence that for larger system sizes, droplet scaling will prevail even when the correlation length is comparable to the system size.