Crystal vs glass formation in lattice models with many coexisting ordered phases

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the planar Potts model on a square lattice relaxes into glassy states after a quench when the number of states exceeds four, revealing insights into glass formation in lattice models.

Contribution

It provides new evidence that the Potts model with more than four states can relax into glassy states and compares energies under different boundary conditions.

Findings

Glassy states form for q > 4 after a quench

Average energy of these states matches previous fixed boundary results

Preliminary results on thermal fluctuations effects

Abstract

We present here new evidence that after a quench the planar Potts model on the square lattice relaxes towards a glassy state if the number of states q is larger than four. By extrapolating the finite size data we compute the average energy of these states for the infinite system with periodic boundary conditions, and find that it is comparable with that previously found using fixed boundary conditions. We also report preliminary results on the behaviour of these states in the presence of thermal fluctuations