Zero-temperature criticality in the two-dimensional gauge glass model

TL;DR

This paper investigates the zero-temperature critical state of the 2D gauge glass model, revealing vortex-antivortex excitations and power-law decay in spin-wave stiffness, supported by simulations and theoretical analysis.

Contribution

It provides a combined analytical and numerical study of the zero-temperature criticality in the 2D gauge glass model, highlighting vortex excitations and screening effects.

Findings

Vortex-antivortex pairs describe low-energy configurations.

Spin-wave stiffness decays as a power law with distance.

Simulation data supports theoretical predictions.

Abstract

The zero-temperature critical state of the two-dimensional gauge glass model is investigated. It is found that low-energy vortex configurations afford a simple description in terms of gapless, weakly interacting vortex-antivortex pair excitations. A linear dielectric screening calculation is presented in a renormalization group setting that yields a power-law decay of spin-wave stiffness with distance. These properties are in agreement with low-temperature specific heat and spin-glass susceptibility data obtained in large-scale multi-canonical Monte Carlo simulations.