Gauge Theories, Spin Glasses and Real Glasses

TL;DR

This paper explores the connection between spin glasses and gauge theories, extending to non-Abelian models, and derives a generalized Vogel-Fulcher law to describe glass transition dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a gauge theory perspective on spin glasses, generalizes models to non-Abelian groups, and derives a new law for glass transition times from first principles.

Findings

Spin glasses can be viewed as Abelian gauge theories.

Generalized models based on non-Abelian gauge groups are considered.

A first-principles derivation of a generalized Vogel-Fulcher law is presented.

Abstract

In this talk I will show that usual spin glasses are a peculiar kind of Abelian gauge theory. I will shortly review the techniques used to study them. At the end I will consider more general models (e.g. spin glasses based on non Abelian gauge group) and I will discuss the relevance of these models to real glasses. Finally I will derive from first principles a generalised Vogel-Fulcher law for the divergence of the characteristic time near the glass transition.