Beyond the Mean Field Approximation for Spin Glasses

The classical transverse field Ising spin- glass model with short-range interactions is investigated beyond the mean- field approximation for a real d- dimensional lattice. We use an appropriate nontrivial modification of the Bethe- Peierls method recently formulated for the Ising spin- glass. The zero- temperature critical value of the transverse field and the linear susceptibility in the paramagnetic phase are obtained analytically as functions of dimensionality d. The phas...

Replica field theory is used to study the n-dependent free energy of the Ising spin glass in a first order perturbative treatment. Large sample-to-sample deviations of the free energy from its quenched average prove to be Gaussian, independently of the special structure of the order parameter. The free energy difference between the replica symmetric and (infinite level) replica symmetry broken phases is studied in details: the line n(T) where it is zero coincides with the Alm...

We introduce a hierarchical class of approximations of the random Ising spin glass in $d$ dimensions. The attention is focused on finite clusters of spins where the action of the rest of the system is properly taken into account. At the lower level (cluster of a single spin) our approximation coincides with the SK model while at the highest level it coincides with the true $d$-dimensional system. The method is variational and it uses the replica approach to spin glasses and t...

The partition function of the 2d Ising model with random nearest neighbor coupling is expressed in the dual lattice made of square plaquettes. The dual model is solved in the the mean field and in different types of Bethe-Peierls approximations, using the replica method.

We discuss analytical approximation schemes for the dynamics of diluted spin models. The original dynamics of the complete set of degrees of freedom is replaced by a hierarchy of equations including an increasing number of global observables, which can be closed approximately at different levels of the hierarchy. We illustrate this method on the simple example of the Ising ferromagnet on a Bethe lattice, investigating the first three possible closures, which are all exact in ...

A growing body of evidence indicates that the sluggish low-temperature dynamics of glass formers (e.g. supercooled liquids, colloids or spin glasses) is due to a growing correlation length. Which is the effective field theory that describes these correlations? The natural field theory was drastically simplified by Bray and Roberts in 1980. More than forty years later, we confirm the tenets of Bray and Roberts theory by studying the Ising spin glass in an externally applied ma...

We introduce a method for computing corrections to Bethe approximation for spin models on arbitrary lattices. Unlike cluster variational methods, the new approach takes into account fluctuations on all length scales. The derivation of the leading correction is explained and applied to two simple examples: the ferromagnetic Ising model on d-dimensional lattices, and the spin glass on random graphs (both in their high-temperature phases). In the first case we rederive the wel...

We reconsider Ising spins in a Gaussian random field within the replica formalism. The corresponding continuum model involves several coupling constants beyond the single one which was considered in the standard $\phi^4$ theory approach. These terms involve more than one replica, and therefore in a mean field theory they do not contribute to the zero-replica limit. However the fluctuations involving those extra terms are singular on the Curie line below eight dimensions, and ...

In this talk I will review the approach to spin glasses based on the spontaneously broken replica symmetry. I will concentrate my attention mostly on more general ideas, skipping technical details and stressing the characteristic predictions of this approach. After the introduction of the replica method, the predicted structure of states is investigated in details, paying a particular attention to the local overlaps and to the structure of the clusters. I will finally study t...

The mathematically correct computation of the spin glasses free energy in the infinite range limit crowns 25 years of mathematic efforts in solving this model. The exact solution of the model was found many years ago by using a heuristic approach; the results coming from the heuristic approach were crucial in deriving the mathematical results. The mathematical tools used in the rigorous approach are quite different from those of the heuristic approach. In this note we will re...