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O. C. Martin

Publications and source records attributed to O. C. Martin.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Temperature Chaos, Rejuvenation and Memory in Migdal-Kadanoff Spin Glasses

We use simulations within the Migdal-Kadanoff real space renormalization approach to probe the scales relevant for rejuvenation and memory in spin glasses. One of the central questions concerns the role of temperature chaos. First we investigate scaling laws of equilibrium temperature chaos, finding super-exponential decay of correlations but no chaos for the total free energy. Then we perform out of equilibrium simulations that follow experimental protocols. We find that: (1) rejuvenation arises at a length scale smaller than the ``overlap length'' l(T,T'); (2) memory survives even if equilibration goes out to length scales much larger than l(T,T').

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Local excitations of a spin glass in a magnetic field

We study the minimum energy clusters (MEC) above the ground state for the 3-d Edwards-Anderson Ising spin glass in a magnetic field. For fields B below 0.4, we find that the field has almost no effect on the excitations that we can probe, of volume V <= 64. As found previously for B=0, their energies decrease with V, and their magnetization remains very small (even slightly negative). For larger fields, both the MEC energy and magnetization grow with V, as expected in a paramagnetic phase. However, all results appear to scale as BV (instead of the B sqrt(V) expected from droplet arguments), suggesting that the spin glass phase is destroyed by any small field. Finally, the geometry of the MEC is completely insensitive to the field, giving further credence that they are lattice animals, in the presence or the absence of a field.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Absence of an equilibrium ferromagnetic spin glass phase in three dimensions

Using ground state computations, we study the transition from a spin glass to a ferromagnet in 3-d spin glasses when changing the mean value of the spin-spin interaction. We find good evidence for replica symmetry breaking up till the critical value where ferromagnetic ordering sets in, and no ferromagnetic spin glass phase. This phase diagram is in conflict with the droplet/scaling and mean field theories of spin glasses. We also find that the exponents of the second order ferromagnetic transition do not depend on the microscopic Hamiltonian, suggesting universality of this transition.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Temperature chaos in a replica symmetry broken spin glass model - A hierarchical model with temperature chaos -

Temperature chaos is an extreme sensitivity of the equilibrium state to a change of temperature. It arises in several disordered systems that are described by the so called scaling theory of spin glasses, while it seems to be absent in mean field models. We consider a model spin glass on a tree and show that although it has mean field behavior with replica symmetry breaking, it manifestly has ``strong'' temperature chaos. We also show why chaos appears only very slowly with system size.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Discreteness and entropic fluctuations in GREM-like systems

Within generalized random energy models, we study the effects of energy discreteness and of entropy extensivity in the low temperature phase. At zero temperature, discreteness of the energy induces replica symmetry breaking, in contrast to the continuous case where the ground state is unique. However, when the ground state energy has an extensive entropy, the distribution of overlaps P(q) instead tends towards a single delta function in the large volume limit. Considering now the whole frozen phase, we find that P(q) varies continuously with temperature, and that state-to-state fluctuations of entropy wash out the differences between the discrete and continuous energy models.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Chaotic temperature dependence in a model of spin glasses

We address the problem of chaotic temperature dependence in disordered glassy systems at equilibrium by following states of a random-energy random-entropy model in temperature; of particular interest are the crossings of the free-energies of these states. We find that this model exhibits strong, weak or no temperature chaos depending on the value of an exponent. This allows us to write a general criterion for temperature chaos in disordered systems, predicting the presence of temperature chaos in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick and Edwards-Anderson spin glass models, albeit when the number of spins is large enough. The absence of chaos for smaller systems may justify why it is difficult to observe chaos with current simulations. We also illustrate our findings by studying temperature chaos in the naive mean field equations for the Edwards-Anderson spin glass.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Almost sure convergence of the minimum bipartite matching functional in Euclidean space

Let $L_N = L_{MBM}(X_1,..., X_N; Y_1,..., Y_N)$ be the minimum length of a bipartite matching between two sets of points in $\mathbf{R}^d$, where $X_1,..., X_N,...$ and $Y_1,..., Y_N,...$ are random points independently and uniformly distributed in $[0,1]^d$. We prove that for $d \ge 3$, $L_N/N^{1-1/d}$ converges with probability one to a constant $β_{MBM}(d)>0$ as $N\to \infty $.

math.CO↗

Non-compact local excitations in spin glasses

We study numerically the local low-energy excitations in the 3-d Edwards-Anderson model for spin glasses. Given the ground state, we determine the lowest-lying connected cluster of flipped spins with a fixed volume containing one given spin. These excitations are not compact, having a fractal dimension close to two, suggesting an analogy with lattice animals. Also, their energy does not grow with their size; the associated exponent is slightly negative whereas the one for compact clusters is positive. These findings call for a modification of the basic hypotheses underlying the droplet model.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Zero-temperature responses of a 3D spin glass in a field

We probe the energy landscape of the 3D Edwards-Anderson spin glass in a magnetic field to test for a spin glass ordering. We find that the spin glass susceptibility is anomalously large on the lattice sizes we can reach. Our data suggest that a transition from the spin glass to the paramagnetic phase takes place at B_c=0.65, though the possibility B_c=0 cannot be excluded. We also discuss the question of the nature of the putative frozen phase.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Equilibrium valleys in spin glasses at low temperature

We investigate the 3-dimensional Edwards-Anderson spin glass model at low temperature on simple cubic lattices of sizes up to L=12. Our findings show a strong continuity among T>0 physical features and those found previously at T=0, leading to a scenario with emerging mean field like characteristics that are enhanced in the large volume limit. For instance, the picture of space filling sponges seems to survive in the large volume limit at T>0, while entropic effects play a crucial role in determining the free-energy degeneracy of our finite volume states. All of our analysis is applied to equilibrium configurations obtained by a parallel tempering on 512 different disorder realizations. First, we consider the spatial properties of the sites where pairs of independent spin configurations differ and we introduce a modified spin overlap distribution which exhibits a non-trivial limit for large L. Second, after removing the Z_2 (+-1) symmetry, we cluster spin configurations into valleys. On average these valleys have free-energy differences of O(1), but a difference in the (extensive) internal energy that grows significantly with L; there is thus a large interplay between energy and entropy fluctuations. We also find that valleys typically differ by sponge-like space filling clusters, just as found previously for low-energy system-size excitations above the ground state.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Statistical mechanics methods and phase transitions in optimization problems

Recently, it has been recognized that phase transitions play an important role in the probabilistic analysis of combinatorial optimization problems. However, there are in fact many other relations that lead to close ties between computer science and statistical physics. This review aims at presenting the tools and concepts designed by physicists to deal with optimization or decision problems in an accessible language for computer scientists and mathematicians, with no prerequisites in physics. We first introduce some elementary methods of statistical mechanics and then progressively cover the tools appropriate for disordered systems. In each case, we apply these methods to study the phase transitions or the statistical properties of the optimal solutions in various combinatorial problems. We cover in detail the Random Graph, the Satisfiability, and the Traveling Salesman problems. References to the physics literature on optimization are provided. We also give our perspective regarding the interdisciplinary contribution of physics to computer science.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Iterated Local Search

This is a survey of "Iterated Local Search", a general purpose metaheuristic for finding good solutions of combinatorial optimization problems. It is based on building a sequence of (locally optimal) solutions by: (1) perturbing the current solution; (2) applying local search to that modified solution. At a high level, the method is simple, yet it allows for a detailed use of problem-specific properties. After giving a general framework, we cover the uses of Iterated Local Search on a number of well studied problems.

math.OC↗

Discrete energy landscapes and replica symmetry breaking at zero temperature

The order parameter P(q) for disordered systems with degenerate ground-states is reconsidered. We propose that entropy fluctuations lead to a trivial P(q) at zero temperature as in the non-degenerate case, even if there are zero-energy large-scale excitations (complex energy landscape). Such a situation should arise in the 3-dimensional +-J Ising spin glass and in MAX-SAT. Also, we argue that if the energy landscape is complex with a finite number of ground-state families, then replica symmetry breaking reappears at positive temperature.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Large-scale low-energy excitations in 3-d spin glasses

We numerically extract large-scale excitations above the ground state in the 3-dimensional Edwards-Anderson spin glass with Gaussian couplings. We find that associated energies are O(1), in agreement with the mean field picture. Of further interest are the position-space properties of these excitations. First, our study of their topological properties show that the majority of the large-scale excitations are sponge-like. Second, when probing their geometrical properties, we find that the excitations coarsen when the system size is increased. We conclude that either finite size effects are very large even when the spin overlap q is close to zero, or the mean field picture of homogeneous excitations has to be modified.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Spin and link overlaps in 3-dimensional spin glasses

Excitations of three-dimensional spin glasses are computed numerically. We find that one can flip a finite fraction of an LxLxL lattice with an O(1) energy cost, confirming the mean field picture of a non-trivial spin overlap distribution P(q). These low energy excitations are not domain-wall-like, rather they are topologically non-trivial and they reach out to the boundaries of the lattice. Their surface to volume ratios decrease as L increases and may asymptotically go to zero. If so, link and window overlaps between the ground state and these excited states become ``trivial''.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

A geometrical picture for finite dimensional spin glasses

A controversial issue in spin glass theory is whether mean field correctly describes 3-dimensional spin glasses. If it does, how can replica symmetry breaking arise in terms of spin clusters in Euclidean space? Here we argue that there exist system-size low energy excitations that are sponge-like, generating multiple valleys separated by diverging energy barriers. The droplet model should be valid for length scales smaller than the size of the system (theta > 0), but nevertheless there can be system-size excitations of constant energy without destroying the spin glass phase. The picture we propose then combines droplet-like behavior at finite length scales with a potentially mean field behavior at the system-size scale.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Reply to Comment on "Ising Spin Glasses in a Magnetic Field"

The problem of the survival of a spin glass phase in the presence of a field has been a challenging one for a long time. To date, all attempts using equilibrium Monte Carlo methods have been unconclusive. In their comment to our paper, Marinari, Parisi and Zuliani use out-of-equilibrium measurements to test for an Almeida-Thouless line. In our view such a dynamic approach is not based on very solid foundations in finite dimensional systems and so cannot be as compelling as equilibrium approaches. Nevertheless, the results of those authors suggests that there is a critical field near B=0.4 at zero temperature. In view of this quite small value (compared to the mean field value), we have reanalyzed our data. We find that if finite size scaling is to distinguish between that small field and a zero field, we would need to go to lattice sizes of about 20x20x20.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Renormalization for Discrete Optimization

The renormalization group has proven to be a very powerful tool in physics for treating systems with many length scales. Here we show how it can be adapted to provide a new class of algorithms for discrete optimization. The heart of our method uses renormalization and recursion, and these processes are embedded in a genetic algorithm. The system is self-consistently optimized on all scales, leading to a high probability of finding the ground state configuration. To demonstrate the generality of such an approach, we perform tests on traveling salesman and spin glass problems. The results show that our ``genetic renormalization algorithm'' is extremely powerful.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗