arXiv subjects

Pierre Le Doussal

Publications and source records attributed to Pierre Le Doussal.

At least 253 records · Page 14Linked to original sources

arXiv2002

Localization of thermal packets and metastable states in Sinai model

We consider the Sinai model describing a particle diffusing in a 1D random force field. As shown by Golosov, this model exhibits a strong localization phenomenon for the thermal packet: the disorder average of the thermal distribution of the relative distance y=x-m(t), with respect to the (disorder-dependent) most probable position m(t), converges in the limit of infinite time towards a distribution P(y). In this paper, we revisit this question of the localization of the thermal packet. We first generalize the result of Golosov by computing explicitly the joint asymptotic distribution of relative position y=x(t)-m(t) and relative energy u=U(x(t))-U(m(t)) for the thermal packet. Next, we compute in the infinite-time limit the localization parameters Y_k, representing the disorder-averaged probabilities that k particles of the thermal packet are at the same place, and the correlation function C(l) representing the disorder-averaged probability that two particles of the thermal packet are at a distance l from each other. We moreover prove that our results for Y_k and C(l) exactly coincide with the thermodynamic limit of the analog quantities computed for independent particles at equilibrium in a finite sample of length L. Finally, we discuss the properties of the finite-time metastable states that are responsible for the localization phenomenon and compare with the general theory of metastable states in glassy systems, in particular as a test of the Edwards conjecture.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2001

Functional renormalization group at large N for random manifolds

We introduce a method, based on an exact calculation of the effective action at large N, to bridge the gap between mean field theory and renormalization in complex systems. We apply it to a d-dimensional manifold in a random potential for large embedding space dimension N. This yields a functional renormalization group equation valid for any d, which contains both the O(epsilon=4-d) results of Balents-Fisher and some of the non-trivial results of the Mezard-Parisi solution thus shedding light on both. Corrections are computed at order O(1/N). Applications to the problems of KPZ, random field and mode coupling in glasses are mentioned.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2001

Freezing transitions and the density of states of 2D random Dirac Hamiltonians

Using an exact mapping to disordered Coulomb gases, we introduce a novel method to study two dimensional Dirac fermions with quenched disorder in two dimensions which allows to treat non perturbative freezing phenomena. For purely random gauge disorder it is known that the exact zero energy eigenstate exhibits a freezing-like transition at a threshold value of disorder $σ=σ_{th}=2$. Here we compute the dynamical exponent $z$ which characterizes the critical behaviour of the density of states around zero energy, and find that it also exhibits a phase transition. Specifically, we find that $ρ(E=0 + i ε) \sim ε^{2/z-1}$ (and $ρ(E) \sim E^{2/z-1}$) with $z=1 + σ$ for $σ< 2$ and $z=\sqrt{8 σ} - 1$ for $σ> 2$. For a finite system size $L<ε^{-1/z}$ we find large sample to sample fluctuations with a typical $ρ_ε(0) \sim L^{z-2}$. Adding a scalar random potential of small variance $δ$, as in the corresponding quantum Hall system, yields a finite noncritical $ρ(0) \sim δ^α$ whose scaling exponent $α$ exhibits two transitions, one at $σ_{th}/4$ and the other at $σ_{th}$. These transitions are shown to be related to the one of a directed polymer on a Cayley tree with random signs (or complex) Boltzmann weights. Some observations are made for the strong disorder regime relevant to describe transport in the quantum Hall system.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Nonequilibrium dynamics of random field Ising spin chains: exact results via real space RG

Non-equilibrium dynamics of classical random Ising spin chains are studied using asymptotically exact real space renormalization group. Specifically the random field Ising model with and without an applied field (and the Ising spin glass (SG) in a field), in the universal regime of a large Imry Ma length so that coarsening of domains after a quench occurs over large scales. Two types of domain walls diffuse in opposite Sinai random potentials and mutually annihilate. The domain walls converge rapidly to a set of system-specific time-dependent positions {\it independent of the initial conditions}. We obtain the time dependent energy, magnetization and domain size distribution (statistically independent). The equilibrium limits agree with known exact results. We obtain exact scaling forms for two-point equal time correlation and two-time autocorrelations. We also compute the persistence properties of a single spin, of local magnetization, and of domains. The analogous quantities for the spin glass are obtained. We compute the two-point two-time correlation which can be measured by experiments on spin-glass like systems. Thermal fluctuations are found to be dominated by rare events; all moments of truncated correlations are computed. The response to a small field applied after waiting time $t_w$, as measured in aging experiments, and the fluctuation-dissipation ratio $X(t,t_w)$ are computed. For $(t-t_w) \sim t_w^{\hatα}$, $\hatα <1$, it equals its equilibrium value X=1, though time translational invariance fails. It exhibits for $t-t_w \sim t_w$ aging regime with non-trivial $X=X(t/t_w) \neq 1$, different from mean field.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Renormalization of pinned elastic systems: how does it work beyond one loop ?

We study the field theories for pinned elastic systems at equilibrium and at depinning. Their $β$-functions differ to two loops by novel ``anomalous'' terms. At equilibrium we find a roughness $ζ=0.20829804 ε+ 0.006858 ε^2$ (random bond), $ζ=ε/3$ (random field). At depinning we prove two-loop renormalizability and that random field attracts shorter range disorder. We find $ζ=\fracε{3}(1 + 0.14331 ε)$, $ε=4-d$, in violation of the conjecture $ζ=ε/3$, solving the discrepancy with simulations. For long range elasticity $ζ=\fracε{3}(1 + 0.39735 ε)$, $ε=2-d$, much closer to the experimental value ($\approx 0.5$ both for liquid helium contact line depinning and slow crack fronts) than the standard prediction 1/3.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Freezing of dynamical exponents in low dimensional random media

A particle in a random potential with logarithmic correlations in dimensions $d=1,2$ is shown to undergo a dynamical transition at $T_{dyn}>0$. In $d=1$ exact results demonstrate that $T_{dyn}=T_c$, the static glass transition temperature, and that the dynamical exponent changes from $z(T)=2 + 2 (T_c/T)^2$ at high temperature to $z(T)= 4 T_c/T$ in the glass phase. The same formulae are argued to hold in $d=2$. Dynamical freezing is also predicted in the 2D random gauge XY model and related systems. In $d=1$ a mapping between dynamics and statics is unveiled and freezing involves barriers as well as valleys. Anomalous scaling occurs in the creep dynamics.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Exact renormalization group and applications to disordered problems: part I

We develop a systematic multi-local expansion of the Polchinski-Wilson exact renormalization group (ERG) equation. Integrating out explicitly the non local interactions, we reduce the ERG equation obeyed by the full interaction functional to a flow equation for a function, its local part. This is done perturbatively around fixed points, but exactly to any given order in the local part. It is thus controlled, at variance with projection methods, e.g. derivative expansions or local potential approximations. Our method is well-suited to problems such as the pinning of disordered elastic systems, previously described via functional renormalization group (FRG) approach based on a hard cutoff scheme. Since it involves arbitrary cutoff functions, we explicitly verify universality to ${\cal O} (ε=4-D)$, both of the T=0 FRG equation and of correlations. Extension to finite temperature $T$ yields the finite size ($L$) susceptibility fluctuations characterizing mesoscopic behaviour $\bar{(Δχ)^2} \sim L^θ/T$, where $θ$ is the energy exponent. Finally, we obtain the universal scaling function to ${\cal O}(ε^{1/3})$ which describes the ground state of a domain wall in a random field confined by a field gradient, compare with exact results and variational method. Explicit two loop exact RG equations are derived and the application to the FRG problem is sketched.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Glass transition of a particle in a random potential, front selection in nonlinear RG and entropic phenomena in Liouville and SinhGordon models

We study via RG, numerics, exact bounds and qualitative arguments the equilibrium Gibbs measure of a particle in a $d$-dimensional gaussian random potential with {\it translationally invariant logarithmic} spatial correlations. We show that for any $d \ge 1$ it exhibits a transition at $T=T_c>0$. The low temperature glass phase has a non trivial structure, being dominated by {\it a few} distant states (with replica symmetry breaking phenomenology). In finite dimension this transition exists only in this ``marginal glass'' case (energy fluctuation exponent $θ=0$) and disappears if correlations grow faster (single ground state dominance $θ>0$) or slower (high temperature phase). The associated extremal statistics problem for correlated energy landscapes exhibits universal features which we describe using a non linear (KPP) RG equation. These include the tails of the distribution of the minimal energy (or free energy) and the finite size corrections which are universal. The glass transition is closely related to Derrida's random energy models. In $d=2$ the glass transition of the particle exhibits interesting similarities with the weak to strong coupling transition in Liouville ($c=1$ barrier) and with a transition that we conjecture for the sinh-Gordon model. Glassy freezing of the particle is associated with the generation under RG of new local operators and of non-smooth configurations in Liouville. Applications to Dirac fermions in random magnetic fields at criticality reveals a peculiar ``quasi-localized'' regime (the glass phase for the particle) where eigenfunctions are concentrated over {\it a finite number} of distant regions, and allows to recover the multifractal spectrum.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Creep and depinning in disordered media

Elastic systems driven in a disordered medium exhibit a depinning transition at zero temperature and a creep regime at finite temperature and slow drive $f$. We derive functional renormalization group equations which allow to describe in details the properties of the slowly moving states in both cases. Since they hold at finite velocity $v$, they allow to remedy some shortcomings of the previous approaches to zero temperature depinning. In particular, they enable us to derive the depinning law directly from the equation of motion, with no artificial prescription or additional physical assumptions. Our approach provides a controlled framework to establish under which conditions the depinning regime is universal. It explicitly demonstrates that the random potential seen by a moving extended system evolves at large scale to a random field and yields a self-contained picture for the size of the avalanches associated with the deterministic motion. At $T>0$ we find that the effective barriers grow with lenghtscale as the energy differences between neighboring metastable states, and demonstrate the resulting activated creep law $v\sim \exp (-C f^{-μ}/T)$ where the exponent $μ$ is obtained in a $ε=4-D$ expansion ($D$ is the internal dimension of the interface). Our approach also provides quantitatively a new scenario for creep motion as it allows to identify several intermediate lengthscales. In particular, we unveil a novel ``depinning-like'' regime at scales larger than the activation scale, with avalanches spreading from the thermal nucleus scale up to the much larger correlation length $R_{V}$. We predict that $R_{V}\sim T^{-σ}f^{-λ}$ diverges at small $f$ and $T$ with exponents $σ,λ$ that we determine.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2000

Disorder Induced Transitions in Layered Coulomb Gases and Superconductors

A 3D layered system of charges with logarithmic interaction parallel to the layers and random dipoles is studied via a novel variational method and an energy rationale which reproduce the known phase diagram for a single layer. Increasing interlayer coupling leads to successive transitions in which charge rods correlated in N>1 neighboring layers are nucleated by weaker disorder. For layered superconductors in the limit of only magnetic interlayer coupling, the method predicts and locates a disorder-induced defect-unbinding transition in the flux lattice. While N=1 charges dominate there, N>1 disorder induced defect rods are predicted for multi-layer superconductors.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1999

Dynamical Transverse Meissner Effect and Transition in Moving Bose Glass

We study moving periodic structures in presence of correlated disorder using renormalisation group. We find that the effect of disorder persists at all velocities resulting at zero temperature in a Moving Bose Glass phase with transverse pinning. At non zero temperature we find two distinct moving glass phases. We predict a sharp transition, as velocity increases between the Moving Bose Glass, where the transverse Meissner effect persists in the direction transverse to motion and a Correlated Moving Glass at high velocity, where it disappears. Experimental consequences for vortex lattices and charge density wave (CDW) systems are discussed.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1999

Topological transitions and freezing in XY models and Coulomb gases with quenched disorder: renormalization via traveling waves

We study the two dimensional XY model with quenched random phases and its Coulomb gas formulation. A novel renormalization group (RG) method is developed which allows to study perturbatively the glassy low temperature XY phase and the transition at which frozen topological defects (vortices) proliferate. This RG approach is constructed both from the replicated Coulomb gas and, equivalently without the use of replicas, using the probability distribution of the local disorder (random defect core energy). By taking into account the fusion of environments (i.e charge fusion in the replicated Coulomb gas) this distribution is shown to obey a Kolmogorov's type (KPP) non linear RG equation which admits travelling wave solutions and exhibits a freezing phenomenon analogous to glassy freezing in Derrida's random energy models. The resulting physical picture is that the distribution of local disorder becomes broad below a freezing temperature and that the transition is controlled by rare favorable regions for the defects, the density of which can be used as the new perturbative parameter. The determination of marginal directions at the disorder induced transition is shown to be related to the well studied front velocity selection problem in the KPP equation and the universality of the novel critical behaviour obtained here to the known universality of the corrections to the front velocity. Applications to other two dimensional problems are mentionned at the end.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv1999

Polymers and manifolds in static random flows: a renormalization group study

We study the dynamics of a polymer or a D-dimensional elastic manifold diffusing and convected in a non-potential static random flow (the ``randomly driven polymer model''). We find that short-range (SR) disorder is relevant for d < 4 for directed polymers (each monomer sees a different flow) and for d < 6 for isotropic polymers (each monomer sees the same flow) and more generally for d 2 and the velocity versus applied force characteristics is sublinear, i.e. at small forces v(f) f^phi with phi > 1. It indicates that this new state is glassy, with dynamically generated barriers leading to trapping, even by a divergenceless (transversal) flow. For random flows with long-range (LR) correlations, we find continuously varying exponents with the ratio gL/gT of potential to transversal disorder, and interesting crossover phenomena between LR and SR behavior. For isotropic polymers new effects (e.g. a sign change of zeta - zeta_0) result from the competition between localization and stretching by the flow. In contrast to purely potential disorder, where the dynamics gets frozen, here the dynamical exponent z is not much larger than 2, making it easily accessible by simulations. The phenomenon of pinning by transversal disorder is further demonstrated using a two monomer ``dumbbell'' toy model.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1999

Reaction Diffusion Models in One Dimension with Disorder

We study a large class of 1D reaction diffusion models with quenched disorder using a real space renormalization group method (RSRG) which yields exact results at large time. Particles (e.g. of several species) undergo diffusion with random local bias (Sinai model) and react upon meeting. We obtain the large time decay of the density of each specie, their associated universal amplitudes, and the spatial distribution of particles. We also derive the spectrum of exponents which characterize the convergence towards the asymptotic states. For reactions with several asymptotic states, we analyze the dynamical phase diagram and obtain the critical exponents at the transitions. We also study persistence properties for single particles and for patterns. We compute the decay exponents for the probability of no crossing of a given point by, respectively, the single particle trajectories ($θ$) or the thermally averaged packets ($\barθ$). The generalized persistence exponents associated to n crossings are also obtained. Specifying to the process $A+A \to \emptyset$ or A with probabilities $(r,1-r)$, we compute exactly the exponents $δ(r)$ and $ψ(r)$ characterizing the survival up to time t of a domain without any merging or with mergings respectively, and $δ_A(r)$ and $ψ_A(r)$ characterizing the survival up to time t of a particle A without any coalescence or with coalescences respectively. $\barθ, ψ, δ$ obey hypergeometric equations and are numerically surprisingly close to pure system exponents (though associated to a completely different diffusion length). Additional disorder in the reaction rates, as well as some open questions, are also discussed.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1998

Random Walkers in 1-D Random Environments: Exact Renormalization Group Analysis

Sinai's model of diffusion in one-dimension with random local bias is studied by a real space renormalization group which yields exact results at long times. The effects of an additional small uniform bias force are also studied. We obtain analytically the scaling form of the distribution of the position $x(t)$ of a particle, the probability of it not returning to the origin and the distributions of first passage times, in an infinite sample as well as in the presence of a boundary and in a finite size sample. We compute the distribution of meeting time of two particles. We also obtain a detailed analytic description of thermally averaged trajectories: we compute the distributions of the number of returns and of the number of jumps forward. They obey multifractal scaling, characterized by generalized persistence exponents $θ(g)$ which we compute. With a small bias, the number of returns is finite, characterized by a universal scaling function. The statistics of the successive times of return of thermally averaged trajectories is obtained. The two time distribution of the positions of a particle, $x(t)$ and $x(t')$ ($t>t'$) is computed exactly. It exhibits ``aging'' with several regimes: without a bias, for $t-t' \sim t'^α, α> 1$, it exhibits a $(\ln t)/(\ln t')$ scaling, with a novel singularity at rescaled positions $x(t)=x(t')$. For closer times $α<1$ there is a quasi-equilibrium regime with $\ln(t-t')/\ln t'$ scaling. The crossover to a $t/t'$ aging form under a small bias is obtained analytically. Rare events, e.g. splitting of the thermal packet between wells, are also studied. Connections with the Green's function of a 1D Schrödinger problem and quantum spin chains are discussed.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1998

Dislocations and Bragg glasses in two dimensions

We discuss the question of the generation of topological defects (dislocations) by quenched disorder in two dimensional periodic systems. In a previous study [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 52} 1242 (1995)] we found that, contrarily to $d=3$, unpaired dislocations appear in $d=2$ above a length scale $ξ_D$, which we estimated. We extend this description to include effects of freezing and pinning of dislocations at low temperature. The resulting $ξ_D$ at low temperature is found to be {\it larger} than our previous estimate, which is recovered above a characteristic temperature. The dependence of $ξ_D$ in the bare core energy of dislocations is a stretched exponential. We stress that for all temperatures below melting $ξ_D$ becomes arbitrarily large at weak disorder compared to the translational order length $R_a \gg a$. Thus there is a wide region of length scales, temperature and disorder where Bragg glass like behavior should be observable.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1998

Disordered XY models and Coulomb gases: renormalization via traveling waves

We present a novel RG approach to 2D random XY models using direct and replicated Coulomb gas methods. By including fusion of environments (charge fusion in the replicated CG) it follows the distribution of local disorder, found to obey a Kolmogorov non linear equation (KPP) with traveling wave solutions. At low T and weak disorder it yields a glassy XY phase with broad distributions and precise connections to Derrida's GREM. Finding marginal operators at the disorder-induced transition is related to the front velocity selection problem in KPP equations yielding new critical behaviour. The method is applied to critical random Dirac problems.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1997

Melting of two dimensional solids on disordered substrate

We study 2D solids with weak substrate disorder, using Coulomb gas renormalisation. The melting transition is found to be replaced by a sharp crossover between a high $T$ liquid with thermally induced dislocations, and a low $T$ glassy regime with disorder induced dislocations at scales larger than $ξ_{d}$ which we compute ($ξ_{d}\gg R_{c}\sim R_{a}$, the Larkin and translational correlation lengths). We discuss experimental consequences, reminiscent of melting, such as size effects in vortex flow and AC response in superconducting films.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗