Optical computation of a spin glass dynamics with tunable complexity.

Spin glasses (SGs) are paradigmatic models for physical, computer science, biological, and social systems. The problem of studying the dynamics for SG models is nondetermistic polynomial-time (NP) hard; that is, no algorithm solves it in polynomial time. Here we implement the optical simulation of an SG, exploiting the N segments of a wavefront-shaping device to play the role of the spin variables, combining the interference downstream of a scattering material to implement the random couplings between the spins (the [Formula: see text] matrix) and measuring the light intensity on a number P of targets to retrieve the energy of the system. By implementing a plain Metropolis algorithm, we are able to simulate the spin model dynamics, while the degree of complexity of the potential energy landscape and the region of phase diagram explored are user defined, acting on the ratio [Formula: see text] We study experimentally, numerically, and analytically this Hopfield-like system displaying a paramagnetic, ferromagnetic, and SG phase, and we demonstrate that the transition temperature [Formula: see text] to the glassy phase from the paramagnetic phase grows with α. We demonstrate the computational advantage of the optical SG where interaction terms are realized simultaneously when the independent light rays interfere on the detector's surface. This inherently parallel measurement of the energy provides a speedup with respect to purely in silico simulations scaling with N.

General phase diagram of multimodal ordered and disordered lasers in closed and open cavities.

We present a unified approach to the theory of multimodal laser cavities including a variable amount of structural disorder. A general mean-field theory is studied for waves in media with variable nonlinearity and randomness. Phase diagrams are reported in terms of optical power, degree of disorder, and degree of nonlinearity, tuning between closed and open cavity scenarios. In the thermodynamic limit of infinitely many modes, the theory predicts four distinct regimes: a continuous wave behavior for low power, a standard mode-locking laser regime for high power and weak disorder, a random laser for high pumped power and large disorder, and a novel intermediate regime of phase locking occurring in the presence of disorder but below the lasing threshold.

Experimental evidence of replica symmetry breaking in random lasers.

Spin-glass theory is one of the leading paradigms of complex physics and describes condensed matter, neural networks and biological systems, ultracold atoms, random photonics and many other research fields. According to this theory, identical systems under identical conditions may reach different states. This effect is known as replica symmetry breaking and is revealed by the shape of the probability distribution function of an order parameter named the Parisi overlap. However, a direct experimental evidence in any field of research is still missing. Here we investigate pulse-to-pulse fluctuations in random lasers, we introduce and measure the analogue of the Parisi overlap in independent experimental realizations of the same disordered sample, and we find that the distribution function yields evidence of a transition to a glassy light phase compatible with a replica symmetry breaking.

Finite-size corrections to the spectrum of regular random graphs: An analytical solution.

We develop a thorough analytical study of the O(1/N) correction to the spectrum of regular random graphs with N→∞ nodes. The finite-size fluctuations of the resolvent are given in terms of a weighted series over the contributions coming from loops of all possible lengths, from which we obtain the isolated eigenvalue as well as an analytical expression for the O(1/N) correction to the continuous part of the spectrum. The comparison between this analytical formula and direct diagonalization results exhibits an excellent agreement, confirming the correctness of our expression.

Small-cluster renormalization group in Ising and Blume-Emery-Griffiths models with ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic, and quenched disordered magnetic interactions.

The Ising and Blume-Emery-Griffiths (BEG) models' critical behavior is analyzed in two dimensions and three dimensions by means of a renormalization group scheme on small clusters made of a few lattice cells. Different kinds of cells are proposed for both ordered and disordered model cases. In particular, cells preserving a possible antiferromagnetic ordering under renormalization allow for the determination of the Néel critical point and its scaling indices. These also provide more reliable estimates of the Curie fixed point than those obtained using cells preserving only the ferromagnetic ordering. In all studied dimensions, the present procedure does not yield a strong-disorder critical point corresponding to the transition to the spin-glass phase. This limitation is thoroughly analyzed and motivated.

Critical slowing down exponents of mode coupling theory.

A method is provided to compute the exponent parameter λ yielding the dynamic exponents of critical slowing down in mode coupling theory. It is independent from the dynamic approach and based on the formulation of an effective static field theory. Expressions of λ in terms of third order coefficients of the action expansion or, equivalently, in terms of six point cumulants are provided. Applications are reported to a number of mean-field models: with hard and soft variables and both fully connected and dilute interactions. Comparisons with existing results for the Potts glass model, the random orthogonal model, hard and soft-spin Sherrington-Kirkpatrick, and p-spin models are presented.

Statistical mechanical approach to secondary processes and structural relaxation in glasses and glass formers: a leading model to describe the onset of Johari-Goldstein processes and their relationship with fully cooperative processes.

The interrelation of dynamic processes active on separated time-scales in glasses and viscous liquids is investigated using a model displaying two time-scale bifurcations both between fast and secondary relaxation and between secondary and structural relaxation. The study of the dynamics allows for predictions on the system relaxation above the temperature of dynamic arrest in the mean-field approximation, that are compared with the outcomes of the equations of motion directly derived within the Mode Coupling Theory (MCT) for under-cooled viscous liquids. By varying the external thermodynamic parameters, a wide range of phenomenology can be represented, from a very clear separation of structural and secondary peak in the susceptibility loss to excess wing structures.

Thermodynamic first order transition and inverse freezing in a 3D spin glass.

We present a numerical study of the random Blume-Capel model in three dimensions. The phase diagram is characterized by spin-glass-paramagnet phase transitions of both first and second order in the thermodynamic sense. Numerical simulations are performed using the exchange Monte Carlo algorithm, providing clear evidence for inverse freezing. The main features at criticality and in the phase coexistence region are investigated. We are not privy to other 3D short-range systems with quenched disorder undergoing inverse freezing.

Phase diagram and complexity of mode-locked lasers: from order to disorder.

We investigate mode-locking processes in lasers displaying a variable degree of structural randomness. By a spin-glass theoretic approach, we analyze the mean-field Hamiltonian and derive a phase diagram in terms of pumping rate and degree of disorder. Paramagnetic (noisy continuous wave emission), ferromagnetic (standard passive mode locking), and spin-glass phases with an exponentially large number of configurations are identified. The results are also relevant for other physical systems displaying a random Hamiltonian, such as Bose-condensed gases and nonlinear optics.

Ising spin-glass transition in a magnetic field outside the limit of validity of mean-field theory.

The spin-glass transition in a magnetic field is studied both in and out of the limit of validity of mean-field theory on a diluted one dimensional chain of Ising spins where exchange bonds occur with a probability decaying as the inverse power of the distance. Varying the power in this long-range model corresponds, in a one-to-one relationship, to changing the dimension in spin-glass short-range models. Evidence for a spin-glass transition in a magnetic field is found also for systems whose equivalent dimension is below the upper critical dimension in a zero magnetic field.

Dilute one-dimensional spin glasses with power law decaying interactions.

We introduce a diluted version of the one-dimensional spin-glass model with interactions decaying in probability as an inverse power of the distance. In this model, varying the power corresponds to changing the dimension in short-range models. The spin-glass phase is studied in and out of the range of validity of the mean-field approximation in order to discriminate between different theories. Since each variable interacts only with a finite number of others the cost for simulating, the model is drastically reduced with respect to the fully connected version, and larger sizes can be studied. We find both static and dynamic indications in favor of the so-called replica symmetry breaking theory.

Spherical 2 + p spin-glass model: an exactly solvable model for glass to spin-glass transition.

We present the full phase diagram of the spherical 2 + p spin-glass model with p > or = 4. The main outcome is the presence of a phase with both properties of full replica symmetry breaking phases of discrete models, e.g., the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model, and those of one replica symmetry breaking. This phase has a finite complexity which leads to different dynamic and static properties. The phase diagram is rich enough to allow the study of different kinds of glass to spin glass and spin glass to spin glass phase transitions.

Spin-glass complexity.

We study the quenched complexity in spin-glass mean-field models satisfying the Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin supersymmetry. The outcome of such study, consistent with recent numerical results, allows, in principle, to conjecture the absence of any supersymmetric contribution to the complexity in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model. The same analysis can be applied to any model with a full replica symmetry breaking phase, e.g., the Ising p-spin model below the Gardner temperature. The existence of different solutions, breaking the supersymmetry, is also discussed.

First-order phase transition and phase coexistence in a spin-glass model.

We study the mean-field static solution of the Blume-Emery-Griffiths-Capel model with quenched disorder, an Ising-spin lattice gas with random magnetic interaction. The thermodynamics is worked out in the full replica symmetry breaking scheme. The model exhibits a high temperature/low density paramagnetic phase. As temperature decreases or density increases, a phase transition to a full replica symmetry breaking spin-glass phase occurs. The nature of the transition can be either of the second order or, at temperature below a given critical value, of the first order in the Ehrenfest sense, with a discontinuous jump of the order parameter, a latent heat, and coexistence of phases.

Disordered backgammon model.

In this paper we consider an exactly solvable model that displays glassy behavior at zero temperature due to entropic barriers. The new ingredient of the model is the existence of different energy scales or modes associated with different relaxational time scales. Low-temperature relaxation takes place by partial equilibration of successive lower-energy modes. An adiabatic scaling solution, defined in terms of a threshold energy scale epsilon*, is proposed. For such a solution, modes with energy epsilon>>epsilon* are equilibrated at the bath temperature, modes with epsilon<

Inherent structures in models for fragile and strong glass.

An analysis of the dynamics is performed of exactly solvable models for fragile and strong glasses, exploiting the partitioning of the free-energy landscape in inherent structures. The results are compared with the exact solution of the dynamics, by employing the formulation of an effective temperature used in literature. Also, a statistical mechanics formulation is introduced, based upon general statistical considerations, which performs better. Though the considered models are conceptually simple, there is no limit in which the dynamics may be exactly described by a symbolic dynamics of the system moving through consistently weighted inherent structures.

Effective temperatures in an exactly solvable model for a fragile glass.

A model glass with facilitated dynamics is considered with one type of fast process (beta type) and one type of slow process (alpha type). On time scales where the fast processes are in equilibrium, the slow ones have a dynamics that resembles that of facilitated spin models. The main features are the occurrence of a Kauzmann transition, a Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann-Hesse behavior for the relaxation time, an Adam-Gibbs relation between relaxation time and configurational entropy, and an aging regime. The model is such that its statics is simple and its (Monte Carlo type) dynamics is exactly solvable. The dynamics has been studied both on the approach to the Kauzmann transition and below it. In certain parameter regimes it is so slow that a quasiequilibrium occurs at a time dependent effective temperature. Correlation and response functions are also computed, as well as the out of equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation relation, showing the uniqueness of the effective temperature, thus giving support to the rephrasing of the problem within the framework of out of equilibrium thermodynamics.