Temperature chaos is a non-local effect

Abstract

Temperature chaos plays a role in important effects, like for example memory and rejuvenation, in spin glasses, colloids, polymers. We numerically investigate temperature chaos in spin glasses, exploiting its recent characterization as a rare-event driven phenomenon. The peculiarities of the transformation from periodic to anti-periodic boundary conditions in spin glasses allow us to conclude that temperature chaos is non-local: no bounded region of the system causes it. We precise the statistical relationship between temperature chaos and the free-energy changes upon varying boundary conditions.

15 pages, 8 figures. Version accepted for publication in JSTAT