Replica and Glasses

Abstract

In these two lectures I review our theoretical understanding of spin glasses paying a particular attention to the basic physical ideas. We introduce the replica method and we describe its probabilistic consequences (we stress the recently discovered importance of stochastic stability). We show that the replica method is not restricted to systems with quenched disorder. We present the consequences on the dynamics of the system when it slows approaches equilibrium are presented: they are confirmed by large scale simulations, while we are still awaiting for a direct experimental

Contribution to the NATO-ASI school on Liquid State Theory (Patti 1998). 25 pages and 6 figures