A ferromagnet with a glass transition

Silvio Franz 1, Marc Mézard 2, Federico Ricci-Tersenghi 1, Martin Weigt 3, Riccardo Zecchina 1

Europhysics Letters (EPL) 55 (2001) 465

We introduce a finite-connectivity ferromagnetic model with a three-spin interaction which has a crystalline (ferromagnetic) phase as well as a glass phase. The model is not frustrated, it has a ferromagnetic equilibrium phase at low temperature which is not reached dynamically in a quench from the high-temperature phase. Instead it shows a glass transition which can be studied in detail by a one step replica-symmetry broken calculation. This spin model exhibits the main properties of the structural glass transition at a solvable mean-field level.

  • 1. International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP),
    the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
  • 2. Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques (LPTMS),
    CNRS : UMR8626 – Université Paris XI – Paris Sud
  • 3. Institute for Theoretical Physics,
    University of Göttingen
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