Elastic lattice in a random potential

Abstract

Using Monte Carlo simulations, we study the properties of an elastic triangular lattice subject to a random background potential. As the cooling rate is reduced, we observe a rather sudden crossover between two different glass phases, with exponential decay of translational correlations, the other with power-law decay. Contrary to predictions derived for continuum models, no evidence of a crossover in the mean-square displacement $B(r)$ from the quadratic growth at small $r$ to the logarithmic growth at large $r$ is found.