Ising spin glass under continuous-distribution random magnetic fields: Tricritical points and instability lines

Abstract

The effects of random magnetic fields are considered in an Ising spin-glass model defined in the limit of infinite-range interactions. The probability distribution for the random magnetic fields is a double Gaussian, which consists of two Gaussian distributions centered, respectively, at +H0 and -H0, presenting the same width sigma . It is argued that such a distribution is more appropriate for a theoretical description of real systems than its simpler particular two well-known limits, namely, the single Gaussian distribution (sigma>>H0) and the bimodal one (sigma=0) . The model is investigated by means of the replica method, and phase diagrams are obtained within the replica-symmetric solution. Critical frontiers exhibiting tricritical points occur for different values of sigma , with the possibility of two tricritical points along the same critical frontier. To our knowledge, it is the first time that such a behavior is verified for a spin-glass model in the presence of a continuous-distribution random field, which represents a typical situation of a real system. The stability of the replica-symmetric solution is analyzed, and the usual Almeida-Thouless instability is verified for low temperatures. It is verified that the higher-temperature tricritical point always appears in the region of stability of the replica-symmetric solution; a condition involving the parameters H0 and sigma , for the occurrence of this tricritical point only, is obtained analytically. Some of our results are discussed in view of experimental measurements available in the literature.