L-4

Goal : final lecture on KPZ and directed polymers at finite dimension. We will show that for $d>2$ a "glass transition" takes place.

KPZ : from 1d to the Cayley tree

We know a lot about KPZ, but there is still much to understand:

• In $d=1$, we have found $\theta =1/3$ and a glassy regime present at all temperatures. The stationary solution of the KPZ equation describes, at long times, the fluctuations of quantities such as $E_{\min }[x]-E_{\min }[x']$. However, it does not determine the actual distribution of $E_{\min }$ for a given $x$. In particular, we have no clear understanding of the origin of the Tracy-Widom distribution.

• In $d=\infty$, an exact solution exists for the Cayley tree, predicting a freezing transition to a 1RSB phase ($\theta =0$).

• In finite dimensions greater than one, no exact solutions are available. Numerical simulations indicate Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \theta > 0} in Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d=2} . The case Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d > 2} remains particularly intriguing.

Let's do replica!

To make progress in disordered systems, we need to analyze the moments of the partition function. From Valentina's lecture, recall that if

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \frac{\overline{Z(x,t)^2}}{ (\overline{Z(x,t)})^2}=1 }

then the partition function is self-averaging, and

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \overline{\ln Z(x,t)} =\ln\overline{Z(x,t)} } .

The condition above is sufficient but not necessary. It is enough that

${\frac {\overline {Z(x,t)^{2}}}{({\overline {Z(x,t)}})^{2}}}<{\text{const}}$,

when Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle t \to \infty} , to ensure the equivalence between annealed and quenched averages.

In the following, we compute this quantity, which corresponds to a two-replica calculation. For simplicity, we consider polymers starting at Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle 0} and ending at $x$. We recall that:

• Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle V(x,\tau)} is a Gaussian field with

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \overline{V(x,\tau)}=0, \quad \overline{V(x,\tau) V(x',\tau')} = D \delta^d(x-x') \delta(\tau-\tau') }

• From Wick's theorem, for a generic Gaussian field $W$, we have

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \overline{\exp(W)} = \exp\left[\overline{W} +\frac{1}{2} \left(\overline{W^2}-\overline{W}^2\right)\right] }

The first moment

The first moment of the partition function is straightforward to compute and corresponds to a single replica:

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \overline{Z(x,t) } =\int_{x(0)=0}^{x(t)=x} {\cal D} x(\tau) \exp\left[- \frac{1}{T} \int_0^t d \tau \frac{1}{2}(\partial_\tau x)^2\right] \overline{\exp\left[- \frac{1}{T} \int d \tau V(x(\tau),\tau ) \right]} }

Note that the term Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T^2 \overline{W^2} = \int d \tau_1 d\tau_2 \overline{V(x,\tau_1)V(x,\tau_2)}= D t \delta_0} exhibits a short-distance divergence due to the delta function. Hence, we can write:

${\overline {Z(x,t)}}={\frac {1}{(2\pi tT)^{d/2}}}\exp \left[-{\frac {1}{2}}{\frac {x^{2}}{tT}}\right]\exp \left[{\frac {Dt\delta _{0}}{2T^{2}}}\right]=Z_{\text{free}}(x,t,T)\exp \left[{\frac {Dt\delta _{0}}{2T^{2}}}\right]$

The second moment

For the second moment, there are two replicas:

• Step 1: The second moment is

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \overline{Z(x,t)^2 } =\int {\cal D} x_1\int {\cal D} x_2 \exp\left[- \int_0^t d \tau \frac{1}{2T}[(\partial_\tau x_1)^2+ (\partial_\tau x_2)^2] \right] \overline{\exp\left[- \frac{1}{T} \int_0^t d \tau_1 V(x_1(\tau_1),\tau_1 ) - \frac{1}{T} \int_0^t d \tau_2 V(x_2(\tau_2),\tau_2 )\right]} }

• Step 2: Using Wick's theorem, we obtain

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \overline{Z(x,t)^2 } = \exp\left[ \frac{D t \delta_0}{T^2} \right]\int {\cal D} x_1\int {\cal D} x_2 \exp\left[- \int_0^t d \tau \frac{1}{2T}[(\partial_\tau x_1)^2+ (\partial_\tau x_2)^2 - \frac{D}{T^2} \delta^d[x_1(\tau)-x_2(\tau)]\right] }

and we can write:

${\overline {Z(x,t)^{2}}}=({\frac {\overline {Z(x,t)}}{Z_{\text{free}}(x,t,T)}})^{2}\int {\cal {D}}x_{1}\int {\cal {D}}x_{2}\exp \left[-\int _{0}^{t}d\tau {\frac {1}{2T}}[(\partial _{\tau }x_{1})^{2}+(\partial _{\tau }x_{2})^{2}-{\frac {D}{T^{2}}}\delta ^{d}[x_{1}(\tau )-x_{2}(\tau )]\right]$

• Step 3: Changing coordinates Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle X=(x_1+x_2)/2; \; u=x_1-x_2} , we get

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \overline{Z(x,t)^2} = (\overline{Z(x,t)})^2 \frac{\int_{u(0)=0}^{u(t)=0} {\cal D} u \exp\left[- \int_0^t d \tau \frac{1}{4T}(\partial_\tau u)^2- \frac{D}{T^2} \delta^d[u(\tau)]\right]}{ Z_{\text{free}}(u=0,t, 2T)} }

where we used $Z_{\text{free}}^{2}(x,t,T)=Z_{\text{free}}(X=x,t,T/2)Z_{\text{free}}(u=0,t,2T)$ with Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle Z_{\text{free}}(u=0,t,2T) = (4 \pi T t)^{d/2} }

The two replica propagator

Let us define the propagator:

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle W(0,t)= \int_{u(0)=0}^{u(t)=0} {\cal D} u \exp\left[- \int_0^t d \tau \frac{1}{4T}(\partial_\tau u)^2- \frac{D}{T^2} \delta^d[u(\tau)]\right] }

Using the Feynman-Kac formula, we can write the following equation:

$\partial _{t}W(x,t)=-{\hat {H}}W(x,t)$

Here, the Hamiltonian is given by:

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \hat H = -2 T \nabla^2 - \frac{D}{T^2} \delta^d[u] }

The Spectrum of the Two-Replica Hamiltonian

The single-particle potential is time-independent and attractive. Since it is time-independent, we can use the spectral decomposition of the propagator. The long-time behavior is controlled by the low-energy part of the spectrum. In the presence of an attractive potential, we may have:

• A discrete set of eigenvalues corresponding to bound states, followed by a continuous spectrum.
• Only a continuous spectrum.

As a funcion of the dimension we distiguish two cases:

• For Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d \leq 2} :

An attractive potential always leads to the formation of a bound state.The ground state has a negative energy $E_{0}<0$. At long times, the propagator behaves as:

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle W(x,t) \sim e^{ |E_0| t} }

This implies that at all temperatures, in the limit Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle t \to \infty} :

${\overline {\ln Z(x,t)}}\ll \ln {\overline {Z(x,t)}}$

• For Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d > 2} :

The low-energy part of the spectrum is controlled by the prefactor Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \frac{D}{T^2}} . At high temperatures, the spectrum remains continuous and positive. At low temperatures, bound states appear. Thus, in the limit $t\to \infty$:

Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \begin{cases} \overline{\ln Z(x,t)} = \ln\overline{Z(x,t)} \quad \text{for} \quad T > T_c \\ \\ \overline{\ln Z(x,t)} \ll \ln\overline{Z(x,t)} \quad \text{for} \quad T < T_c \end{cases} }

This transition, in Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle d = 3} , separates a high-temperature phase with $\theta =0$ and a low-temperature phase with Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \theta > 0} and no RSB.