Soft Modes, Localization, and Two-Level Systems in Spin Glasses

In the three-dimensional Heisenberg spin glass in a random field, we study the properties of the inherent structures that are obtained by an instantaneous cooling from infinite temperature. For a not too large field the density of states g(omega) develops localized soft plastic modes and reaches zero as omega(4) (for large fields a gap appears). When we perturb the system adding a force along the softest mode, one reaches very similar minima of the energy, separated by small barriers, that appear to be good candidates for classical two-level systems.