Finite-Size Relaxational Dynamics of a Spike Random Matrix Spherical Model

We present a thorough numerical analysis of the relaxational dynamics of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spherical model with an additive non-disordered perturbation for large but finite sizes N. In the thermodynamic limit and at low temperatures, the perturbation is responsible for a phase transition from a spin glass to a ferromagnetic phase. We show that finite-size effects induce the appearance of a distinctive slow regime in the relaxation dynamics, the extension of which depends on the size of the system and also on the strength of the non-disordered perturbation. The long time dynamics are characterized by the two largest eigenvalues of a spike random matrix which defines the model, and particularly by the statistics concerning the gap between them. We characterize the finite-size statistics of the two largest eigenvalues of the spike random matrices in the different regimes, sub-critical, critical, and super-critical, confirming some known results and anticipating others, even in the less studied critical regime. We also numerically characterize the finite-size statistics of the gap, which we hope may encourage analytical work which is lacking. Finally, we compute the finite-size scaling of the long time relaxation of the energy, showing the existence of power laws with exponents that depend on the strength of the non-disordered perturbation in a way that is governed by the finite-size statistics of the gap.

Automated summary

We conducted a numerical analysis of the relaxational dynamics of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spherical model with a non-disordered perturbation. The perturbation induces a phase transition from a spin glass to a ferromagnetic phase. Finite-size effects lead to a distinctive slow regime in the relaxation dynamics, and the extension of this regime depends on the system size and the strength of the perturbation. We characterized the statistics of the two largest eigenvalues and the gap between them, as well as the finite-size scaling of the energy relaxation. We hope this work will inspire further analytical research in this area.