The random energy model

Statistical Physics and Complexity Group meeting

The random energy model

  • Event time: 11:30am
  • Event date: 30th October 2013
  • Speaker: (School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
  • Location: Room 2511,

Event details

The random energy model (REM) is the simplest model that shows non-trivial spin glass behaviour. It can be solved exactly using a fairly intuitive approach. In this theory club talk I will define the REM and analyse its spin glass transition. I will then relate this back to the spin glass concepts that I introduced in my previous talk. In particular, the structure of the free energy landscape, relation to replica symmetry breaking and the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model.

The REM is related to a number of other interesting areas including; polymers in a random medium, extreme value statistics and genealogies in models of evolution.