John Chalker

Abstract:

We study the ground-state and low-energy properties of classical vector spin models with nearest-neighbour antiferromagnetic interactions on a class of geometrically frustrated lattices which includes the kagome and pyrochlore lattices. We explore the behaviour of these magnets that results from their large ground-state degeneracies, emphasising universal features and systematic differences between individual models. We investigate the circumstances under which thermal fluctuations select a particular subset of the ground states, and find that this happens only for the models with the smallest ground-state degeneracies. For the pyrochlore magnets, we give an explicit construction of all ground states, and show that they are not separated by internal energy barriers. We study the precessional spin dynamics of the Heisenberg pyrochlore antiferromagnet. There is no freezing transition or selection of preferred states. Instead, the relaxation time at low temperature, T, is of order hbar/(k_B T). We argue that this behaviour can also be expected in some other systems, including the Heisenberg model for the compound SrCr_8Ga_4O_{19}.

Abstract:

We analyse correlations of eigenvectors in Ginibre's and Girko's ensembles of Gaussian, non-Hermitian random N x N matrices J. We study the ensemble average of [L-alpha/L-beta] [R-beta/R-alpha], where [L-alpha\ and \R-beta] are the left and right eigenvectors of J. The case of Ginibre's ensemble, in which the real and imaginary parts of each element of J are independent random variables, is sufficiently symmetric to allow for an exact solution. In the more general case of Girko's ensemble, we rely on approximations which become exact in the limit of N --> infinity.

Abstract:

We study the low-temperature behaviour of the classical Heisenberg antiferromagnet with nearest neighbour interactions on the pyrochlore lattice. Because of geometrical frustration, the ground state of this model has an extensive number of degrees of freedom. We show, by analysing the effects of small fluctuations around the ground-state manifold, and from the results of Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations, that the system is disordered at all temperatures, T, and has a finite relaxation time, which varies as 1/T for small T.

Abstract:

We study spectral properties of the Fokker-Planck operator that describes particles diffusing in a quenched random velocity field. This random operator is non-Hermitian and has eigenvalues occupying a finite area in the complex plane. We calculate the eigenvalue density and averaged one-particle Green's function, for weak disorder and dimension d>2. We relate our results to the time-evolution of particle density, and compare them with numerical simulations.

Abstract:

The statistics of energy levels for a disordered conductor are considered in the critical energy window near the mobility edge. It is shown that, if critical wave functions are multifractal, the one-dimensional gas of levels on the energy axis is ``compressible'', in the sense that the variance of the level number in an interval is $< (\delta N)^{2} > = \chi $ for $ >> 1$. The compressibility, $\chi=\eta/2d$, is given ``exactly'' in terms of the multifractal exponent $\eta=d-D_2$ at the mobility edge in a $d$-dimensional system.