A spin glass is a disordered magnet with frustrated interactions, augmented by stochastic positions of the spins, where conflicting interactions, namely both ferromagnetic and also antiferromagnetic bonds, are randomly distributed with comparable frequency. The term "glass" in the bold-printed title name refers to the fact that its magnetic disorder brings to mind the positional disorder of a conventional, chemical glass, e.g., a window glass. Whereas, however, these are typically nonmagnetic, here the "glass property" refers essentially to the magnetic properties only, i.e. to the spin structure only.
Spin glasses display many metastable structures leading to a plenitude of time scales which are difficult to explore experimentally or in simulations.
Read more about Spin Glass: Magnetic Behavior, Edwards–Anderson Model, The Model of Sherrington and Kirkpatrick, Infinite-range Model, Non-ergodic Behavior and Applications
Famous quotes containing the words spin and/or glass:
“In tragic life, God wot,
No villain need be! Passions spin the plot:
We are betrayed by what is false within.”
—George Meredith (1828–1909)
“Before the beginning of years
There came to the making of man
Time, with a gift of tears;
Grief, with a glass that ran;”
—A.C. (Algernon Charles)