Spin stiffness of vector spin glasses Original Research Article

We study domain-wall excitations for image vector spin glasses in the limit image, where the energy landscape is simplified considerably compared to XY or Heisenberg models due to the complete disappearance of metastability. Using numerical ground-state calculations and appropriate pairs of complementary boundary conditions, domain-wall defects are inserted into the systems and their excitation energies are measured. This allows us to determine the stiffness exponents for lattices of a range of spatial dimensions image. Compiling these results, we can finally determine the lower critical dimension of the model. The outcome is compared to estimates resulting from field-theoretic calculations.