Aging, rejuvenation and memory : the example of spin glasses Eric VINCENT Service de Physique de l’Etat Condensé (CNRS URA 2464), DSM/DRECAM/SPEC, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France
[email protected] This paper is written on the basis of a course given at the summer school “Ageing and the glass transition” in the University of Luxembourg. The results presented here are the joint work of the Saclay group: F. Bert, J.-P. Bouchaud, V. Dupuis, J. Hammann, D. Hérisson, F. Ladieu, M. Ocio, D. Parker, E.V., and others. 1. What is a spin glass ? 2. Slow dynamics and aging 2.1 DC experiments 2.2 AC susceptibility 2.3 Noise measurements 2.4 Rejuvenation by a stress 3. Aging, rejuvenation and memory 3.1 Cooling rate effects 3.2 Memory dip experiments 3.3 Rejuvenation and memory versus cumulative aging 4. Characteristic length scales for aging 4.1 Length scales from field variation experiments 4.2 Length scales from temperature variation experiments 4.3 The dynamical correlation length from both temperature and field variation experiments 4.4 Separation of time and length scales with temperature: how much ? 5. Conclusions Abstract - In this paper, we review the general features of the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of spin glasses. We use this example as a guideline for a brief description of glassy dynamics in other disordered systems like structural and polymer glasses, colloids, gels etc. Starting with the simplest experiments, we discuss the scaling laws used to describe the isothermal aging observed in spin glasses after a quench down to the low temperature phase (these scaling laws are the same as established for polymer glasses).