Dynamic scaling in spin glasses

C. Pappas, F. Mezei, G. Ehlers, P. Manuel, I. A. Campbell

Published 2003-04-22, updated 2003-05-08Version 2

We present new Neutron Spin Echo (NSE) results and a revisited analysis of historical data on spin glasses, which reveal a pure power-law time decay of the spin autocorrelation function $s(Q,t) = S(Q,t)/S(Q)$ at the glass temperature $T_g$, each power law exponent being in excellent agreement with that calculated from dynamic and static critical exponents deduced from macroscopic susceptibility measurements made on a quite different time scale. It is the first time that this scaling relation involving exponents of different physical quantities determined by completely independent experimental methods is stringently verified experimentally in a spin glass. As spin glasses are a subgroup of the vast family of glassy systems also comprising structural glasses, other non-crystalline systems living matter the observed strict critical scaling behaviour is important. Above the phase transition the strikingly non-exponential relaxation, best fitted by the Ogielski (power-law times stretched exponential) function, appears as an intrinsic, homogeneous feature of spin glasses.