What is the difference between spin glass and spin liquid?
Do they both originate from frustration?
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
-
2$\begingroup$ They are both frustrated. The difference resides in the level of quantum fluctuation. The spin glass has no quantum fluctuation, but the spin liquid has very strong quantum fluctuation. $\endgroup$ – Everett You May 10 '13 at 17:42
-
1$\begingroup$ Because they are classical spin models, or the spin is large such that the fluctuation is weak. $\endgroup$ – Everett You May 11 '13 at 14:37
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
In spin liquids, the ordered state is broken by zero-point fluctuations even at $T=0$. Even though it is common for spin liquids to be frustrated, it is not necessarily so. The $S=1$ Heisenberg spin chain (AFM), for example, is a spin liquid without being frustrated.
The name spin liquid comes (I believe), from the exponentially decaying correlation (like in liquids).
Spin glass on the other hand is always frustrated. The easiest way of thinking about spin glass is by picturing an Ising model with random couplings $J_{ij}$. The actual ground state of such a system will be hard to determine, as there will be many metastable states. Again - just like in regular glass.
