A landmark of statistical mechanics, spin-glass theory describes critical phenomena in disordered systems that range from condensed matter to biophysics and social dynamics. The most fascinating concept is the breaking of replica symmetry: identical copies of the randomly interacting system that manifest completely different dynamics. Replica symmetry breaking has been predicted in nonlinear wave propagation, including Bose-Einstein condensates and optics, but it has never been observed. Here, we report the experimental evidence of replica symmetry breaking in optical wave propagation, a phenomenon that emerges from the interplay of disorder and nonlinearity. When mode interaction dominates light dynamics in a disordered optical waveguide, different experimental realizations are found to have an anomalous overlap intensity distribution that signals a transition to an optical glassy phase. The findings demonstrate that nonlinear propagation can manifest features typical of spin-glasses and provide a novel platform for testing so-far unexplored fundamental physical theories for complex systems.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Pierangeli2017
%A Pierangeli, Davide
%A Tavani, Andrea
%A Di Mei, Fabrizio
%A Agranat, Aharon J.
%A Conti, Claudio
%A DelRe, Eugenio
%D 2017
%J Nature Communications
%K myown
%N 1
%P 1501--
%T Observation of replica symmetry breaking in disordered nonlinear wave propagation
%U https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01612-2
%V 8
%X A landmark of statistical mechanics, spin-glass theory describes critical phenomena in disordered systems that range from condensed matter to biophysics and social dynamics. The most fascinating concept is the breaking of replica symmetry: identical copies of the randomly interacting system that manifest completely different dynamics. Replica symmetry breaking has been predicted in nonlinear wave propagation, including Bose-Einstein condensates and optics, but it has never been observed. Here, we report the experimental evidence of replica symmetry breaking in optical wave propagation, a phenomenon that emerges from the interplay of disorder and nonlinearity. When mode interaction dominates light dynamics in a disordered optical waveguide, different experimental realizations are found to have an anomalous overlap intensity distribution that signals a transition to an optical glassy phase. The findings demonstrate that nonlinear propagation can manifest features typical of spin-glasses and provide a novel platform for testing so-far unexplored fundamental physical theories for complex systems.
@article{Pierangeli2017,
abstract = {A landmark of statistical mechanics, spin-glass theory describes critical phenomena in disordered systems that range from condensed matter to biophysics and social dynamics. The most fascinating concept is the breaking of replica symmetry: identical copies of the randomly interacting system that manifest completely different dynamics. Replica symmetry breaking has been predicted in nonlinear wave propagation, including Bose-Einstein condensates and optics, but it has never been observed. Here, we report the experimental evidence of replica symmetry breaking in optical wave propagation, a phenomenon that emerges from the interplay of disorder and nonlinearity. When mode interaction dominates light dynamics in a disordered optical waveguide, different experimental realizations are found to have an anomalous overlap intensity distribution that signals a transition to an optical glassy phase. The findings demonstrate that nonlinear propagation can manifest features typical of spin-glasses and provide a novel platform for testing so-far unexplored fundamental physical theories for complex systems.},
added-at = {2017-11-15T17:30:18.000+0100},
author = {Pierangeli, Davide and Tavani, Andrea and Di Mei, Fabrizio and Agranat, Aharon J. and Conti, Claudio and DelRe, Eugenio},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2ae620e4070fab29896cc4a4dd49c3bdd/nonlinearxwaves},
interhash = {2a9c533b0281b8810b263d1e73b223a7},
intrahash = {ae620e4070fab29896cc4a4dd49c3bdd},
issn = {2041-1723},
journal = {Nature Communications},
keywords = {myown},
number = 1,
pages = {1501--},
refid = {Pierangeli2017},
timestamp = {2017-11-15T17:30:18.000+0100},
title = {Observation of replica symmetry breaking in disordered nonlinear wave propagation},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01612-2},
volume = 8,
year = 2017
}