Numerical Renormalization of Glassy Dynamics
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 247101 – Published 10 December, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/z64g-nqs6
Abstract
The quench dynamics of glassy systems are challenging. Because of aging, the system never reaches a stationary state but, instead, evolves on emergent scales that grow with its age. This slow evolution complicates field-theoretic descriptions, as the weak long-term memory and the absence of a stationary state hinder simplifications of the memory, always leading to the worst-case scaling of computational effort with the cubic power of the simulated time. Here, we present an algorithm based on two-dimensional interpolations of Green’s functions, which resolves this issue and achieves sublinear scaling of computational cost. We apply it to the quench dynamics of the spherical mixed -spin model to establish the existence of a phase transition between glasses with strong and weak ergodicity breaking at a finite temperature of the initial state. By reaching times 3 orders of magnitude larger than previously attainable, we determine the critical exponents of this transition. Interestingly, these are continuously varying and, therefore, nonuniversal. While we introduce and validate the method in the context of a glassy system, it is equally applicable to any model with overdamped excitations.
