The TAP-Plefka variational principle for mean field spin glasses

The Thouless-Anderson-Palmer (TAP) approach to the Sherrington-Kirckpatrick mean field spin glass model was described in one of the earliest papers on this model, but has subsequently been a complementary rather than the central component in the theory that has emerged in theoretical physics and mathematics. In this this talk I will recall the TAP approach, and describe how it can be reinterpreted as a variational principle in the spirit of the Gibbs variational principle. Furthermore I will present a rigorous proof of this TAP -Plefka variational principle in the case of the spherical Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model, which allows to compute the free energy based purely on a TAP analysis.

• Speaker: David Belius (Basel)
• Tuesday 06 November 2018, 14:00–15:00
• Venue: MR12, CMS, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge, CB3 0WB.
• Series: Probability; organiser: Perla Sousi.