Quantum Spin Glass and the Dipolar Interaction

Abstract

Anisotropic dipolar systems are considered. Such systems in an external magnetic field are expected to be a good experimental realization of the transverse field Ising model. With random interactions, this model yields a spin glass to paramagnet phase transition as a function of the transverse field. We show that the off-diagonal dipolar interaction, although effectively reduced, induces a finite correlation length and thus destroys the spin-glass order at any finite transverse field. We thus explain the behavior of the nonlinear susceptibility in the experiments on LiHo(x)Y(1-x)F(4), and argue that a crossover to the paramagnetic phase, and not quantum criticality, is observed.