Finite-size scaling study of the two-dimensional Ising spin glass

Abstract

We have calculated finite-size correlation lengths for strips of the square-lattice Ising spin glass using the transfer-matrix method. In order to minimize sampling errors we study strip lengths up to 5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{6}$ lattice spacings. A phenomenological renormalization-group analysis indicates that there are strong corrections to simple power-law scaling near the zero-temperature critical point, as is to be expected near a lower critical dimension. We examine models with Gaussian, exp(-${J}^{2}$/2), and exponential, exp(-\ensuremath{\Vert}J\ensuremath{\Vert}), distributions of couplings; the Gaussian distribution shows stronger finite-size corrections. The correlation-length exponent is estimated to be \ensuremath{\nu}=4.2\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5, although we do not want to rule out the possibility that \ensuremath{\nu} is significantly larger than this.