A replica trick for rare samples

Abstract

In the context of disordered systems with quenched Hamiltonians I address the problem of characterizing rare samples where the thermal average of a specific observable has a value different from the typical one. These rare samples can be selected through a variation of the replica trick which amounts to replicate the system and divide the replicas in two groups containing respectively $M$ and $-M$ replicas. Replicas in the first (second) group experience an positive (negative) small field $O(1/M)$ conjugate to the observable considered and the $M \rightarrow \infty$ limit is to be taken in the end. Applications to the random-field Ising model and to the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model are discussed.