Frustration without Glass: A Non-Abelian Gauge Model of Network Compatibility

Abstract

We formulate a non-Abelian theory of network compatibility in which dynamical transformations reside on the links. Gauge covariance follows from the freedom to choose local representation frames, while plaquette holonomies quantify the incompatibility of closed-loop transformations. For an SU(2) model on the complete simplicial 2-complex with quenched random plaquette couplings, parallel-tempering simulations reveal a continuous disorder-driven phase transition characterized by the network compatibility $M_P$. As the disorder strength approaches the critical value, the compatibility drops rapidly to a value that decreases with system size, while the frustration energy of the network sharply rises. Moreover, analysis of connected replica-overlap width provides no evidence for thermodynamic replica-symmetry breaking. Instead, the high-disorder regime sustains a nearly constant integrated adjacent correlation as the system size increases. Therefore, rather than a frozen gauge glass or a featureless disordered ``gas'' phase, dense topological frustration produces a non-glassy correlated gauge liquid in which individual pair correlations are geometrically diluted while a finite integrated correlation survives.