Correlation inequalities for transversal field models with application to quantum glasses

Abstract

We study the class of transversal field models with pair interactions, including the quantum Curie-Weiss and the transversal field Ising model, as well as quantum spin glasses based on the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (SK) and Edwards-Anderson models. Our main result is a general correlation inequality based on a Gaussian convolution estimate, which is derived from an extension of the Ding-Song-Sun inequality and an application of Brascamp-Lieb convexity techniques. The results apply for sufficiently strong transversal fields and, for quantum spin glasses, yield a high-field regime without replica order. Combined with the previously established low-field replica-symmetry-breaking regime, this gives distinct low- and high-field overlap phases. As a corollary of the logarithmic Sobolev inequalities for the underlying functional integrals derived here, we show the concentration of the self- and replica-overlap, and determine the high-field asymptotics of the pressure in the quantum SK model.