Locking transition in coupled disordered systems

Abstract

When a system of many interacting constituents is extended across space, every region carries the same disordered landscape, and it is unclear whether distant regions settle into the same state. We study copies of the Random Energy Model (REM), sharing one disorder realization, coupled along a chain. A first-order transition separates a phase with short-range correlations, from a locked phase in which the entire chain occupies the lowest-energy state with probability one, even at positive temperature. No intermediate ordering lengths occur. In the Generalized REM the chain locks either to the lowest-energy state or to the lowest free-energy valley.