Random field induced order in two dimensions

Abstract

In this article we prove that a classical XY model subjected to weak i.i.d. random field pointing in a fixed direction exhibits residual magnetic order in Z2 and aligns perpendicular to the random field direction. The paper is a sequel to [9] where the three-dimensional case was treated. Our approach is based on a multi-scale Peierls contour argument developed in [9]. On the microscopic scale we extract energetic costs from the occurrence of contours, which them- selves are defined on a macroscopic scale. The technical challenges in Z2 stem from difficulties controlling the size and roughness of the fluctuation fields which model the short length-scale oscillations of near-optimizers of the random field Hamiltonian.