DROPLET PHENOMENOLOGY AND MEAN-FIELD IN A FRUSTRATED DISORDERED SYSTEM

The low lying excited states of the three-dimensional minimum matching problem are studied numerically. The excitations' energies grow with their size and confirm the droplet picture. However, some low energy, infinite size excitations create multiple valleys in the energy landsc ape. These states violate the droplet scaling ansatz, and are consiste nt with mean field predictions. A similar picture may apply to spin gl asses whereby the droplet picture describes the physics at small lengt h scales, while mean field describes that at large length scales. [S00 31-9007(98)07145-2].