Energetics and geometry of excitations in random systems - art. no. 060202

Methods for studying droplets in models with quenched disorder are critical ly examined. Low-energy excitations in two-dimensional models an investigat ed by finding minimal energy interior excitations and by computing the effe ct of bulk perturbations. The numerical data support the assumptions of com pact droplets and a single exponent for droplet energy scaling. Analytic ca lculations show how strong corrections to power laws can result when sample s and droplets are averaged over. Such corrections can explain apparent dis crepancies in several previous numerical results for spin glasses.