Spatial Inhomogeneity and Thermodynamic Chaos
Abstract
We present a coherent approach to the competition between thermodynamic states in spatially inhomogeneous systems, such as the Edwards-Anderson spin glass with a fixed coupling realization. This approach explains and relates chaotic size dependence, ``dispersal of the metastate'', and for replicas: non-independence, symmetry breaking, and overlap (non-)self-averaging.