Introduction to the dynamics of disordered systems: equilibrium and gradient descent

Abstract

This manuscript contains the lecture notes of the short courses given by one of us (F.Z.) at the summer school "Fundamental Problems in Statistical Physics XV", held in Brunico, Italy, in July 2021, and, just before that, at the summer school "Glassy Systems and Inter-Disciplinary Applications", held in Cargese, France, in June 2021. The course was a short introductory overview of the dynamics of disordered systems, focused in particular on the equilibrium dynamics (with the associated glass transition), and on the simplest case of off-equilibrium dynamics, namely the gradient descent dynamics. A few selected topics (and references) are chosen, based on the authors' own taste and competences, and on pedagogical reasons, without aiming at a complete review of the subject.

arXiv comment28 pages, 19 figures

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• When you can't count, sample! Computable entropies beyond equilibrium from basin volumes
• How target distributions shape optimal stochastic resetting
• Gradient descent dynamics and the jamming transition in infinite dimensions