Abstract. A model of disordered arrays of weakly coupled superconducting grains and a related random-gauge model are discussed. Evidence, from numerical studies of the zero temperature scaling behaviour of the stiffness, for a non-zero temperature spin-glass phase in the random-gauge model and in the strong magnetic field limit of the disordered arrays is presented. The universality class of a frustrated system may depend on whether the interactions have local gauge invariance.

Print publication: Issue 3 (7 February 1991)