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Chladni states in Ising spin lattices

Giulio Iannelli1,2,* and Pablo Villegas1,3,†

  • *Contact author: giulio.iannelli@cref.it
  • †Contact author: pablo.villegas@cref.it
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Phys. Rev. E 114, 044130 – Published 19 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/m57p-97jv

Abstract

Low-temperature spin dynamics can become trapped in long-lived patterns shaped by the geometry of the interaction network. We introduce Chladni states, the binary spin configurations obtained by applying the sign function to Laplacian eigenmodes, and show that their Ising energy collapses onto a size-independent spectral curve in ferromagnets and frustrated antiferromagnets. This graph-spectral decomposition reconstructs frozen configurations, tracks memory of initial conditions, and detects, through the number of modes it requires, the loss of mesoscopic order in frustrated and spin-glass regimes. Finally, in spin-glass instances, a restricted search over low signed-Laplacian modes reaches energies comparable to those of simulated annealing while exploring a space of far smaller dimension.

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Phys. Rev. E 114, 044130– Published 19 October, 2026
  • Received 8 July 2025
  • Revised 10 September 2026
  • Accepted 2 October 2026
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