Overlap equivalence in the Edwards-Anderson model

We study the relative fluctuations of the link overlap and the square standard overlap in the three-dimensional Gaussian Edwards-Anderson model with zero external field. We first analyze the correlation coefficient and find that the two quantities are uncorrelated above the critical temperature. Below the critical temperature we find that the link overlap has vanishing fluctuations for fixed values of the square standard overlap and large volumes. Our data show that the conditional variance scales to zero in the thermodynamic limit. This implies that, if one of the two random variables tends to a trivial one (i.e., deltalike distributed), then the other does also, and as a consequence, the "trivial-nontrivial" picture should be dismissed. Our results show that the two overlaps are completely equivalent in the description of the low temperature phase of the Edwards-Anderson model. © 2006 The American Physical Society.