Universality and deviations in disordered systems

We compute the probability of positive large deviations of the free energy per spin in mean-field spin-glass models. The probability vanishes in the thermodynamic limit as P (Δf) ∞exp [- N2 L2 (Δf)]. For the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model we find L2 (Δf) =O ⁽ Δf ⁾ 12^/5 in good agreement with numerical data and with the assumption that typical small deviations of the free energy scale as N1 ^/6. For the spherical model we find L2 (Δf) =O ⁽ Δf ⁾ 3 in agreement with recent findings on the fluctuations of the largest eigenvalue of random Gaussian matrices. The computation is based on a loop expansion in replica space and the non-Gaussian behavior follows in both cases from the fact that the expansion is divergent at all orders. The factors of the leading order terms are obtained resumming appropriately the loop expansion and display universality, pointing to the existence of a single universal distribution describing the small deviations of any model in the full-replica-symmetry-breaking class.