Generalized TAP Free Energy

We consider the mixed p-spin mean-field spin glass model with Ising spins and investigate its free energy in the spirit of the TAP approach, named after Thouless, Anderson, and Palmer [67]. More precisely, we define and compute the generalized TAP correction, and establish the corresponding generalized TAP representation for the free energy. In connection with physicists’ replica theory, we introduce the notion of generalized TAP states, which are the maximizers of the generalized TAP free energy, and show that their order parameters match the order parameter of the ancestor states in the Parisi ansatz. We compute the critical point equations of the TAP free energy that generalize the classical TAP equations for pure states. Furthermore, we give an exact description of the region where the generalized TAP correction is replica symmetric, in which case it coincides with the classical TAP correction, and show that Plefka's condition is necessary for this to happen. In particular, our result shows that the generalized TAP correction is not always replica symmetric on the points corresponding to the Edwards-Anderson parameter.