Metastable states and innocent replica theory in an Ising spin glass

The metastable states of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model at T=0 are investigated within the 'innocent replica' framework, i.e. within a replica formalism without replica symmetry breaking. The density of metastable states is evaluated in the presence of an external magnetic field, and the energy and distribution of internal fields of the ground state calculated, as a function of the external field. These are found to be in good agreement with the data of Bantilan and Palmer (1980) and Palmer and Pond (1979).