  The emergence of glassy behavior of the random field Ising model (RFIM) is
investigated using an extended mean-field theory approach. Using this
formulation, systematic corrections to the standard Bragg-Williams theory can
be incorporated, leading to the appearance of a glassy phase, in agreement with
the results of the self-consistent screening theory of Mezard and Young. Our
approach makes it also possible to obtain information about the low temperature
behavior of this glassy phase. We present results showing that within our
mean-field framework, the hysteresis and avalanche behavior of the RFIM is
characterized by power-law distributions, in close analogy with recent results
obtained for mean-field spin glass models.
