  We address the question of geometrical as well as energetic properties of
local excitations in mean field Ising spin glasses. We study analytically the
Random Energy Model and numerically a dilute mean field model, first on
tree-like graphs, equivalent to a replica symmetric computation, and then
directly on finite connectivity random lattices. In the first model,
characterized by a discontinuous replica symmetry breaking, we found that the
energy of finite volume excitation is infinite whereas in the dilute mean field
model, described by a continuous replica symmetry breaking, it slowly decreases
with sizes and saturates at a finite value, in contrast with what would be
naively expected. The geometrical properties of these excitations are similar
to those of lattice animals or branched polymers. We discuss the meaning of
these results in terms of replica symmetry breaking and also possible relevance
in finite dimensional systems.
