Extending Linear Response: Inferences from Electron-Ion Structure Factors

Linear response methods applied to electron systems often display a level of accuracy which is notable when viewed in terms of the strengths of perturbing interactions. Neglect of higher response terms is in fact justifiable in many cases and it can be shown to stem from an intrinsic interference between atomic and electronic length scales. For fluid metallic systems it can be further shown that electron-ion structure (increasingly accessible experimentally) can be understood from an application of linear response in the electron system, combined with hard-sphere like correlation for the ionic component.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Observability of a projected new state of matter: a metallic superfluid

Dissipationless quantum states, such as superconductivity and superfluidity, have attracted interest for almost a century. A variety of systems exhibit these macroscopic quantum phenomena, ranging from superconducting electrons in metals to superfluid liquids, atomic vapours, and even large nuclei. It was recently suggested that liquid metallic hydrogen could form two new unusual dissipationless quantum states, namely the metallic superfluid and the superconducting superfluid. Liquid metallic hydrogen is projected to occur only at an extremely high pressure of about 400 GPa, while pressures on hydrogen of 320 GPa having already been reported. The issue to be adressed is if this state could be experimentally observable in principle. We propose four experimental probes for detecting it.Comment: in print in Phys. Rev. Let

Self-organized circular flow of classical point particles

We consider newtonian dynamics of $N$ charged particles on the circle with nearest neigbour interaction with Coulomb repulsive potential $r^{-1}$ . Also there is an external accelerating force which is nonzero only on a small part of the circle. We construct homogeneous solutions where the velocities of all particles are approximately equal and their density is approximately uniform. This gives a qualitative mathematical model for some features of the direct electric current (DC), in agreement with a suggestion by R. Feynman

Lucid : a formal system for writing and proving programs

Lucid is both a programming language and a formal system for proving properties of Lucid programs. The programming language is unconventional in many ways, although programs are readily understood as using assignment statements and loops in a 'structured' fashion. Semantically, an assignment statement is really an equation between 'histories', and a whole program is simply an unordered set of such equations. From these equations, properties of the program can be derived by straightforward mathematical reasoning, using the Lucid formal system. The rules of this system are mainly those of first order logic, together with extra axioms and rules for the special Lucid functions. This paper formally describes the syntax and semantics of programs and justifies the axioms and rules of the formal system

Metals get an awkward cousin

A newly predicted state of matter is a simple theoretical example of a phase that conducts electricity but is not smoothly connected to our conventional model of metals. A viewpoint on arXiv:1201.5998.Comment: Physics 5, 82 (2012

Diagrammatic quantum field formalism for localized electrons

We introduce a diagrammatic quantum field formalism for the evaluation of normalized expectation values of operators, and suitable for systems with localized electrons. It is used to develop a convergent series expansion for the energy in powers of overlap integrals of single-particle orbitals. This method gives intuitive and practical rules for writing down the expansion to arbitrary order of overlap, and can be applied to any spin configuration and to any dimension. Its applicability for systems with well localized electrons has been illustrated with examples, including the two-dimensional Wigner crystal and spin-singlets in the low-density electron gas.Comment: 13 pages, 0 figure

Electronic Properties of Strained Si/Ge Core-Shell Nanowires

We investigated the electronic properties of strained Si/Ge core-shell nanowires along the [110] direction using first principles calculations based on density-functional theory. The diameter of the studied core-shell wire is up to 5 nm. We found the band gap of the core-shell wire is smaller than that of both pure Si and Ge wires with the same diameter. This reduced band gap is ascribed to the intrinsic strain between Ge and Si layers, which partially counters the quantum confinement effect. The external strain is further applied to the nanowires for tuning the band structure and band gap. By applying sufficient tensile strain, we found the band gap of Si-core/Ge-shell nanowire with diameter larger than ~3 nm experiences a transition from direct to indirect gap.Comment: 4 figure

Thermoelectric efficiency of topological insulators in a magnetic field

We study the thermoelectric properties of three-dimensional topological insulators in magnetic fields with many holes (or pores) in the bulk. We find that at high density of these holes in the transport direction the thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, can be large due to the contribution of the topologically protected conducting surfaces and the suppressed phonon thermal conductivity. By applying an external magnetic field a subgap can be induced in the surface states spectrum. We show that the thermoelectric efficiency can be controlled by this tunable subgap leading to the values of ZT much greater than 1. Such high values of ZT for reasonable system parameters and its tunability by magnetic field make this system a strong candidate for applications in heat management of nanodevices, especially at low temperatures.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of MMM 201