Unconventional superconducting pairing symmetry induced by phonons

The possibility of non-s-wave superconductivity induced by phonons is investigated using a simple model that is inspired by Sr$_2$RuO$_4$. The model assumes a two-dimensional electronic structure, a two-dimensional spin-fluctuation spectrum, and three-dimensional electron-phonon coupling. Taken separately, each interaction favors formation of spin-singlet pairs (of s symmetry for the phonon interaction and d$_{x^2-y^2}$ symmetry for the spin interaction), but in combination, a variety of more unusual singlet and triplet states are found, depending on the interaction parameters. This may have important implications for Sr$_2$RuO$_4$, providing a plausible explanation of how the observed spin fluctuations, which clearly favor d$_{x^2-y^2}$ pairing, may still be instrumental in creating a superconducting state with a different (e.g., p-wave) symmetry. It also suggests an interpretation of the large isotope effect observed in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$. These results indicate that phonons could play a key role in establishing the order-parameter symmetry in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$, and possibly in other unconventional superconductors.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Virial expansion for a strongly correlated Fermi gas with imbalanced spin populations

Quantum virial expansion provides an ideal tool to investigate the high-temperature properties of a strongly correlated Fermi gas. Here, we construct the virial expansion in the presence of spin population imbalance. Up to the third order, we calculate the high-temperature free energy of a unitary Fermi gas as a function of spin imbalance, with infinitely large, attractive or repulsive interactions. In the latter repulsive case, we show that there is no itinerant ferromagnetism when quantum virial expansion is applicable. We therefore estimate an upper bound for the ferromagnetic transition temperature $T_{c}$. For a harmonically trapped Fermi gas at unitarity, we find that $(T_{c})_{uppper}<T_{F}$, where $T_{F}$ is the Fermi temperature at the center of the trap. Our result for the high-temperature equations of state may confront future high-precision thermodynamic measurements.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.

Identification of photons in double beta-decay experiments using segmented germanium detectors - studies with a GERDA Phase II prototype detector

The sensitivity of experiments searching for neutrinoless double beta-decay of germanium was so far limited by the background induced by external gamma-radiation. Segmented germanium detectors can be used to identify photons and thus reduce this background component. The GERmanium Detector Array, GERDA, will use highly segmented germanium detectors in its second phase. The identification of photonic events is investigated using a prototype detector. The results are compared with Monte Carlo data.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, to be submitted to NIM-

Pulse shape simulation for segmented true-coaxial HPGe detectors

A new package to simulate the formation of electrical pulses in segmented true-coaxial high purity germanium detectors is presented. The computation of the electric field and weighting potentials inside the detector as well as of the trajectories of the charge carriers is described. In addition, the treatment of bandwidth limitations and noise are discussed. Comparison of simulated to measured pulses, obtained from an 18-fold segmented detector operated inside a cryogenic test facility, are presented.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figure

Stripe, checkerboard, and liquid-crystal ordering from anisotropic p-orbital Fermi surfaces in optical lattices

We study instabilities of single-species fermionic atoms in the p-orbital bands in two-dimensional optical lattices at noninteger filling against interactions. Charge density wave and orbital density wave orders with stripe or checkerboard patterns are found for attractive and repulsive interactions, respectively. The superfluid phase, usually expected of attractively interacting fermions, is strongly suppressed. We also use field theory to analyze the possible phase-transitions from orbital stripe order to liquid-crystal phases and obtain the phase diagram. The condition of nearly-perfect Fermisurface nesting, which is key to the above results, is shown robustly independent of fermion fillings in such p-orbital systems, and the $(2k_F,\pm2k_F)$ momentum of density wave oscillation is highly tunable. Such remarkable features show the promise of making those exotic orbital phases, which are of broad interest in condensed-matter physics, experimentally realizable with optical lattice gases.Comment: final version, 8 pages, 5 figure

Local electronic structures on the superconducting interface LaAlO3/SrTiO3LaAlO_{3}/SrTiO_{3}

Motivated by the recent discovery of superconductivity on the heterointerface $LaAlO_{3}/SrTiO_{3}$, we theoretically investigate its local electronic structures near an impurity considering the influence of Rashba-type spin-orbit interaction (RSOI) originated in the lack of inversion symmetry. We find that local density of states near an impurity exhibits the in-gap resonance peaks due to the quasiparticle scattering on the Fermi surface with the reversal sign of the pairing gap caused by the mixed singlet and RSOI-induced triplet superconducting state. We also analyze the evolutions of density of states and local density of states with the weight of triplet pairing component determined by the strength of RSOI, which will be widely observed in thin films of superconductors with surface or interface-induced RSOI, or various noncentrosymmetric superconductors in terms of point contact tunneling and scanning tunneling microscopy, and thus reveal an admixture of the spin singlet and RSOI-induced triplet superconducting states.Comment: Phys. Rev. B 81, 144504 (2010)

Light-cone Distribution Amplitudes of Xi and their Applications

We present the light-cone distribution amplitudes of the Xi baryons up to twist six on the basis of QCD conformal partial wave expansion to the leading order conformal spin accuracy. The nonperturbative parameters relevant to the DAs are determined in the framework of the QCD sum rule. The light-cone QCD sum rule approach is used to investigate both the electromagnetic form factors of Xi and the exclusive semileptonic decay of Xi_c as applications. Our estimations on the magnetic moments are $\mu_{\Xi^0}=-(1.92\pm0.34)\mu_N$ and $\mu_{\Xi^-}=-(1.19\pm0.03)\mu_N$. The decay width of the process Xi_c->Xi e^+\nu_e is evaluated to be $\Gamma=8.73\times10^{-14}{GeV}$, which is in accordance with the experimental measurements and other theoretical approaches.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Comparison of gluon flux-tube distributions for quark-diquark and quark-antiquark hadrons

The distribution of gluon fields in hadrons is of fundamental interest in QCD. Using lattice QCD we have observed the formation of gluon flux tubes within 3 quark (baryon) and quark plus antiquark (meson) systems for a wide variety of spatial distributions of the color sources. In particular we have investigated three quark configurations where two of the quarks are close together and the third quark is some distance away, which approximates a quark plus diquark string. We find that the string tension of the quark-diquark string is the same as that of the quark-antiquark string on the same lattice. We also compare the longitudinal and transverse profiles of the gluon flux tubes for both sets of strings, and find them to be of similar radii and to have similar vacuum suppression.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures and 1 tabl