Coulomb blockade in graphene nanoribbons

We propose that recent transport experiments revealing the existence of an energy gap in graphene nanoribbons may be understood in terms of Coulomb blockade. Electron interactions play a decisive role at the quantum dots which form due to the presence of necks arising from the roughness of the graphene edge. With the average transmission as the only fitting parameter, our theory shows good agreement with the experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Interplay between disorder, quantum and thermal fluctuations in ferromagnetic alloys: The case of UCu2Si(2-x)Ge(x)

We consider, theoretically and experimentally, the effects of structural disorder, quantum and thermal fluctuations in the magnetic and transport properties of certain ferromagnetic alloys.We study the particular case of UCu2Si(2-x)Ge(x). The low temperature resistivity, rho(T,x), exhibits Fermi liquid (FL) behavior as a function of temperature T for all values of x, which can be interpreted as a result of the magnetic scattering of the conduction electrons from the localized U spins. The residual resistivity, rho(0,x), follows the behavior of a disordered binary alloy. The observed non-monotonic dependence of the Curie temperature, Tc(x), with x can be explained within a model of localized spins interacting with an electronic bath whose transport properties cross-over from ballistic to diffusive regimes. Our results clearly show that the Curie temperature of certain alloys can be enhanced due to the interplay between quantum and thermal fluctuations with disorder.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

On the Consistency of a Fermion-Torsion Effective Theory

We discuss the possibility to construct an effective quantum field theory for an axial vector coupled to a Dirac spinor field. A massive axial vector describes antisymmetric torsion. The consistency conditions include unitarity and renormalizability in the low-energy region. The investigation of the Ward identities and the one- and two-loop divergences indicate serious problems arising in the theory. The final conclusion is that torsion may exist as a string excitation, but there are very severe restrictions for the existence of a propagating torsion field, subject to the quantization procedure, at low energies.Comment: LaTeX, 26 pages, 4 figure

Wyman's solution, self-similarity and critical behaviour

We show that the Wyman's solution may be obtained from the four-dimensional Einstein's equations for a spherically symmetric, minimally coupled, massless scalar field by using the continuous self-similarity of those equations. The Wyman's solution depends on two parameters, the mass $M$ and the scalar charge $\Sigma$. If one fixes $M$ to a positive value, say $M_0$, and let $\Sigma^2$ take values along the real line we show that this solution exhibits critical behaviour. For $\Sigma^2 >0$ the space-times have eternal naked singularities, for $\Sigma^2 =0$ one has a Schwarzschild black hole of mass $M_0$ and finally for $-M_0^2 \leq \Sigma^2 < 0$ one has eternal bouncing solutions.Comment: Revtex version, 15pages, 6 figure

A proposal for a generalized canonical osp(1,2) quantization of dynamical systems with constraints

The aim of this paper is to consider a possibility of constructing for arbitrary dynamical systems with first-class constraints a generalized canonical quantization method based on the osp(1,2) supersymmetry principle. This proposal can be considered as a counterpart to the osp(1,2)-covariant Lagrangian quantization method introduced recently by Geyer, Lavrov and M\"ulsch. The gauge dependence of Green's functions is studied. It is shown that if the parameter m^2 of the osp(1,2) superalgebra is not equal to zero then the vacuum functional and S-matrix depend on the gauge. In the limit $m\to 0$ the gauge independence of vacuum functional and S - matrix are restored. The Ward identities related to the osp(1,2) symmetry are derived.Comment: Revised version. To appear in Mod.Phys.Lett.

BFFT quantization with nonlinear constraints

We consider the method due to Batalin, Fradkin, Fradkina, and Tyutin (BFFT) that makes the conversion of second-class constraints into first-class ones for the case of nonlinear theories. We first present a general analysis of an attempt to simplify the method, showing the conditions that must be fulfilled in order to have first-class constraints for nonlinear theories but that are linear in the auxiliary variables. There are cases where this simplification cannot be done and the full BFFT method has to be used. However, in the way the method is formulated, we show with details that it is not practicable to be done. Finally, we speculate on a solution for these problems.Comment: 19 pages, Late

Elliot-Yafet mechanism in graphene

The differences between spin relaxation in graphene and in other materials are discussed. For relaxation by scattering processes, the Elliot-Yafet mechanism, the relation between the spin and the momentum scattering times acquires a dependence on the carrier density, which is independent of the scattering mechanism and the relation between mobility and carrier concentration. This dependence puts severe restrictions on the origin of the spin relaxation in graphene. The density dependence of the spin relaxation allows us to distinguish between ordinary impurities and defects which modify locally the spin-orbit interaction.Comment: 4 pages + \epsilon + S

Negative Hopping Magnetoresistance and Dimensional Crossover in Lightly Doped Cuprate Superconductors

We show that, due to the weak ferromagnetism of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$, an external magnetic field leads to a dimensional crossover 2D $\to$ 3D for the in-plane transport. The crossover results in an increase of the hole's localization length and hence in a dramatic negative magnetoresistance in the variable range hopping regime. This mechanism quantitatively explains puzzling experimental data on the negative magnetoresistance in the N\'eel phase of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; published versio

Quantum Magnetic Impurities in Magnetically Ordered Systems

We discuss the problem of a spin 1/2 impurity immersed in a spin S magnetically ordered background. We show that the problem maps onto a generalization of the dissipative two level system (DTLS) with two independent heat baths, associated with the Goldstone modes of the magnet, that couple to different components of the impurity spin operator. Using analytical perturbative renormalization group (RG) methods and accurate numerical renormalization group (NRG) we show that contrary to other dissipative models there is quantum frustration of decoherence and quasi-scaling even in the strong coupling regime. We make predictions for the behavior of the impurity magnetic susceptibility that can be measured in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments. Our results may also have relevance to quantum computation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure