Insulator to Metal Transition Induced by Disorder in a Model for Manganites

The physics of manganites appears to be dominated by phase competition among ferromagnetic metallic and charge-ordered antiferromagnetic insulating states. Previous investigations (Burgy {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 87}, 277202 (2001)) have shown that quenched disorder is important to smear the first-order transition between those competing states, and induce nanoscale inhomogeneities that produce the colossal magnetoresistance effect. Recent studies (Motome {\it et al.} Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 91}, 167204 (2003)) have provided further evidence that disorder is important in the manganite context, unveiling an unexpected insulator-to-metal transition triggered by disorder in a one-orbital model with cooperative phonons. In this paper, a qualitative explanation for this effect is presented. It is argued that the transition occurs for disorder in the form of local random energies. Acting over an insulating states made out of a checkerboard arrangement of charge, with ``effective'' site energies positive and negative, this form of disorder can produce lattice sites with an effective energy near zero, favorable for the transport of charge. This explanation is based on Monte Carlo simulations and the study of simplified toy models, measuring the density-of-states, cluster conductances using the Landauer formalism, and other observables. The applicability of these ideas to real manganites is discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 23 figures, submitted to Physical Review

Observational Constraints on Transverse Gravity: a Generalization of Unimodular Gravity

We explore the hypothesis that the set of symmetries enjoyed by the theory that describes gravity is not the full group of diffeomorphisms Diff(M), as in General Relativity, but a maximal subgroup of it, TransverseDiff(M), with its elements having a jacobian equal to unity; at the infinitesimal level, the parameter describing the coordinate change, xi^mu (x), is transverse, i.e., partial_mu(xi^mu)=0. Incidentally, this is the smaller symmetry one needs to propagate consistently a graviton, which is a great theoretical motivation for considering these theories. Also, the determinant of the metric, g, behaves as a "transverse scalar", so that these theories can be seen as a generalization of the better-known unimodular gravity. We present our results on the observational constraints on transverse gravity, in close relation with the claim of equivalence with general scalar-tensor theory. We also comment on the structure of the divergences of the quantum theory to the one-loop order.Comment: Prepared for the First Mediterranean Conference on Classical and Quantum Gravity, MCCQG, Kolymbari (Crete, Greece), 14-18 September, 2009; also, ERE2009: Gravitation in the Large, Bilbao (Spain), 7-11 September, 200

Superconducting Puddles and "Colossal'' Effects in Underdoped Cuprates

Phenomenological models for the antiferromagnetic (AF) vs. d-wave superconductivity competition in cuprates are studied using conventional Monte Carlo techniques. The analysis suggests that cuprates may show a variety of different behaviors in the very underdoped regime: local coexistence or first-order transitions among the competing orders, stripes, or glassy states with nanoscale superconducting (SC) puddles. The transition from AF to SC does not seem universal. In particular, the glassy state leads to the possibility of "colossal'' effects in some cuprates, analog of those in manganites. Under suitable conditions, non-superconducting Cu-oxides could rapidly become superconducting by the influence of weak perturbations that align the randomly oriented phases of the SC puddles in the mixed state. Consequences of these ideas for thin-film and photoemission experiments are discussed.Comment: RevTeX 4, revised expanded version, 8 pages, 8 figure

Phase Fluctuations in Strongly Coupled dd-Wave Superconductors

We present a numerically exact solution for the BCS Hamiltonian at any temperature, including the degrees of freedom associated with classical phase, as well as amplitude, fluctuations via a Monte Carlo (MC) integration. This allows for an investigation over the whole range of couplings: from weak attraction, as in the well-known BCS limit, to the mainly unexplored strong-coupling regime of pronounced phase fluctuations. In the latter, for the first time two characteristic temperatures $T^\star$ and $T_c$, associated with short- and long-range ordering, respectively, can easily be identified in a mean-field-motivated Hamiltonian. $T^\star$ at the same time corresponds to the opening of a gap in the excitation spectrum. Besides introducing a novel procedure to study strongly coupled d-wave superconductors, our results indicate that classical phase fluctuations are not sufficient to explain the pseudo-gap features of high-temperature superconductors (HTS).Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure