395 research outputs found
Absence of the zero bias peak in vortex tunneling spectra of high temperature superconductors?
The c-axis tunneling matrix of high-Tc superconductors is shown to depend
strongly on the in-plane momentum of electrons and vanish along the four nodal
lines of the d(x^2-y^2)-wave energy gap. This anisotropic tunneling matrix
suppresses completely the contribution of the most extended quasiparticles in
the vortex core to the c-axis tunneling current and leads to a spectrum similar
to that of a nodeless superconductor. Our results give a natural explanation of
the absence of the zero bias peak as well as other features observed in the
vortex tunneling spectra of high-Tc cuprates.Comment: 4 pages 3 figures, minor corrections, to appear in Phys Rev
Ab initio investigation of VOSeO3, a spin gap system with coupled spin dimers
Motivated by an early experimental study of VOSeO3, which suggested that it
is a quasi-2D system of weakly coupled spin dimers with a small spin gap, we
have investigated the electronic structure of this material via
density-functional calculations. These ab initio results indicate that the
system is better thought of as an alternating spin-1/2 chain with moderate
interchain interactions, an analog of (VO)2P2O7. The potential interest of this
system for studies in high magnetic field given the presumably small value of
the spin gap is emphasized.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
The transcriptome of the salivary glands of the female western black-legged tick \u3cem\u3eIxodes pacificus\u3c/em\u3e (Acari: Ixodidae)
Sequencing of an Ixodes pacificus salivary gland cDNA library yielded 1068 sequences with an average undetermined nucleotide of 1.9% and an average length of 487 base pairs. Assembly of the expressed sequence tags yielded 557 contigs, 138 of which appear to code for secreted peptides or proteins based on translation of a putative signal peptide. Based on the BLASTX similarity of these contigs to 66 matches of Ixodes scapularis peptide sequences, only 58% sequence identity was found, indicating a rapid divergence of salivary proteins as observed previously for mosquito and triatomine bug salivary proteins. Here we report 106 mostly full-length sequences that clustered in 16 different families: Basic-tail proteins rich in lysine in the carboxy-terminal, Kunitz-containing proteins (monolaris, ixolaris and penthalaris families), proline-rich peptides, 5-, 9.4- and 18.7-kDa proteins of unknown functions, in addition to metalloproteases (class PIII-like) similar to reprolysins. We also have found a family of disintegrins, named ixodegrins that display homology to variabilin, a GPIIb/IIIa antagonist from the tick Dermacentor variabilis. In addition, we describe peptides (here named ixostatins) that display remarkable similarities to the cysteine-rich domain of ADAMST-4 (aggrecanase). Many molecules were assigned in the lipocalin family (histamine-binding proteins); others appear to be involved in oxidant metabolism, and still others were similar to ixodid proteins such as the anticomplement ISAC. We also identified for the first time a neuropeptide-like protein (nlp-31) with GGY repeats that may have antimicrobial activity. In addition, 16 novel proteins without significant similarities to other tick proteins and 37 housekeeping proteins that may be useful for phylogenetic studies are described. Some of these proteins may be useful for studying vascular biology or the immune system, for vaccine development, or as immunoreagents to detect prior exposure to ticks
Gutzwiller-Correlated Wave Functions: Application to Ferromagnetic Nickel
Ferromagnetic Nickel is the most celebrated iron group metal with pronounced
discrepancies between the experimental electronic properties and predictions of
density functional theories. In this work, we show in detail that the recently
developed multi-band Gutzwiller theory provides a very good description of the
quasi-particle band structure of nickel. We obtain the correct exchange
splittings and we reproduce the experimental Fermi-surface topology. The
correct (111)-direction of the magnetic easy axis and the right order of
magnitude of the magnetic anisotropy are found. Our theory also reproduces the
experimentally observed change of the Fermi-surface topology when the magnetic
moment is oriented along the (001)-axis. In addition to the numerical study, we
give an analytical derivation for a much larger class of variational
wave-functions than in previous investigations. In particular, we cover cases
of superconductivity in multi-band lattice systems.Comment: 35 pages, 3 figure
Maximally-localized Wannier functions for entangled energy bands
We present a method for obtaining well-localized Wannier-like functions (WFs)
for energy bands that are attached to or mixed with other bands. The present
scheme removes the limitation of the usual maximally-localized WFs method (N.
Marzari and D. Vanderbilt, Phys. Rev. B 56, 12847 (1997)) that the bands of
interest should form an isolated group, separated by gaps from higher and lower
bands everywhere in the Brillouin zone. An energy window encompassing N bands
of interest is specified by the user, and the algorithm then proceeds to
disentangle these from the remaining bands inside the window by filtering out
an optimally connected N-dimensional subspace. This is achieved by minimizing a
functional that measures the subspace dispersion across the Brillouin zone. The
maximally-localized WFs for the optimal subspace are then obtained via the
algorithm of Marzari and Vanderbilt. The method, which functions as a
postprocessing step using the output of conventional electronic-structure
codes, is applied to the s and d bands of copper, and to the valence and
low-lying conduction bands of silicon. For the low-lying nearly-free-electron
bands of copper we find WFs which are centered at the tetrahedral interstitial
sites, suggesting an alternative tight-binding parametrization.Comment: 13 pages, with 9 postscript figures embedded. Uses REVTEX and epsf
macro
Multilevel Monte Carlo methods
The author's presentation of multilevel Monte Carlo path simulation at the
MCQMC 2006 conference stimulated a lot of research into multilevel Monte Carlo
methods. This paper reviews the progress since then, emphasising the
simplicity, flexibility and generality of the multilevel Monte Carlo approach.
It also offers a few original ideas and suggests areas for future research
Transport spin polarization of Ni_xFe_{1-x}: electronic kinematics and band structure
We present measurements of the transport spin polarization of Ni_xFe_{1-x}
(0<x<1) using the recently-developed Point Contact Andreev Reflection
technique, and compare them with our first principles calculations of the spin
polarization for this system. Surpisingly, the measured spin polarization is
almost composition-independent. The results clearly demonstrate that the sign
of the transport spin polarization does not coincide with that of the
difference of the densities of states at the Fermi level. Calculations indicate
that the independence of the spin polarization of the composition is due to
compensation of density of states and Fermi velocity in the s- and d- bands
- …