163 research outputs found
Magnetic order and spin dynamics across a ferromagnetic quantum critical point: SR investigations of YbNi(PAs)
In the quasi-1D heavy-fermion system YbNi(PAs) the
presence of a ferromagnetic (FM) quantum critical point (QCP) at with unconventional quantum critical exponents in the thermodynamic
properties has been recently reported. Here, we present muon-spin relaxation
(SR) experiments on polycrystals of this series to study the magnetic
order and the low energy 4-electronic spin dynamics across the FM QCP. The
zero field SR measurements on pure YbNi(P proved static long
range magnetic order and suggested a strongly reduced ordered Yb moment of
about 0.04. With increasing As substitution the ordered moment is
reduced by half at and to less than 0.005 at . The
dynamic behavior in the SR response show that magnetism remains
homogeneous upon As substitution, without evidence for disorder effect. In the
paramagnetic state across the FM QCP the dynamic muon-spin relaxation rate
follows 1/ with . The critical fluctuations are very slow and are even becoming slower
when approaching the QCP.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Avoided ferromagnetic quantum critical point: Unusual short-range ordered state in CeFePO
Cerium 4f electronic spin dynamics in single crystals of the heavy-fermion
system CeFePO is studied by means of ac-susceptibility, specific heat and
muon-spin relaxation (SR). Short-range static magnetism occurs below the
freezing temperature Tg ~ 0.7 K, which prevents the system from accessing the
putative ferromagnetic quantum critical point. In the SR, the
sample-averaged muon asymmetry function is dominated by strongly inhomogeneous
spin fluctuations below 10 K and exhibits a characteristic time-field scaling
relation expected from glassy spin dynamics, strongly evidencing cooperative
and critical spin fluctuations. The overall behavior can be ascribed neither to
canonical spin glasses nor other disorder-driven mechanisms.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
Letters, Link:
http://prl.aps.org/accepted/6207bYdaGef1483c419928305372ce2d4419eb96
Heavy-Fermions in LiV2O4: Kondo-Compensation vs. Spin-Liquid Behavior?
7Li NMR measurements were performed in the metallic spinel LiV2O4. The
temperature dependencies of the line width, the Knight shift and the
spin-lattice relaxation rate were investigated in the temperature range 30 mK <
T < 280 K. For temperatures T < 1 K we observe a spin-lattice relaxation rate
which slows down exponentially. The NMR results can be explained by a
spin-liquid behavior and the opening of a spin gap of the order 0.6 K
Quantum Tricritical Points in NbFe
Quantum critical points (QCPs) emerge when a 2nd order phase transition is
suppressed to zero temperature. In metals the quantum fluctuations at such a
QCP can give rise to new phases including unconventional superconductivity.
Whereas antiferromagnetic QCPs have been studied in considerable detail
ferromagnetic (FM) QCPs are much harder to access. In almost all metals FM QCPs
are avoided through either a change to 1st order transitions or through an
intervening spin-density-wave (SDW) phase. Here, we study the prototype of the
second case, NbFe. We demonstrate that the phase diagram can be modelled
using a two-order-parameter theory in which the putative FM QCP is buried
within a SDW phase. We establish the presence of quantum tricritical points
(QTCPs) at which both the uniform and finite susceptibility diverge. The
universal nature of our model suggests that such QTCPs arise naturally from the
interplay between SDW and FM order and exist generally near a buried FM QCP of
this type. Our results promote NbFe as the first example of a QTCP, which
has been proposed as a key concept in a range of narrow-band metals, including
the prominent heavy-fermion compound YbRhSi.Comment: 21 pages including S
Interplay between unconventional superconductivity and heavy-fermion quantum criticality: CeCuSi versus YbRhSi
In this paper the low-temperature properties of two isostructural canonical
heavy-fermion compounds are contrasted with regards to the interplay between
antiferromagnetic (AF) quantum criticality and superconductivity. For
CeCuSi, fully-gapped d-wave superconductivity forms in the vicinity of
an itinerant three-dimensional heavy-fermion spin-density-wave (SDW) quantum
critical point (QCP). Inelastic neutron scattering results highlight that both
quantum critical SDW fluctuations as well as Mott-type fluctuations of local
magnetic moments contribute to the formation of Cooper pairs in CeCuSi.
In YbRhSi, superconductivity appears to be suppressed at
mK by AF order ( = 70 mK). Ultra-low temperature measurements reveal a
hybrid order between nuclear and 4f-electronic spins, which is dominated by the
Yb-derived nuclear spins, to develop at slightly above 2 mK. The hybrid
order turns out to strongly compete with the primary 4f-electronic order and to
push the material towards its QCP. Apparently, this paves the way for
heavy-fermion superconductivity to form at = 2 mK. Like the pressure -
induced QCP in CeRhIn, the magnetic field - induced one in YbRhSi
is of the local Kondo-destroying variety which corresponds to a Mott-type
transition at zero temperature. Therefore, these materials form the link
between the large family of about fifty low- unconventional heavy - fermion
superconductors and other families of unconventional superconductors with
higher s, notably the doped Mott insulators of the cuprates, organic
charge-transfer salts and some of the Fe-based superconductors. Our study
suggests that heavy-fermion superconductivity near an AF QCP is a robust
phenomenon.Comment: 30 pages, 7 Figures, Accepted for publication in Philosophical
Magazin
Conventional type-II superconductivity in locally non-centrosymmetric LaRhAs single crystals
We report on the observation of superconductivity in LaRhAs, which is
the analogue without -electrons of the heavy-fermion system with two
superconducting phases CeRhAs. A zero-resistivity transition, a
specific-heat jump and a drop in magnetic ac susceptibility consistently point
to a superconducting transition at a transition temperature of \,K.
The magnetic field-temperature superconducting phase diagrams determined from
field-dependent ac-susceptibility measurements reveal small upper critical
fields \,mT for and
\,mT for . The observed
is larger than the estimated thermodynamic critical field
derived from the heat-capacity data, suggesting that LaRhA is a
type-II superconductor with Ginzburg-Landau parameters and . The microscopic Eliashberg
theory indicates superconductivity to be in the weak-coupling regime with an
electron-phonon coupling constant . Despite a
similar and the same crystal structure as the Ce compound, LaRhAs
displays conventional superconductivity, corroborating the substantial role of
the 4 electrons for the extraordinary superconducting state in
CeRhAs.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure
cDNA cloning and functional expression of the α-d-galactose-binding lectin frutalin in escherichia coli
cDNA clones encoding frutalin, the α-d-galactose-binding lectin expressed in breadfruit seeds (Artocarpus incisa), were isolated and sequenced. The deduced amino acid sequences indicated that frutalin may be encoded by a family of genes. The NCBI database searches revealed that the frutalin sequence is highly homologous with jacalin and mornigaG sequences. Frutalin cDNA was re-amplified and cloned into the commercial expression vector pET-25b(+) for frutalin production in Escherichia coli. An experimental factorial design was employed to maximise the soluble expression of the recombinant lectin. The results indicated that temperature, time of induction, concentration of IPTG and the interaction between the concentration of IPTG and the time of induction had the most significant effects on the soluble expression level of recombinant frutalin. The optimal culture conditions were as follows: induction with 1 mM IPTG at 22°C for 20 h, yielding 16 mg/l of soluble recombinant frutalin. SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis revealed that recombinant frutalin was successfully expressed by bacteria with the expected molecular weight (17 kDa). These analyses also showed that recombinant frutalin was mainly produced as insoluble protein. Recombinant frutalin produced by bacteria revealed agglutination properties and carbohydrate-binding specificity similar to the native breadfruit lectin.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT
Composite Higgs Sketch
The coupling of a composite Higgs to the standard model fields can deviate
substantially from the standard model values. In this case perturbative
unitarity might break down before the scale of compositeness is reached, which
would suggest that additional composites should lie well below this scale. In
this paper we account for the presence of an additional spin 1 custodial
triplet of rhos. We examine the implications of requiring perturbative
unitarity up to the compositeness scale and find that one has to be close to
saturating certain unitarity sum rules involving the Higgs and the rho
couplings. Given these restrictions on the parameter space we investigate the
main phenomenological consequences of the spin 1 triplet. We find that they can
substantially enhance the Higgs di-photon rate at the LHC even with a reduced
Higgs coupling to gauge bosons. The main existing LHC bounds arise from
di-boson searches, especially in the experimentally clean channel where the
charged rhos decay to a W-boson and a Z, which then decay leptonically. We find
that a large range of interesting parameter space with 700 GeV < m(rho) < 2 TeV
is currently experimentally viable.Comment: 37 pages, 12 figures; v4: sum rule corrected, conclusions unchange
Goldstone Fermion Dark Matter
We propose that the fermionic superpartner of a weak-scale Goldstone boson
can be a natural WIMP candidate. The p-wave annihilation of this `Goldstone
fermion' into pairs of Goldstone bosons automatically generates the correct
relic abundance, whereas the XENON100 direct detection bounds are evaded due to
suppressed couplings to the Standard Model. Further, it is able to avoid
indirect detection constraints because the relevant s-wave annihilations are
small. The interactions of the Goldstone supermultiplet can induce non-standard
Higgs decays and novel collider phenomenology.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures. References added, minor typos corrected.
Submitted to JHE
Quantum tricritical points in NbFe2
Quantum critical points (QCPs) emerge when a 2nd order phase transition is
suppressed to zero temperature. In metals the quantum fluctuations at such a
QCP can give rise to new phases including unconventional superconductivity.
Whereas antiferromagnetic QCPs have been studied in considerable detail
ferromagnetic (FM) QCPs are much harder to access. In almost all metals FM QCPs
are avoided through either a change to 1st order transitions or through an
intervening spin-density-wave (SDW) phase. Here, we study the prototype of the
second case, NbFe. We demonstrate that the phase diagram can be modelled
using a two-order-parameter theory in which the putative FM QCP is buried
within a SDW phase. We establish the presence of quantum tricritical points
(QTCPs) at which both the uniform and finite susceptibility diverge. The
universal nature of our model suggests that such QTCPs arise naturally from the
interplay between SDW and FM order and exist generally near a buried FM QCP of
this type. Our results promote NbFe as the first example of a QTCP, which
has been proposed as a key concept in a range of narrow-band metals, including
the prominent heavy-fermion compound YbRhSi
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