Observation of thermally activated glassiness and memory dip in a-NbSi insulating thin films

We present electrical conductance measurements on amorphous NbSi insulating thin films. These films display out-of equilibrium electronic features that are markedly different from what has been reported so far in disordered insulators. Like in the most studied systems (indium oxide and granular Al films), a slow relaxation of the conductance is observed after a quench to liquid helium temperature which gives rise to the growth of a memory dip in MOSFET devices. But unlike in these systems, this memory dip and the related conductance relaxations are still visible up to room temperature, with clear signatures of a temperature dependent dynamics

Local Electronic Structure around a Single Impurity in an Anderson Lattice Model for Topological Kondo Insulators

Shortly after the discovery of topological band insulators, the topological Kondo insulators (TKIs) have also been theoretically predicted. The latter has ignited revival interest in the properties of Kondo insulators. Currently, the feasibility of topological nature in SmB$_6$ has been intensively analyzed by several complementary probes. Here by starting with a minimal-orbital Anderson lattice model, we explore the local electronic structure in a Kondo insulator. We show that the two strong topological regimes sandwiching the weak topological regime give rise to a single Dirac cone, which is located near the center or corner of the surface Brillouin zone. We further find that, when a single impurity is placed on the surface, low-energy resonance states are induced in the weak scattering limit for the strong TKI regimes and the resonance level moves monotonically across the hybridization gap with the strength of impurity scattering potential; while low energy states can only be induced in the unitary scattering limit for the weak TKI regime, where the resonance level moves universally toward the center of the hybridization gap. These impurity induced low-energy quasiparticles will lead to characteristic signatures in scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, which has recently found success in probing into exotic properties in heavy fermion systems.Comment: 8 pages with 4 eps figures embedded, references update

Electronic Correlations in CoO2, the Parent Compound of Triangular Cobaltates

A 59Co NMR study of CoO2, the x=0 end member of AxCoO2 (A = Na, Li...) cobaltates, reveals a metallic ground state, though with clear signs of strong electron correlations: low-energy spin fluctuations develop at wave vectors q different from 0 and a crossover to a Fermi-liquid regime occurs below a characteristic temperature T*~7 K. Despite some uncertainty over the exact cobalt oxidation state n this material, the results show that electronic correlations are revealed as x is reduced below 0.3. The data are consistent with NaxCoO2 being close to the Mott transition in the x -> 0 limit.Comment: 4 pages, submitte

Similar glassy features in the NMR response of pure and disordered La1.88Sr0.12CuO4

High Tc superconductivity in La2-xSrxCuO4 coexists with (striped and glassy) magnetic order. Here, we report NMR measurements of the 139La spin-lattice relaxation, which displays a stretched-exponential time dependence, in both pure and disordered x=0.12 single crystals. An analysis in terms of a distribution of relaxation rates T1^-1 indicates that i) the spin-freezing temperature is spatially inhomogeneous with an onset at Tg(onset)=20 K for the pristine samples, and ii) the width of the T1^-1 distribution in the vicinity of Tg(onset) is insensitive to an ~1% level of atomic disorder in CuO2 planes. This suggests that the stretched-exponential 139La relaxation, considered as a manifestation of the systems glassiness, may not arise from quenched disorder.Comment: 7 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Emergent multipolar spin correlations in a fluctuating spiral - The frustrated ferromagnetic S=1/2 Heisenberg chain in a magnetic field

We present the phase diagram of the frustrated ferromagnetic S=1/2 Heisenberg J_1-J_2 chain in a magnetic field, obtained by large scale exact diagonalizations and density matrix renormalization group simulations. A vector chirally ordered state, metamagnetic behavior and a sequence of spin-multipolar Luttinger liquid phases up to hexadecupolar kind are found. We provide numerical evidence for a locking mechanism, which can drive spiral states towards spin-multipolar phases, such as quadrupolar or octupolar phases. Our results also shed light on previously discovered spin-multipolar phases in two-dimensional $S=1/2$ quantum magnets in a magnetic field.Comment: 4+ pages, 4 figure

Stability of the spiral phase in the 2D extended t-J model

We analyze the t-t'-t''-J model at low doping by chiral perturbation theory and show that the (1,0) spiral state is stabilized by the presence of t',t'' above critical values around 0.2J, assuming t/J=3.1. We find that the (magnon mediated) hole-hole interactions have an important effect on the region of charge stability in the space of parameters t',t'', generally increasing stability, while the stability in the magnetic sector is guaranteed by the presence of spin quantum fluctuations (order from disorder effect). These conclusions are based on perturbative analysis performed up to two loops, with very good convergence.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Seasonal and spatial variations in the ocean-coupled ambient wavefield of the Ross Ice Shelf

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Baker, M. G., Aster, R. C., Anthony, R. E., Chaput, J., Wiens, D. A., Nyblade, A., Bromirski, P. D., Gerstoft, P., & Stephen, R. A. Seasonal and spatial variations in the ocean-coupled ambient wavefield of the Ross Ice Shelf. Journal of Glaciology, 65(254), (2019): 912-925, doi:10.1017/jog.2019.64.The Ross Ice Shelf (RIS) is host to a broadband, multimode seismic wavefield that is excited in response to atmospheric, oceanic and solid Earth source processes. A 34-station broadband seismographic network installed on the RIS from late 2014 through early 2017 produced continuous vibrational observations of Earth's largest ice shelf at both floating and grounded locations. We characterize temporal and spatial variations in broadband ambient wavefield power, with a focus on period bands associated with primary (10–20 s) and secondary (5–10 s) microseism signals, and an oceanic source process near the ice front (0.4–4.0 s). Horizontal component signals on floating stations overwhelmingly reflect oceanic excitations year-round due to near-complete isolation from solid Earth shear waves. The spectrum at all periods is shown to be strongly modulated by the concentration of sea ice near the ice shelf front. Contiguous and extensive sea ice damps ocean wave coupling sufficiently so that wintertime background levels can approach or surpass those of land-sited stations in Antarctica.This research was supported by NSF grants PLR-1142518, 1141916, 1142126, 1246151 and 1246416. JC was additionally supported by Yates funds in the Colorado State University Department of Mathematics. PDB also received support from the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Division of Boating and Waterways under contract 11-106-107. We thank Reinhard Flick and Patrick Shore for their support during field work, Tom Bolmer in locating stations and preparing maps, and the US Antarctic Program for logistical support. The seismic instruments were provided by the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) through the PASSCAL Instrument Center at New Mexico Tech. Data collected are available through the IRIS Data Management Center under RIS and DRIS network code XH. The PSD-PDFs presented in this study were processed with the IRIS Noise Tool Kit (Bahavar and others, 2013). The facilities of the IRIS Consortium are supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement EAR-1261681 and the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration. The authors appreciate the support of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Automatic Weather Station Program for the data set, data display and information; funded under NSF grant number ANT-1543305. The Ross Ice Shelf profiles were generated using the Antarctic Mapping Tools (Greene and others, 2017). Regional maps were generated with the Generic Mapping Tools (Wessel and Smith, 1998). Topography and bathymetry data for all maps in this study were sourced from the National Geophysical Data Center ETOPO1 Global Relief Model (doi:10.7289/V5C8276M). We thank two anonymous reviewers for suggestions on the scope and organization of this paper

Characterizing Quantum Properties of a Measurement Apparatus: Insights from the Retrodictive Approach

Using the retrodictive approach of quantum physics, we show that the state retrodicted from the response of a measurement apparatus is a convenient tool to fully characterize its quantum properties. We translate in terms of this state some interesting aspects of the quantum behavior of a detector, such as the non-classicality or the non-gaussian character of its measurements. We also introduce estimators - the projectivity, the ideality, the fidelity or the detectivity of measurements perfomed by the apparatus - which directly follow from the retrodictive approach. Beyond their fundamental significance for describing general quantum measurements, these properties are crucial in several protocols, in particular in the conditional preparation of non-classical states of light or in measurement-driven quantum information processing

Properties of pedestrians walking in line: Stepping behavior

In human crowds, interactions among individuals give rise to a variety of self-organized collective motions that help the group to effectively solve the problem of coordination. However, it is still not known exactly how humans adjust their behavior locally, nor what are the direct consequences on the emergent organization. One of the underlying mechanisms of adjusting individual motions is the stepping dynamics. In this paper, we present first quantitative analysis on the stepping behavior in a one-dimensional pedestrian flow studied under controlled laboratory conditions. We find that the step length is proportional to the velocity of the pedestrian, and is directly related to the space available in front of him, while the variations of the step duration are much smaller. This is in contrast with locomotion studies performed on isolated pedestrians and shows that the local density has a direct influence on the stepping characteristics. Furthermore, we study the phenomena of synchronization -walking in lockstep- and show its dependence on flow densities. We show that the synchronization of steps is particularly important at high densities, which has direct impact on the studies of optimizing pedestrians flow in congested situations. However, small synchronization and antisynchronization effects are found also at very low densities, for which no steric constraints exist between successive pedestrians, showing the natural tendency to synchronize according to perceived visual signals.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Contact with coupled adhesion and friction: Computational framework, applications, and new insights

Contact involving soft materials often combines dry adhesion, sliding friction, and large deformations. At the local level, these three aspects are rarely captured simultaneously, but included in the theoretical models by Mergel et al. (2019). We here develop a corresponding finite element framework that captures 3D finite-strain contact of two deformable bodies. This framework is suitable to investigate sliding friction even under tensile normal loads. First, we demonstrate the capabilities of our finite element model using both 2D and 3D test cases, which range from compliant tapes to structures with high stiffness, and include deformable-rigid and deformable-deformable contact. We then provide new results on the onset of sliding of smooth elastomer-glass interfaces, a setup that couples nonlinear material behavior, adhesion, and large frictional stresses. Our simulations not only agree well with both experimental and theoretical findings, they also provide new insights into the current debate on the shear-induced reduction of the contact area in elastomeric contact