Enhanced Bound State Formation in Two Dimensions via Stripe-Like Hopping Anisotropies

We have investigated two-electron bound state formation in a square two-dimensional t-J-U model with hopping anisotropies for zero electron density; these anisotropies are introduced to mimic the hopping energies similar to those expected in stripe-like arrangements of holes and spins found in various transition metal oxides. In this report we provide analytical solutions to this problem, and thus demonstrate that bound-state formation occurs at a critical exchange coupling, J_c, that decreases to zero in the limit of extreme hopping anisotropy t_y/t_x -> 0. This result should be contrasted with J_c/t = 2 for either a one-dimensional chain, or a two-dimensional plane with isotropic hopping. Most importantly, this behaviour is found to be qualitatively similar to that of two electrons on the two-leg ladder problem in the limit of t_interchain/t_intrachain -> 0. Using the latter result as guidance, we have evaluated the pair correlation function, thus determining that the bound state corresponds to one electron moving along one chain, with the second electron moving along the opposite chain, similar to two electrons confined to move along parallel, neighbouring, metallic stripes. We emphasize that the above results are not restricted to the zero density limit - we have completed an exact diagonalization study of two holes in a 12 X 2 two-leg ladder described by the t-J model and have found that the above-mentioned lowering of the binding energy with hopping anisotropy persists near half filling.Comment: 6 pages, 3 eps figure

Electromagnetic Response of Layered Superconductors with Broken Lattice Inversion Symmetry

We investigate the macroscopic effects of charge density waves (CDW) and superconductivity in layered superconducting systems with broken lattice inversion symmetry (allowing for piezoelectricity) such as two dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD). We work with the low temperature time dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory and study the coupling of lattice distortions and low energy CDW collective modes to the superconducting order parameter in the presence of electromagnetic fields. We show that superconductivity and piezoelectricity can coexist in these singular metals. Furthermore, our study indicates the nature of the quantum phase transition between a commensurate CDW phase and the stripe phase that has been observed as a function of applied pressure.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. Final version. Accepted in Phys.Rev.

Yarn diameter characterization using two orthogonal directions

We have used a coherent optical signal processing technique based on Fourier optics to characterize yarn diameter using a single projection.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - BD/19028/200

Dynamic Scaling in Diluted Systems Phase Transitions: Deactivation trough Thermal Dilution

Activated scaling is confirmed to hold in transverse field induced phase transitions of randomly diluted Ising systems. Quantum Monte Carlo calculations have been made not just at the percolation threshold but well bellow and above it including the Griffiths-McCoy phase. A novel deactivation phenomena in the Griffiths-McCoy phase is observed using a thermal (in contrast to random) dilution of the system.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, RevTe

Logarithmic Corrections to Rotating Extremal Black Hole Entropy in Four and Five Dimensions

We compute logarithmic corrections to the entropy of rotating extremal black holes using quantum entropy function i.e. Euclidean quantum gravity approach. Our analysis includes five dimensional supersymmetric BMPV black holes in type IIB string theory on T^5 and K3 x S^1 as well as in the five dimensional CHL models, and also non-supersymmetric extremal Kerr black hole and slowly rotating extremal Kerr-Newmann black holes in four dimensions. For BMPV black holes our results are in perfect agreement with the microscopic results derived from string theory. In particular we reproduce correctly the dependence of the logarithmic corrections on the number of U(1) gauge fields in the theory, and on the angular momentum carried by the black hole in different scaling limits. We also explain the shortcomings of the Cardy limit in explaining the logarithmic corrections in the limit in which the (super)gravity description of these black holes becomes a valid approximation. For non-supersymmetric extremal black holes, e.g. for the extremal Kerr black hole in four dimensions, our result provides a stringent testing ground for any microscopic explanation of the black hole entropy, e.g. Kerr/CFT correspondence.Comment: LaTeX file, 50 pages; v2: added extensive discussion on the relation between boundary condition and choice of ensemble, modified analysis for slowly rotating black holes, all results remain unchanged, typos corrected; v3: minor additions and correction

Cations extraction of sandy-clay soils from Cavado valley, Portugal, using sodium salts solutions

Cases of contamination by metals in the water wells of the Cavado Valley in north-west Portugal can be attributed to the heavy leaching of clay soils due to an excess of nitrogen resulting from the intensive use of fertilisers in agricultural areas. This work focuses on the natural weathering characteristics of soils, particularly the clay material, through the study of samples collected near the River Cavado. Samples taken from various sites, after physico-chemical characterisation, were subjected to clay dissolution tests, using sodium salts of different ionic forces, to detect the relationship between certain physico-chemical parameters of water, such as pH, nitrate, chloride and sulphate content, in the dissolution of clay and the subsequent extraction of such cations as Al, Fe and K. In acidic sandy clay soils, the mineralogical composition of which was characterised by a predominance of quartz, micas, kaolinite and K-feldspars, decreases of the clay material/water pH ratio increases dissolution of the micaceous and K-feldspars phases. The presence of nitrates in the aqueous solution apparently advanced the extraction of all three cations Al, Fe and K. The specific surface area of the clay material showed a significant correlation with the main kinetic parameters of cation extraction.Têm ocorrido casos de contaminações de águas de poços, por metais, no vale do Rio Cávado, região noroeste de Portugal. A princípio, poderiam ser explicáveis pela elevada lixiviação dos solos arenoargilosos da região, quando da prática de adubações intensivas de nitrogênio em áreas agrícolas. Assim, estudaram-se as características do intemperismo natural dos solos, particularmente da fração argila, característica da margem norte do rio Cávado. Coletaram-se amostras de vários locais, que foram submetidas, após caracterização físico-química, a ensaios de dissolução a partir de soluções de sais de sódio com diferentes forças iônicas. O objetivo foi observar as relações de determinados parâmetros físico-químicos da água, tais como: pH, nitratos, cloretos e sulfatos na dissolução das argilas e a conseqüente extração de espécies químicas tais como Al, K e Fe. Para solos areno-argilosos, ácidos, cuja composição mineralógica se caracteriza por um predomínio de quartzo, micas, caulinita e feldspato-K, o abaixamento do pH da suspensão solo/água promove a solubilização das fases micáceas e feldspáticas. A presença do nitrato nas soluções aquosas promoveu aparentemente a extração de todos os três cátions: Al, K e Fe. O efeito da área superfícial específica das partículas dos solos condicionou fortemente vários dos parâmetros cinéticos estudados relativos à extração dos cátions.(undefined

Identification of phenolic constituents of cytisus multiflorus

The phenolic composition of the ethanolic extract obtained from the flowers of the medicinal plant Cytisus multiflorus has been elucidated by high performance liquid chromatography, electrospray mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis. The extract was mainly composed of flavones, including the common chrysin, orientin, luteolin-5-O-glucoside, luteolin-7-O-glucoside, apigenin and apigenin-7-O-glucoside, which appeared as minor components. The major flavone in the extract was chrysin-7-O-B-D-glucopyranoside, and it also contained moderate amounts of a dihydroxyflavone isomer of chrysin, as well as of 2''-O-pentosyl-6-C-hexosyl-luteolin, 2''-O-pentosyl-8-C-hexosyl-luteolin and 6''- O-(3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaroyl)-2''-O-pentosyl-C-hexosyl-apigenin, which are not commonly found in the Fabaceae family. Other novel phenolic compounds found in the ethanolic extract of C. multiflorus comprised the flavones 2''-O-pentosyl-6-C-hexosyl-apigenin, 2''-O-pentosyl-8-C-hexosyl-apigenin and 6''-O-(3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaroyl)-200-O-pentosyl-C-hexosyl-luteolin. The assessment of the biological activities of the main compounds of this extract are now keen, in order to determine their relevance in the beneficial properties of the plant

Distribution-free detection of structured anomalies: permutation and rank-based scans

The scan statistic is by far the most popular method for anomaly detection, being popular in syndromic surveillance, signal and image processing, and target detection based on sensor networks, among other applications. The use of the scan statistics in such settings yields an hypotheses testing procedure, where the null hypothesis corresponds to the absence of anomalous behavior. If the null distribution is known, then calibration of a scan-based test is relatively easy, as it can be done by Monte-Carlo simulation. When the null distribution is unknown, it is not clear what the best way to proceed is. We propose two procedures. One is a calibration by permutation and the other is a rank-based scan test, which is distribution-free and less sensitive to outliers. Furthermore, the rank-scan test requires only a one-time calibration for a given data size making it computationally more appealing. In both cases, we quantify the performance loss with respect to an oracle scan test that knows the null distribution, and show one incurs only a very small loss in the context of a natural exponential family. These results include the classical normal location model, as well as Poisson model popular in syndromic surveillance. We perform numerical experiments on simulated data further supporting our theory, and also experiments with a real dataset from genomics

Finite-Temperature Transport in Finite-Size Hubbard Rings in the Strong-Coupling Limit

We study the current, the curvature of levels, and the finite temperature charge stiffness, D(T,L), in the strongly correlated limit, U>>t, for Hubbard rings of L sites, with U the on-site Coulomb repulsion and t the hopping integral. Our study is done for finite-size systems and any band filling. Up to order t we derive our results following two independent approaches, namely, using the solution provided by the Bethe ansatz and the solution provided by an algebraic method, where the electronic operators are represented in a slave-fermion picture. We find that, in the U=\infty case, the finite-temperature charge stiffness is finite for electronic densities, n, smaller than one. These results are essencially those of spinless fermions in a lattice of size L, apart from small corrections coming from a statistical flux, due to the spin degrees of freedom. Up to order t, the Mott-Hubbard gap is \Delta_{MH}=U-4t, and we find that D(T) is finite for n<1, but is zero at half-filling. This result comes from the effective flux felt by the holon excitations, which, due to the presence of doubly occupied sites, is renormalized to \Phi^{eff}=\phi(N_h-N_d)/(N_d+N_h), and which is zero at half-filling, with N_d and N_h being the number of doubly occupied and empty lattice sites, respectively. Further, for half-filling, the current transported by any eigenstate of the system is zero and, therefore, D(T) is also zero.Comment: 15 pages and 6 figures; accepted for PR

Improved bounds for sparse recovery from adaptive measurements

It is shown here that adaptivity in sampling results in dramatic improvements in the recovery of sparse signals in white Gaussian noise. An adaptive sampling-and-refinement procedure called distilled sensing is discussed and analyzed, resulting in fundamental new asymptotic scaling relationships in terms of the minimum feature strength required for reliable signal detection or localization (support recovery). In particular, reliable detection and localization using non-adaptive samples is possible only if the feature strength grows logarithmically in the problem dimension. Here it is shown that using adaptive sampling, reliable detection is possible provided the feature strength exceeds a constant, and localization is possible when the feature strength exceeds any (arbitrarily slowly) growing function of the problem dimension