71,057 research outputs found
The Role of Fermions in Bubble Nucleation
We present a study of the role of fermions in the decay of metastable states
of a scalar field via bubble nucleation. We analyze both one and
three-dimensional systems by using a gradient expansion for the calculation of
the fermionic determinant. The results of the one-dimensional case are compared
to the exact results of previous work.Comment: 15 pages, revtex, 9 figure
Phosphorene nanoribbons
Edge-induced gap states in finite phosphorene layers are examined using
analytical models and density functional theory. The nature of such gap states
depends on the direction of the cut. Armchair nanoribbons are insulating,
whereas nanoribbons cut in the perpendicular direction (with zigzag and
cliff-type edges) are metallic, unless they undergo a reconstruction or
distortion with cell doubling, which opens a gap. All stable nanoribbons with
unsaturated edges have gap states that can be removed by hydrogen passivation.
Armchair nanoribbon edge states decay exponentially with the distance to the
edge and can be described by a nearly-free electron model
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