Colossal enhancement of magnetoresistance in La0.67_{0.67}Sr0.33_{0.33}MnO3_{3} / Pr0.67_{0.67}Ca0.33_{0.33}MnO3_{3} multilayers: reproducing the phase-separation scenario

Colossal enhancement of magnetoresistance has been achieved over a broad temperature range which extends upto the room temperature, in ferromagnetic metal-charge ordered insulator manganite multi-layers. The artificially created phase coexistence in the multilayers reproduce the characteristic signatures of metastability in the magnetotransport properties commonly observed in electronically phase-separated manganites

Experimental observation of charge ordering in nanocrystalline Pr0.65_{0.65}Ca0.35_{0.35}MnO3_{3}

Observation of charge ordering in single crystalline and bulk polycrystalline systems of various rare-earth based manganites is well documented. However, there is hardly any manifestation of the same when the grain size is reduced to nanoscale. We have observed charge ordering in case of nanocrystalline Pr$_{0.65}$Ca$_{0.35}$MnO$_{3}$ of average particle size 40 nm. This phenomenon is attributed to the primary role played by the martensitic character of the charge order transition in the material.Comment: 4 pages including 4 figure

QQ plots, Random sets and data from a heavy tailed distribution

The QQ plot is a commonly used technique for informally deciding whether a univariate random sample of size n comes from a specified distribution F. The QQ plot graphs the sample quantiles against the theoretical quantiles of F and then a visual check is made to see whether or not the points are close to a straight line. For a location and scale family of distributions, the intercept and slope of the straight line provide estimates for the shift and scale parameters of the distribution respectively. Here we consider the set S_n of points forming the QQ plot as a random closed set in R^2. We show that under certain regularity conditions on the distribution F, S_n converges in probability to a closed, non-random set. In the heavy tailed case where 1-F is a regularly varying function, a similar result can be shown but a modification is necessary to provide a statistically sensible result since typically F is not completely known.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figure

Hard thermal effective action in QCD through the thermal operator

Through the application of the thermal operator to the zero temperature retarded Green's functions, we derive in a simple way the well known hard thermal effective action in QCD. By relating these functions to forward scattering amplitudes for on-shell particles, this derivation also clarifies the origin of important properties of the hard thermal effective action, such as the manifest Lorentz and gauge invariance of its integrand.Comment: 6 pages, contribution of the quarks to the effective action included and one reference added, version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Kekule-distortion-induced Exciton instability in graphene

Effects of a Kekule distortion on exciton instability in single-layer graphene are discussed. In the framework of quantum electrodynamics the mass of the electron generated dynamically is worked out using a Schwinger-Dyson equation. For homogeneous lattice distortion it is shown that the generated mass is independent of the amplitude of the lattice distortion at the one-loop approximation. Formation of excitons induced by the homogeneous Kekule distortion could appear only through direct dependence of the lattice distortion.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Effects of Strain coupling and Marginal dimensionality in the nature of phase transition in Quantum paraelectrics

Here a recently observed weak first order transition in doped SrTiO3 is argued to be a consequence of the coupling between strain and order parameter fluctuations. Starting with a semi-microscopic action, and using renormalization group equations for vertices, we write the free energy of such a system. This fluctuation renormalized free energy is then used to discuss the possibility of first order transition at zero temperature as well as at finite temperature. An asymptotic analysis predicts small but a finite discontinuity in the order parameter near a mean field quantum critical point at zero temperature. In case of finite temperature transition, near quantum critical point such a possibility is found to be extremely weak. Results are in accord with some experimental findings on quantum paraelectrics such as SrTiO3 and KTaO3.Comment: Revised versio