Orbital-Peierls State in NaTiSi2O6

Does the quasi one-dimensional titanium pyroxene NaTiSi2O6 exhibit the novel {\it orbital-Peierls} state? We calculate its groundstate properties by three methods: Monte Carlo simulations, a spin-orbital decoupling scheme and a mapping onto a classical model. The results show univocally that for the spin and orbital ordering to occur at the same temperature --an experimental observation-- the crystal field needs to be small and the orbitals are active. We also find that quantum fluctuations in the spin-orbital sector drive the transition, explaining why canonical bandstructure methods fail to find it. The conclusion that NaTiSi2O6 shows an orbital-Peierls transition is therefore inevitable.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Using linear gluon polarization inside an unpolarized proton to determine the Higgs spin and parity

Gluons inside an unpolarized proton are in general linearly polarized in the direction of their transverse momentum, rendering the LHC effectively a polarized gluon collider. This polarization can be utilized in the determination of the spin and parity of the newly found Higgs-like boson. We focus here on the determination of the spin using the azimuthal Collins-Soper angle $\phi$ distribution.Comment: 6 pages, to appear in the proceedings of the LightCone 2013+ workshop, 20-24 May 2013, Skiathos, Greec

Long cycles in graphs with large degree sums and neighborhood unions

We present and prove several results concerning the length of longest cycles in 2-connected or 1-tough graphs with large degree sums. These results improve many known results on long cycles in these graphs. We also consider the sharpness of the results and discuss some possible strengthenings

Sharpness of the percolation transition in the two-dimensional contact process

For ordinary (independent) percolation on a large class of lattices it is well known that below the critical percolation parameter $p_c$ the cluster size distribution has exponential decay and that power-law behavior of this distribution can only occur at $p_c$. This behavior is often called ``sharpness of the percolation transition.'' For theoretical reasons, as well as motivated by applied research, there is an increasing interest in percolation models with (weak) dependencies. For instance, biologists and agricultural researchers have used (stationary distributions of) certain two-dimensional contact-like processes to model vegetation patterns in an arid landscape (see [20]). In that context occupied clusters are interpreted as patches of vegetation. For some of these models it is reported in [20] that computer simulations indicate power-law behavior in some interval of positive length of a model parameter. This would mean that in these models the percolation transition is not sharp. This motivated us to investigate similar questions for the ordinary (``basic'') $2D$ contact process with parameter $\lambda$. We show, using techniques from Bollob\'{a}s and Riordan [8, 11], that for the upper invariant measure ${\bar{\nu}}_{\lambda}$ of this process the percolation transition is sharp. If $\lambda$ is such that (${\bar{\nu}}_{\lambda}$-a.s.) there are no infinite clusters, then for all parameter values below $\lambda$ the cluster-size distribution has exponential decay.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10-AAP702 the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Long cycles in graphs containing a 2-factor with many odd components

We prove a result on the length of a longest cycle in a graph on n vertices that contains a 2-factor and satisfies d(u)+d(c)+d(w)n+2 for every tiple u, v, w of independent vertices. As a corollary we obtain the follwing improvement of a conjectre of Häggkvist (1992): Let G be a 2-connected graph on n vertices where every pair of nonadjacent vertices has degree sum at least n-k and assume G has a 2-factor with at least k+1 odd components. Then G is hamiltonian

Approximate zero-one laws and sharpness of the percolation transition in a class of models including two-dimensional Ising percolation

One of the most well-known classical results for site percolation on the square lattice is the equation $p_c+p_c^*=1$. In words, this equation means that for all values $\neq p_c$ of the parameter $p$, the following holds: either a.s. there is an infinite open cluster or a.s. there is an infinite closed "star" cluster. This result is closely related to the percolation transition being sharp: below $p_c$, the size of the open cluster of a given vertex is not only (a.s.) finite, but has a distribution with an exponential tail. The analog of this result has been proven by Higuchi in 1993 for two-dimensional Ising percolation (at fixed inverse temperature $\beta<\beta_c$) with external field $h$, the parameter of the model. Using sharp-threshold results (approximate zero-one laws) and a modification of an RSW-like result by Bollob\'{a}s and Riordan, we show that these results hold for a large class of percolation models where the vertex values can be "nicely" represented (in a sense which will be defined precisely) by i.i.d. random variables. We point out that the ordinary percolation model obviously belongs to this class and we also show that the Ising model mentioned above belongs to it.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOP380 the Annals of Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Preroughening transitions in a model for Si and Ge (001) type crystal surfaces

The uniaxial structure of Si and Ge (001) facets leads to nontrivial topological properties of steps and hence to interesting equilibrium phase transitions. The disordered flat phase and the preroughening transition can be stabilized without the need for step-step interactions. A model describing this is studied numerically by transfer matrix type finite-size-scaling of interface free energies. Its phase diagram contains a flat, rough, and disordered flat phase, separated by roughening and preroughening transition lines. Our estimate for the location of the multicritical point where the preroughening line merges with the roughening line, predicts that Si and Ge (001) undergo preroughening induced simultaneous deconstruction transitions.Comment: 13 pages, RevTex, 7 Postscript Figures, submitted to J. Phys.

The lowest crossing in 2D critical percolation

We study the following problem for critical site percolation on the triangular lattice. Let A and B be sites on a horizontal line e separated by distance n. Consider, in the half-plane above e, the lowest occupied crossing R from the half-line left of A to the half-line right of B. We show that the probability that R has a site at distance smaller than m from AB is of order (log (n/m))^{-1}, uniformly in 1 <= m < n/2. Much of our analysis can be carried out for other two-dimensional lattices as well.Comment: 16 pages, Latex, 2 eps figures, special macros: percmac.tex. Submitted to Annals of Probabilit

Intermittency in a catalytic random medium

In this paper, we study intermittency for the parabolic Anderson equation $\partial u/\partial t=\kappa\Delta u+\xi u$, where $u:\mathbb{Z}^d\times [0,\infty)\to\mathbb{R}$, $\kappa$ is the diffusion constant, $\Delta$ is the discrete Laplacian and $\xi:\mathbb{Z}^d\times[0,\infty)\to\mathbb {R}$ is a space-time random medium. We focus on the case where $\xi$ is $\gamma$ times the random medium that is obtained by running independent simple random walks with diffusion constant $\rho$ starting from a Poisson random field with intensity $\nu$. Throughout the paper, we assume that $\kappa,\gamma,\rho,\nu\in (0,\infty)$. The solution of the equation describes the evolution of a ``reactant'' $u$ under the influence of a ``catalyst'' $\xi$. We consider the annealed Lyapunov exponents, that is, the exponential growth rates of the successive moments of $u$, and show that they display an interesting dependence on the dimension $d$ and on the parameters $\kappa,\gamma,\rho,\nu$, with qualitatively different intermittency behavior in $d=1,2$, in $d=3$ and in $d\geq4$. Special attention is given to the asymptotics of these Lyapunov exponents for $\kappa\downarrow0$ and $\kappa \to\infty$.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009117906000000467 in the Annals of Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org