Probing the electroweak symmetry breaking history with Gravitational waves

We perform a three dimensional lattice simulation of the electroweak symmetry breaking process through a two-step phase transition, where one of the two steps is a first order phase transition. Our results show that: 1) when the electroweak symmetry breaking is driven by the beyond Standard Model sector around $\sim \mathcal{O}(10^{2-3})$ GeV, the gravitational wave spectra produced from the phase transitions are of broken power-law double-peak shapes; 2) when the electroweak symmetry breaking is induced by a first-order phase transition of a high-scale global U(1) theory, cosmic strings can form and then disappear through particle radiation, and the yielded gravitational wave spectra are of plateau shapes. The two scenarios can be distinguished through probing gravitational wave spectra. Our study suggests that the stochastic gravitational waves provide an alternative way to probe the beyond Standard Model sector relevant to the electroweak symmetry breaking pattern in the early Universe.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, comments welcome

Giant thermal transport tuning at a metal/ferroelectric interface

Interfacial thermal transport plays a prominent role in the thermal management of nanoscale objects and is of fundamental importance for basic research and nanodevices. At metal/insulator interfaces, a configuration commonly found in electronic devices, heat transport strongly depends upon the effective energy transfer from thermalized electrons in the metal to the phonons in the insulator. However, the mechanism of interfacial electron–phonon coupling and thermal transport at metal/insulator interfaces is not well understood. Here, the observation of a substantial enhancement of the interfacial thermal resistance and the important role of surface charges at the metal/ferroelectric interface in an Al/BiFeO3 membrane are reported. By applying uniaxial strain, the interfacial thermal resistance can be varied substantially (up to an order of magnitude), which is attributed to the renormalized interfacial electron–phonon coupling caused by the charge redistribution at the interface due to the polarization rotation. These results imply that surface charges at a metal/insulator interface can substantially enhance the interfacial electron–phonon-mediated thermal coupling, providing a new route to optimize the thermal transport performance in next-generation nanodevices, power electronics, and thermal logic devices.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Prominent Size Effects without a Depolarization Field Observed in Ultrathin Ferroelectric Oxide Membranes

The increasing miniaturization of electronics requires a better understanding of material properties at the nanoscale. Many studies have shown that there is a ferroelectric size limit in oxides, below which the ferroelectricity will be strongly suppressed due to the depolarization field, and whether such a limit still exists in the absence of the depolarization field remains unclear. Here, by applying uniaxial strain, we obtain pure in-plane polarized ferroelectricity in ultrathin SrTiO3 membranes, providing a clean system with high tunability to explore ferroelectric size effects especially the thickness-dependent ferroelectric instability with no depolarization field. Surprisingly, the domain size, ferroelectric transition temperature, and critical strain for room-temperature ferroelectricity all exhibit significant thickness dependence. These results indicate that the stability of ferroelectricity is suppressed (enhanced) by increasing the surface or bulk ratio (strain), which can be explained by considering the thickness-dependent dipole-dipole interactions within the transverse Ising model. Our study provides new insights into ferroelectric size effects and sheds light on the applications of ferroelectric thin films in nanoelectronics

Crossover from 2D ferromagnetic insulator to wide bandgap quantum anomalous Hall insulator in ultra-thin MnBi2Te4

Intrinsic magnetic topological insulators offer low disorder and large magnetic bandgaps for robust magnetic topological phases operating at higher temperatures. By controlling the layer thickness, emergent phenomena such as the Quantum Anomalous Hall (QAH) effect and axion insulator phases have been realised. These observations occur at temperatures significantly lower than the Neel temperature of bulk MnBi2Te4, and measurement of the magnetic energy gap at the Dirac point in ultra-thin MnBi2Te4 has yet to be achieved. Critical to achieving the promise of this system is a direct measurement of the layer-dependent energy gap and verifying whether the gap is magnetic in the QAH phase. Here we utilise temperature dependent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to study epitaxial ultra-thin MnBi2Te4. We directly observe a layer dependent crossover from a 2D ferromagnetic insulator with a bandgap greater than 780 meV in one septuple layer (1 SL) to a QAH insulator with a large energy gap (>100 meV) at 8 K in 3 and 5 SL MnBi2Te4. The QAH gap is confirmed to be magnetic in origin, as it abruptly diminishes with increasing temperature above 8 K. The direct observation of a large magnetic energy gap in the QAH phase of few-SL MnBi2Te4 is promising for further increasing the operating temperature of QAH materials

Flexoelectricity-stabilized ferroelectric phase with enhanced reliability in ultrathin La:HfO2 films

Doped HfO2 thin films exhibit robust ferroelectric properties even for nanometric thicknesses, are compatible with current Si technology and thus have great potential for the revival of integrated ferroelectrics. Phase control and reliability are core issues for their applications. Here we show that, in (111)-oriented 5%La:HfO2 (HLO) epitaxial thin films deposited on (La0.3Sr0.7)(Al0.65Ta0.35)O3 substrates, the flexoelectric effect, arising from the strain gradient along the films normal, induces a rhombohedral distortion in the otherwise Pca21 orthorhombic structure. Density functional calculations reveal that the distorted structure is indeed more stable than the pure Pca21 structure, when applying an electric field mimicking the flexoelectric field. This rhombohedral distortion greatly improves the fatigue endurance of HLO thin films by further stabilizing the metastable ferroelectric phase against the transition to the thermodynamically stable non-polar monoclinic phase during repetitive cycling. Our results demonstrate that the flexoelectric effect, though negligibly weak in bulk, is crucial to optimize the structure and properties of doped HfO2 thin films with nanometric thicknesses for integrated ferroelectric applications

RED: A Java-MySQL Software for Identifying and Visualizing RNA Editing Sites Using Rule-Based and Statistical Filters.

RNA editing is one of the post- or co-transcriptional processes that can lead to amino acid substitutions in protein sequences, alternative pre-mRNA splicing, and changes in gene expression levels. Although several methods have been suggested to identify RNA editing sites, there remains challenges to be addressed in distinguishing true RNA editing sites from its counterparts on genome and technical artifacts. In addition, there lacks a software framework to identify and visualize potential RNA editing sites. Here, we presented a software - 'RED' (RNA Editing sites Detector) - for the identification of RNA editing sites by integrating multiple rule-based and statistical filters. The potential RNA editing sites can be visualized at the genome and the site levels by graphical user interface (GUI). To improve performance, we used MySQL database management system (DBMS) for high-throughput data storage and query. We demonstrated the validity and utility of RED by identifying the presence and absence of C→U RNA-editing sites experimentally validated, in comparison with REDItools, a command line tool to perform high-throughput investigation of RNA editing. In an analysis of a sample data-set with 28 experimentally validated C→U RNA editing sites, RED had sensitivity and specificity of 0.64 and 0.5. In comparison, REDItools had a better sensitivity (0.75) but similar specificity (0.5). RED is an easy-to-use, platform-independent Java-based software, and can be applied to RNA-seq data without or with DNA sequencing data. The package is freely available under the GPLv3 license at http://github.com/REDetector/RED or https://sourceforge.net/projects/redetector

Nitrification inhibitor's effect on mitigating N 2 O emissions was weakened by urease inhibitor in calcareous soils

The application of nitrification or urease inhibitors together with nitrogen (N) fertilizer has been proposed to reduce N losses, including nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, from agricultural soils. We measured N2O fluxes, crop yield and plant N content over 3 years (2012–2015) to evaluate the long-term effects of nitrification and/or urease inhibitors on N2O emissions, crop production and N use efficiency (NUE) in an intensively farmed wheat–maize system in northern China. The experiment consisted of the following five treatments: 1) CK, no N fertilizer; 2) U, urea; 3) NI, urea with 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP); 4) UI, urea with N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT); and 5) NIUI, urea with combined DMPP and NBPT. Compared with the U treatment, the NI, NIUI and UI treatments mitigated cumulative N2O emissions by 55%, 40% and 21% in the maize season, respectively, and 47%, 40% and 33% in the wheat season, respectively. The annual direct emission factors of N2O for the U, NI, UI and NIUI treatments were 0.4%, 0.1%, 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively. The NIUI, NI and UI treatments increased the annual crop yield (7%, 6% and 4%) and the NUE (15%, 10% and 7%) relative to the U treatment. The NI treatment showed the best effect on mitigating N2O emissions, but its efficacy was reduced when applied together with UI. This indicates that more studies are required focusing on the performances and mechanisms of these two inhibitors in alkaline and low organic carbon soils

Ru/FeOx catalyst performance design: Highly dispersed Ru species for selective carbon dioxide hydrogenation

A series of Ru/FeOx catalysts were synthesized for the selective hydrogenation of CO2 to CO. Detailed characterizations of the catalysts through X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and temperature-programmed techniques were performed to directly monitor the surface chemical properties and the catalytic performance to elucidate the reaction mechanism. Highly dispersed Ru species were observed on the surface of FeOx regardless of the initial Ru loading. Varying the Ru loading resulted in changes to the Ru coverage over the FeOx surface, which had a significant impact on the interaction between Ru and adsorbed H, and concomitantly, the H-2 activation capacity via the ability for H-2 dissociation. FeOx having 0.01% of Ru loading exhibited 100% selectivity toward CO resulting from the very strong interaction between Ru and adsorbed H, which limits the desorption of the activated H species and hinders over-reduction of CO to CH4. Further increasing the Ru loading of the catalysts to above 0.01% resulted in the adsorbed H to be easily dissociated, as a result of a weaker interaction with Ru, which allowed excessive CO reduction to produce CH4. Understanding how to selectively design the catalyst by tuning the initial loading of the active phase has broader implications on the design of supported metal catalysts toward preparing liquid fuels from CO2. (C) 2018, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved