Striving towards gender equality in education The role of Bernice Sandler

This qualitative study examines why Bernice Sandler's role was significant in achieving gender equality in education, and the role she played in the enactment of Title IX legislation, which changed the face of American education. A historical overview of the development of women's higher education is provided and evaluated in order to describe the context of gender discrimination. Gender has been an important tool of oppression of women for centuries. In that aspect, no country has been an exception, including the United States. Like everywhere else, in America as well, the socio-cultural norms and gender roles expectations hindered women from achieving a full education. The potential barriers to women's higher education, as well as the potential outcomes of these marginalizations, were explored in order to gain a more in-depth understanding of this study. Women faced innumerable socially constructed barriers that constrained their educational development. Women's proper role was considered to be a mother, and her proper place was the home. Everything else was considered beyond the normal gender role definitions. But fortunately, there were few early voices that propagated the idea of the importance of giving higher education for women. As a result, women's higher education has gone through various forms, and types of institutions. Female seminaries, women's colleges, co-education and so on, before it spread to all colleges and universities. Even though by the middle of the twentieth century, women have gained broader access to education, but in certain areas, discrimination was still rampant. For example, especially in medicine, law, and business women's entry was restricted through various measures, such as the quota system, which used to limit the number of women being admitted. In the academic workplace, female faculties were more often not promoted or given tenure. Bernice Sandler's activism led to the passing of the Title IX legislation. By mandating to treat all students equally in all aspects of the education, especially in areas regarding admissions, recruitment, financial assistance, etc., in all federally funded institutions, Title IX eliminated all such practices, creating a more gender-equitable environment in education. Most importantly, it was Sandler's almost single-handed initiative that set things in motion and led to changing the educational landscape

Glassy Dielectric Response in Tb_2NiMnO_6 Double Perovskite with Similarities to a Griffiths Phase

Frequency-dependent and temperature-dependent dielectric measurements are performed on double perovskite Tb$_2$NiMnO$_6$. The real ($\epsilon_1$) and imaginary ($\epsilon_2$) parts of dielectric permittivity show three plateaus suggesting dielectric relaxation originating from bulk, grain boundaries and the sample-electrode interfaces respectively. The temperature and frequency variation of $\epsilon_1$ and $\epsilon_2$ are successfully simulated by a $RC$ circuit model. The complex plane of impedance, $Z'$-$Z"$, is simulated using a series network with a resistor $R$ and a constant phase element. Through the analysis of frequency-dependent dielectric constant using modified-Debye model, different relaxation regimes are identified. Temperature dependence of dc conductivity also presents a clear change in slope at, $T^*$. Interestingly, $T^*$ compares with the temperature at which an anomaly occurs in the phonon modes and the Griffiths temperature for this compound. The components $R$ and $C$ corresponding to the bulk and the parameter $\alpha$ from modified-Debye fit tend support to this hypothesis. Though these results cannot be interpreted as magnetoelectric coupling, the relationship between lattice and magnetism is marked.Comment: Accepted in Europhysics Letter

Signature of pseudo-diffusive transport in mesoscopic topological insulators

One of the unique features of Dirac Fermions is pseudo-diffusive transport by evanescent modes at low Fermi energies when the disorder is low. At higher Fermi energies i.e. carrier densities, the electrical transport is diffusive in nature and the propagation occurs via plane-waves. In this study, we report the detection of such evanescent modes in the surface states of topological insulator through 1/f noise. While signatures of pseudo-diffusive transport have been seen experimentally in graphene, such behavior is yet to be observed explicitly in any other system with a Dirac dispersion. To probe this, we have studied 1/f noise in topological insulators as a function of gate-voltage, and temperature. Our results show a non-monotonic behavior in 1=f noise as the Fermi energy is varied, suggesting a crossover from pseudo-diffusive to diffusive transport regime in mesoscopic topological insulators. The temperature dependence of noise points towards conductance fluctuations from quantum interference as the dominant source of the noise in these samples.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Ferromagnetism and the Effect of Free Charge Carriers on Electric Polarization in Y_2NiMnO_6 Double Perovskite

The double perovskite Y_2NiMnO_6 displays ferromagnetic transition at Tc = 81 K. The ferromagnetic order at low temperature is confirmed by the saturation value of magnetization (M_s) and also, validated by the refined ordered magnetic moment values extracted from neutron powder diffraction data at 10 K. This way, the dominant Mn4+ and Ni2+ cationic ordering is confirmed. The cation-ordered P 21/n nuclear structure is revealed by neutron powder diffraction studies at 300 and 10 K. Analysis of frequency dependent dielectric constant and equivalent circuit analysis of impedance data takes into account the bulk contribution to total dielectric constant. This reveals an anomaly which coincides with the ferromagnetic transition temperature (T_c). Pyrocurrent measurements register a current flow with onset near Tc and a peak at 57 K that shifts with temperature ramp rate. The extrinsic nature of the observed pyrocurrent is established by employing a special protocol measurement. It is realized that the origin is due to re-orientation of electric dipoles created by the free charge carriers and not by spontaneous electric polarization at variance with recently reported magnetism-driven ferroelectricity in this materialComment: Published in Physical Review

Low temperature saturation of phase coherence length in topological insulators

Implementing topological insulators as elementary units in quantum technologies requires a comprehensive understanding of the dephasing mechanisms governing the surface carriers in these materials, which impose a practical limit to the applicability of these materials in such technologies requiring phase coherent transport. To investigate this, we have performed magneto-resistance (MR) and conductance fluctuations\ (CF) measurements in both exfoliated and molecular beam epitaxy grown samples. The phase breaking length ($l_{\phi}$) obtained from MR shows a saturation below sample dependent characteristic temperatures, consistent with that obtained from CF measurements. We have systematically eliminated several factors that may lead to such behavior of $l_{\phi}$ in the context of TIs, such as finite size effect, thermalization, spin-orbit coupling length, spin-flip scattering, and surface-bulk coupling. Our work indicates the need to identify an alternative source of dephasing that dominates at low $T$ in topological insulators, causing saturation in the phase breaking length and time

Magnetic Order of the Hexagonal Rare Earth Manganite Dy(0.5)Y(0.5)MnO3

Hexagonal Dy(0.5)Y(0.5)MnO3, a multiferroic rare-earth manganite with geometrically frustrated antiferromagnetism, has been investigated with single-crystal neutron diffraction measurements. Below 3.4 K magnetic order is observed on both the Mn (antiferromagnetic) and Dy (ferrimagnetic) sublattices that is identical to that of undiluted hexagonal DyMnO3 at low temperature. The Mn moments undergo a spin reorientation transition between 3.4 K and 10 K, with antiferromagnetic order of the Mn sublattice persisting up to 70 K; the antiferromagnetic order in this phase is distinct from that observed in undiluted (h)DyMnO3, yielding a qualitatively new phase diagram not seen in other hexagonal rare-earth manganites. A magnetic field applied parallel to the crystallographic c axis will drive a transition from the antiferromagnetic phase into the low-temperature ferrimagnetic phase with little hysteresis.Comment: Six pages, four figures v2: Table I added, Figures 2 and 3 edited, text edited. August 24, 201

Critical properties of the double exchange ferromagnet Nd0.4Pb0.4MnO3

Results of a study of dc-magnetization M(T, H), performed on a Nd0.6Pb0.4MnO3 single crystal in the temperature range around T_C (Curie temperature) which embraces the critical region | epsilon | = |T -T_C |/T_C <= 0.05 are reported. The magnetic data analyzed in the critical region using the Kouvel-Fisher method give the values for the T_C =156.47 +/- 0.06 K and the critical exponents, beta = 0.374 +/- 0.006 (from the temperature dependence of magnetization), and gamma = 1.329 +/- 0.003 (from the temperature dependence of initial susceptibility). The critical isotherm M(T_C, H) gives delta = 4.547 +/- 0.1. Thus the scaling law gamma+beta=delta beta is fulfilled. The critical exponents obey the single scaling-equation of state M(H, epsilon) = epsilon^b f_+/- (H/epsilon^(beta + gamma)) where, f_+ for T > T_C and f_- for T< T_C. The exponent values are very close to those expected for the universality class of 3D Heisenberg ferromagnets with short-range interactions.Comment: 19 pages, including 6 figure