2,511 research outputs found
General principles for the non-equilibrium relaxation of populations in quantum materials
We examine the problem of how excited populations of electrons relax after
they have been excited by a pump. We include three of the most important
relaxation processes: (i) impurity scattering; (ii) Coulomb scattering; and
(iii) electron-phonon scattering. The relaxation of an excited population of
electrons is one of the most fundamental processes measured in pump/probe
experiments, but its interpretation remains under debate. We show how several
common assumptions about non-equilibrium relaxation that are pervasive in the
field may not hold under quite general conditions. The analysis shows that
non-equilibrium relaxation is more complex than previously thought, but it
yields to recently developed theoretical methods in non-equilibrium theory. In
this work, we show how one can use many-body theory to properly interpret and
analyze these complex systems. We focus much of the discussion on implications
of these results for experiment.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
Determining the forsterite abundance of the dust around Asymptotic Giant Branch stars
Aims. We present a diagnostic tool to determine the abundance of the
crystalline silicate forsterite in AGB stars surrounded by a thick shell of
silicate dust. Using six infrared spectra of high mass-loss oxygen rich AGB
stars we obtain the forsterite abundance of their dust shells.
Methods. We use a monte carlo radiative transfer code to calculate infrared
spectra of dust enshrouded AGB stars. We vary the dust composition, mass-loss
rate and outer radius. We focus on the strength of the 11.3 and the 33.6 \mu m
forsterite bands, that probe the most recent (11.3 \mu m) and older (33.6 \mu
m) mass-loss history of the star. Simple diagnostic diagrams are derived,
allowing direct comparison to observed band strengths.
Results. Our analysis shows that the 11.3 \mu m forsterite band is a robust
indicator for the forsterite abundance of the current mass-loss period for AGB
stars with an optically thick dust shell. The 33.6 \mu m band of forsterite is
sensitive to changes in the density and the geometry of the emitting dust
shell, and so a less robust indicator. Applying our method to six high
mass-loss rate AGB stars shows that AGB stars can have forsterite abundances of
12% by mass and higher, which is more than the previously found maximum
abundance of 5%.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Spin fluctuations and superconductivity in a 3D tight-binding model for BaFe2As2
Despite the wealth of experimental data on the Fe-pnictide compounds of the
KFe2As2-type, K = Ba, Ca, or Sr, the main theoretical work based on
multiorbital tight-binding models has been restricted so far to the study of
the related 1111 compounds. This can be ascribed to the more three dimensional
electronic structure found by ab initio calculations for the 122 materials,
making this system less amenable to model development. In addition, the more
complicated Brillouin zone (BZ) of the body-centered tetragonal symmetry does
not allow a straightforward unfolding of the electronic band structure into an
effective 1Fe/unit cell BZ. Here we present an effective 5-orbital
tight-binding fit of the full DFT band structure for BaFeAs including the kz
dispersions. We compare the 5-orbital spin fluctuation model to one previously
studied for LaOFeAs and calculate the RPA enhanced susceptibility. Using the
fluctuation exchange approximation to determine the leading pairing
instability, we then examine the differences between a strictly two dimensional
model calculation over a single kz cut of the BZ and a completely three
dimensional approach. We find pairing states quite similar to the 1111
materials, with generic quasi-isotropic pairing on the hole sheets and nodal
states on the electron sheets at kz = 0 which however are gapped as the system
is hole doped. On the other hand, a substantial kz dependence of the order
parameter remains, with most of the pairing strength deriving from processes
near kz = pi. These states exhibit a tendency for an enhanced anisotropy on the
hole sheets and a reduced anisotropy on the electron sheets near the top of the
BZ.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figure
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