Anelastic relaxation process of polaronic origin in La{2-x}Sr{x}CuO{4}: interaction between the charge stripes and pinning centers

The evolution of an anelastic relaxation process occurring around 80 K in La{2-x}Sr{x}CuO{4} at a measuring frequency of ~1 kHz has been followed from x = 0.0075 to the overdoped region, x = 0.2, where it disappears. The dependence of the peak intensity on doping is consistent with a polaronic mechanism, identified with the disordered charge stripes overcoming pinning centers. A marked decrease of the peak amplitude occurs at x > 0.045, the same doping range where a change of the stripe order from parallel to diagonal with respect to the Cu-O bonds has been observed by neutron diffraction. Both the energy barrier and peak amplitude also exhibit a rise near x = 1/8.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

The weight of words: textual data versus sentiment analysis in stock returns prediction

The focus of this paper is to understand whether the words contained in a text corpus improves the explained variance of stock returns better than the use of the polarity of the same texts, obtained through a sentiment analysis using a generic ontological dictionary. The empirical analysis is based on the content of a weekly column in the most important Italian financial newspaper, which published past information and analysts’ recommendations on listed companies. The use of textual data clearly increases the explained variance of stock returns but, through comparisons between data mining techniques, we observed minor differences in terms of MSE, by adding a selection of specific terms as features. In this context, the text mining approach proved to be very useful to improve the explanatory power of forecasting models, while it emerged the limited explanatory power of an automatic sentiment analysis based on a generic lexicon

Testing for redshift evolution of Type Ia supernovae using the strongly lensed PS1-10afx at z=1.4z=1.4

The light from distant supernovae (SNe) can be magnified through gravitational lensing when a foreground galaxy is located along the line of sight. This line-up allows for detailed studies of SNe at high redshift that otherwise would not be possible. Spectroscopic observations of lensed high-redshift Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are of particular interest since they can be used to test for evolution of their intrinsic properties. The use of SNe Ia for probing the cosmic expansion history has proven to be an extremely powerful method for measuring cosmological parameters. However, if systematic redshift-dependent properties are found, their usefulness for future surveys could be challenged. We investigate whether the spectroscopic properties of the strongly lensed and very distant SN Ia PS1-10afx at $z=1.4$ deviates from the well-studied populations of normal SNe Ia at nearby or intermediate distance. We created median spectra from nearby and intermediate-redshift spectroscopically normal SNe Ia from the literature at -5 and +1 days from light-curve maximum. We then compared these median spectra to those of PS1-10afx. We do not find signs of spectral evolution in PS1-10afx. The observed deviation between PS1-10afx and the median templates are within what is found for SNe at low- and intermediate-redshift. There is a noticeable broad feature centred at $\rm \lambda\sim 3500$~\AA{}, which is present only to a lesser extent in individual low and intermediate redshift SN Ia spectra. From a comparison with a recently developed explosion model, we find this feature to be dominated by iron peak elements, in particular, singly ionized cobalt and chromium.Comment: accepted for publication in section 4. Extragalactic astronomy of Astronomy and Astrophysic

Evidence for pseudogap and phase-coherence gap separation by Andreev reflection experiments in Au/La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_4 point-contact junctions

We present new Au/La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} (LSCO) point-contact conductance measures as a function of voltage and temperature in samples with 0.08 <= x <= 0.2. Andreev reflection features disappear at about the bulk Tc, giving no evidence of gap for T > Tc. The fit of the normalized conductance at any T < Tc supports a (s + d)-wave symmetry of the gap, whose dominant low-T s component follows the Tc(x) curve in contrast with recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and quasiparticle tunneling data. These results prove the separation between pseudogap and phase-coherence superconducting gap in LSCO at x <= 0.2.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures, 1 table (RevTeX). Labels added to Fig. 1; Fig. 3 resized; references added; short discussion about ballistic contact regime adde

Beta-functions in Yang-Mills Theory from Non-critical String

The renormalization group equations of the Yang-Mills theory are examined in the non-critical string theory according to the framework of the holography. Under a simple ansatz for the tachyon, we could find several interesting solutions which are classified by the value of the tachyon potential at the vacuum. We show two typical, asymptotic-free solutions which are different in their infrared behaviors. For both types of solutions, we could obtain quark-confinement potential from the Wilson-loop. The stability of the tachyon and the ZigZag symmetry are also discussed for these solutions.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

First principle theory of correlated transport through nano-junctions

We report the inclusion of electron-electron correlation in the calculation of transport properties within an ab initio scheme. A key step is the reformulation of Landauer's approach in terms of an effective transmittance for the interacting electron system. We apply this framework to analyze the effect of short range interactions on Pt atomic wires and discuss the coherent and incoherent correction to the mean-field approach.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure