60 research outputs found
Exciton Condensation and Perfect Coulomb Drag
Coulomb drag is a process whereby the repulsive interactions between
electrons in spatially separated conductors enable a current flowing in one of
the conductors to induce a voltage drop in the other. If the second conductor
is part of a closed circuit, a net current will flow in that circuit. The drag
current is typically much smaller than the drive current owing to the heavy
screening of the Coulomb interaction. There are, however, rare situations in
which strong electronic correlations exist between the two conductors. For
example, bilayer two-dimensional electron systems can support an exciton
condensate consisting of electrons in one layer tightly bound to holes in the
other. One thus expects "perfect" drag; a transport current of electrons driven
through one layer is accompanied by an equal one of holes in the other. (The
electrical currents are therefore opposite in sign.) Here we demonstrate just
this effect, taking care to ensure that the electron-hole pairs dominate the
transport and that tunneling of charge between the layers is negligible.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Reversing non-local transport through a superconductor by electromagnetic excitations
Superconductors connected to normal metallic electrodes at the nanoscale
provide a potential source of non-locally entangled electron pairs. Such states
would arise from Cooper pairs splitting into two electrons with opposite spins
tunnelling into different leads. In an actual system the detection of these
processes is hindered by the elastic transmission of individual electrons
between the leads, yielding an opposite contribution to the non-local
conductance. Here we show that electromagnetic excitations on the
superconductor can play an important role in altering the balance between these
two processes, leading to a dominance of one upon the other depending on the
spatial symmetry of these excitations. These findings allow to understand some
intriguing recent experimental results and open the possibility to control
non-local transport through a superconductor by an appropriate design of the
experimental geometry.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
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Chromatin dysregulation and DNA methylation at transcription start sites associated with transcriptional repression in cancers.
Although promoter-associated CpG islands have been established as targets of DNA methylation changes in cancer, previous studies suggest that epigenetic dysregulation outside the promoter region may be more closely associated with transcriptional changes. Here we examine DNA methylation, chromatin marks, and transcriptional alterations to define the relationship between transcriptional modulation and spatial changes in chromatin structure. Using human papillomavirus-related oropharyngeal carcinoma as a model, we show aberrant enrichment of repressive H3K9me3 at the transcriptional start site (TSS) with methylation-associated, tumor-specific gene silencing. Further analysis identifies a hypermethylated subtype which shows a functional convergence on MYC targets and association with CREBBP/EP300 mutation. The tumor-specific shift to transcriptional repression associated with DNA methylation at TSSs was confirmed in multiple tumor types. Our data may show a common underlying epigenetic dysregulation in cancer associated with broad enrichment of repressive chromatin marks and aberrant DNA hypermethylation at TSSs in combination with MYC network activation
Spin and valley quantum Hall ferromagnetism in graphene
In a graphene Landau level (LL), strong Coulomb interactions and the fourfold
spin/valley degeneracy lead to an approximate SU(4) isospin symmetry. At
partial filling, exchange interactions can spontaneously break this symmetry,
manifesting as additional integer quantum Hall plateaus outside the normal
sequence. Here we report the observation of a large number of these quantum
Hall isospin ferromagnetic (QHIFM) states, which we classify according to their
real spin structure using temperature-dependent tilted field magnetotransport.
The large measured activation gaps confirm the Coulomb origin of the broken
symmetry states, but the order is strongly dependent on LL index. In the high
energy LLs, the Zeeman effect is the dominant aligning field, leading to real
spin ferromagnets with Skyrmionic excitations at half filling, whereas in the
`relativistic' zero energy LL, lattice scale anisotropies drive the system to a
spin unpolarized state, likely a charge- or spin-density wave.Comment: Supplementary information available at http://pico.phys.columbia.ed
Non-Equilibrium Edge Channel Spectroscopy in the Integer Quantum Hall Regime
Heat transport has large potentialities to unveil new physics in mesoscopic
systems. A striking illustration is the integer quantum Hall regime, where the
robustness of Hall currents limits information accessible from charge
transport. Consequently, the gapless edge excitations are incompletely
understood. The effective edge states theory describes them as prototypal
one-dimensional chiral fermions - a simple picture that explains a large body
of observations and calls for quantum information experiments with quantum
point contacts in the role of beam splitters. However, it is in ostensible
disagreement with the prevailing theoretical framework that predicts, in most
situations, additional gapless edge modes. Here, we present a setup which gives
access to the energy distribution, and consequently to the energy current, in
an edge channel brought out-of-equilibrium. This provides a stringent test of
whether the additional states capture part of the injected energy. Our results
show it is not the case and thereby demonstrate regarding energy transport, the
quantum optics analogy of quantum point contacts and beam splitters. Beyond the
quantum Hall regime, this novel spectroscopy technique opens a new window for
heat transport and out-of-equilibrium experiments.Comment: 13 pages including supplementary information, Nature Physics in prin
Melting of a 2D Quantum Electron Solid in High Magnetic Field
The melting temperature () of a solid is generally determined by the
pressure applied to it, or indirectly by its density () through the equation
of state. This remains true even for helium solids\cite{wilk:67}, where quantum
effects often lead to unusual properties\cite{ekim:04}. In this letter we
present experimental evidence to show that for a two dimensional (2D) solid
formed by electrons in a semiconductor sample under a strong perpendicular
magnetic field\cite{shay:97} (), the is not controlled by , but
effectively by the \textit{quantum correlation} between the electrons through
the Landau level filling factor =. Such melting behavior, different
from that of all other known solids (including a classical 2D electron solid at
zero magnetic field\cite{grim:79}), attests to the quantum nature of the
magnetic field induced electron solid. Moreover, we found the to increase
with the strength of the sample-dependent disorder that pins the electron
solid.Comment: Some typos corrected and 2 references added. Final version with minor
editoriol revisions published in Nature Physic
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Publisher Correction: Chromatin dysregulation and DNA methylation at transcription start sites associated with transcriptional repression in cancers.
The original version of this Article contained an error in the author affiliations. Trey Ideker was incorrectly associated with 'Department of Medicine (Oncology), Stanford University School of Medicine, 875 Blake Wilbur Dr, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA.' This has now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article
Tunable symmetry breaking and helical edge transport in a graphene quantum spin Hall state
Low-dimensional electronic systems have traditionally been obtained by electrostatically confining electrons, either in heterostructures or in intrinsically nanoscale materials such as single molecules, nanowires and graphene. Recently, a new method has emerged with the recognition that symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases1, 2, which occur in systems with an energy gap to quasiparticle excitations (such as insulators or superconductors), can host robust surface states that remain gapless as long as the relevant global symmetry remains unbroken. The nature of the charge carriers in SPT surface states is intimately tied to the symmetry of the bulk, resulting in one- and two-dimensional electronic systems with novel properties. For example, time reversal symmetry endows the massless charge carriers on the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator with helicity, fixing the orientation of their spin relative to their momentum3, 4. Weakly breaking this symmetry generates a gap on the surface5, resulting in charge carriers with finite effective mass and exotic spin textures6. Analogous manipulations have yet to be demonstrated in two-dimensional topological insulators, where the primary example of a SPT phase is the quantum spin Hall state7, 8. Here we demonstrate experimentally that charge-neutral monolayer graphene has a quantum spin Hall state9, 10 when it is subjected to a very large magnetic field angled with respect to the graphene plane. In contrast to time-reversal-symmetric systems7, this state is protected by a symmetry of planar spin rotations that emerges as electron spins in a half-filled Landau level are polarized by the large magnetic field. The properties of the resulting helical edge states can be modulated by balancing the applied field against an intrinsic antiferromagnetic instability11, 12, 13, which tends to spontaneously break the spin-rotation symmetry. In the resulting canted antiferromagnetic state, we observe transport signatures of gapped edge states, which constitute a new kind of one-dimensional electronic system with a tunable bandgap and an associated spin texture.United States. Dept. of Energy (Office of Science, BES Program, contract no. FG02-08ER46514)Gordon and Betty Moore FoundationGordon and Betty Moore Foundation (grant GBMF2931)United States. Dept. of Energy (Office of Science, BES Office, BES Office, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, under award DE-SC0001819)Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Pappalardo Fellowship in Physics
Properties of Graphene: A Theoretical Perspective
In this review, we provide an in-depth description of the physics of
monolayer and bilayer graphene from a theorist's perspective. We discuss the
physical properties of graphene in an external magnetic field, reflecting the
chiral nature of the quasiparticles near the Dirac point with a Landau level at
zero energy. We address the unique integer quantum Hall effects, the role of
electron correlations, and the recent observation of the fractional quantum
Hall effect in the monolayer graphene. The quantum Hall effect in bilayer
graphene is fundamentally different from that of a monolayer, reflecting the
unique band structure of this system. The theory of transport in the absence of
an external magnetic field is discussed in detail, along with the role of
disorder studied in various theoretical models. We highlight the differences
and similarities between monolayer and bilayer graphene, and focus on
thermodynamic properties such as the compressibility, the plasmon spectra, the
weak localization correction, quantum Hall effect, and optical properties.
Confinement of electrons in graphene is nontrivial due to Klein tunneling. We
review various theoretical and experimental studies of quantum confined
structures made from graphene. The band structure of graphene nanoribbons and
the role of the sublattice symmetry, edge geometry and the size of the
nanoribbon on the electronic and magnetic properties are very active areas of
research, and a detailed review of these topics is presented. Also, the effects
of substrate interactions, adsorbed atoms, lattice defects and doping on the
band structure of finite-sized graphene systems are discussed. We also include
a brief description of graphane -- gapped material obtained from graphene by
attaching hydrogen atoms to each carbon atom in the lattice.Comment: 189 pages. submitted in Advances in Physic
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