7,319 research outputs found
Vortex-boson duality in four space-time dimensions
A continuum version of the vortex-boson duality in (3+1) dimensions is
formulated and its implications studied in the context of a pair Wigner crystal
in underdoped cuprate superconductors. The dual theory to a phase fluctuating
superconductor (or superfluid) is shown to be a theory of bosonic strings
interacting through a Kalb-Ramond rank-2 tensorial gauge field. String
condensation produces Higgs mass for the gauge field and the expected Wigner
crystal emerges as an interesting space-time analog of the Abrikosov lattice.Comment: 4 pages REVTeX; for related work and info visit
http://www.physics.ubc.ca/~fran
Implications of Constraints on Mass Parameters in the Higgs Sector of the Nonlinear Supersymmetric SU(5) Model
The Higgs sector of the minimal nonlinear supersymmetric SU(5) model contains
three mass parameters. Although these mass parameters are essentially free at
the electroweak scale, they might have particular values if they evolve from a
particular constraints at the GUT scale through the RG equations. By assuming a
number of simple constraints on these mass parameters at the GUT scale, we
obtain their values at the electroweak scale through the RG equations in order
to investigate the phenomenological implications. Some of them are found to be
consistent with the present experimental data.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure
Magnetic field induced charge and spin instabilities in cuprate superconductors
A d-wave superconductor, subject to strong phase fluctuations, is known to
suffer an antiferromagnetic instability closely related to the chiral symmetry
breaking in (2+1)-dimensional quantum electrodynamics (QED3). On the basis of
this idea we formulate a "QED3 in a box" theory of local instabilities of a
d-wave superconductor in the vicinity of a single pinned vortex undergoing
quantum fluctuations around its equilibrium position. As a generic outcome we
find an incommensurate 2D spin density wave forming in the neighborhood of a
vortex with a concomitant "checkerboard" pattern in the local electronic
density of states, in agreement with recent neutron scattering and tunneling
spectroscopy measurements.Comment: 4 pages REVTeX + 2 PostScript figures included in text. Version to
appear in PRL (minor stylistic changes, references updated). For related work
and info visit http://www.physics.ubc.ca/~fran
Distributions of inherent structure energies during aging
We perform extensive simulations of a binary mixture Lennard-Jones system
subjected to a temperature jump in order to study the time evolution of
fluctuations during aging. Analyzing data from 1500 different aging
realizations, we calculate distributions of inherent structure energies for
different aging times and contrast them with equilibrium. We find that the
distributions initially become narrower and then widen as the system
equilibrates. For deep quenches, fluctuations in the glassy system differ
significantly from those observed in equilibrium. Simulation results are
partially captured by theoretical predictions only when the final temperature
is higher than the mode coupling temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Center-surround filters emerge from optimizing predictivity in a free-viewing task
In which way do the local image statistics at the center of gaze differ from those at randomly chosen image locations? In 1999, Reinagel and Zador [1] showed that RMS contrast is significantly increased around fixated locations in natural images. Since then, numerous additional hypotheses have been proposed, based on edge content, entropy, self-information, higher-order statistics, or sophisticated models such as that of Itti and Koch [2]. While these models are rather different in terms of the used image features, they hardly differ in terms of their predictive power. This complicates the question of which bottom-up mechanism actually drives human eye movements. To shed some light on this problem, we analyze the nonlinear receptive fields of an eye movement model which is purely data-driven. It consists of a nonparametric radial basis function network, fitted to human eye movement data. To avoid a bias towards specific image features such as edges or corners, we deliberately chose raw pixel values as the input to our model, not the outputs of some filter bank. The learned model is analyzed by computing its optimal stimuli. It turns our that there are two maximally excitatory stimuli, both of which have center-surround structure, and two maximally inhibitory stimuli which are basically flat. We argue that these can be seen as nonlinear receptive fields of the underlying system. In particular, we show that a small radial basis function network with the optimal stimuli as centers predicts unseen eye movements as precisely as the full model. The fact that center-surround filters emerge from a simple optimality criterion—without any prior assumption that would make them more probable than e.g. edges, corners, or any other configuration of pixels values in a square patch—suggests a special role of these filters in free-viewing of natural images
Relativistic Coulomb Problem: Analytic Upper Bounds on Energy Levels
The spinless relativistic Coulomb problem is the bound-state problem for the
spinless Salpeter equation (a standard approximation to the Bethe--Salpeter
formalism as well as the most simple generalization of the nonrelativistic
Schr\"odinger formalism towards incorporation of relativistic effects) with the
Coulomb interaction potential (the static limit of the exchange of some
massless bosons, as present in unbroken gauge theories). The nonlocal nature of
the Hamiltonian encountered here, however, renders extremely difficult to
obtain rigorous analytic statements on the corresponding solutions. In view of
this rather unsatisfactory state of affairs, we derive (sets of) analytic upper
bounds on the involved energy eigenvalues.Comment: 12 pages, LaTe
Duality and the vibrational modes of a Cooper-pair Wigner crystal
When quantum fluctuations in the phase of the superconducting order parameter
destroy the off-diagonal long range order, duality arguments predict the
formation of a Cooper pair crystal. This effect is thought to be responsible
for the static checkerboard patterns observed recently in various underdoped
cuprate superconductors by means of scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Breaking
of the translational symmetry in such a Cooper pair Wigner crystal may, under
certain conditions, lead to the emergence of low lying transverse vibrational
modes which could then contribute to thermodynamic and transport properties at
low temperatures. We investigate these vibrational modes using a continuum
version of the standard vortex-boson duality, calculate the speed of sound in
the Cooper pair Wigner crystal and deduce the associated specific heat and
thermal conductivity. We then suggest that these modes could be responsible for
the mysterious bosonic contribution to the thermal conductivity recently
observed in strongly underdoped ultraclean single crystals of YBCO tuned across
the superconductor-insulator transition.Comment: 14 pages; 3 figures; corrected the sample size value; version 3 to
appear in PR
Large sulfur isotope fractionations in Martian sediments at Gale crater
Variability in the sulfur isotopic composition in sediments can reflect atmospheric, geologic and biological processes. Evidence for ancient fluvio-lacustrine environments at Gale crater on Mars and a lack of efficient crustal recycling mechanisms on the planet suggests a surface environment that was once warm enough to allow the presence of liquid water, at least for discrete periods of time, and implies a greenhouse effect that may have been influenced by sulfur-bearing volcanic gases. Here we report in situ analyses of the sulfur isotopic compositions of SO_2 volatilized from ten sediment samples acquired by NASA’s Curiosity rover along a 13 km traverse of Gale crater. We find large variations in sulfur isotopic composition that exceed those measured for Martian meteorites and show both depletion and enrichment in ^(34)S. Measured values of δ^(34)S range from −47 ± 14‰ to 28 ± 7‰, similar to the range typical of terrestrial environments. Although limited geochronological constraints on the stratigraphy traversed by Curiosity are available, we propose that the observed sulfur isotopic signatures at Gale crater can be explained by equilibrium fractionation between sulfate and sulfide in an impact-driven hydrothermal system and atmospheric processing of sulfur-bearing gases during transient warm periods
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