5,019 research outputs found
Epitaxial strain effects in the spinel ferrites CoFe2O4 and NiFe2O4 from first principles
The inverse spinels CoFe2O4 and NiFe2O4, which have been of particular
interest over the past few years as building blocks of artificial multiferroic
heterostructures and as possible spin-filter materials, are investigated by
means of density functional theory calculations. We address the effect of
epitaxial strain on the magneto-crystalline anisotropy and show that, in
agreement with experimental observations, tensile strain favors perpendicular
anisotropy, whereas compressive strain favors in-plane orientation of the
magnetization. Our calculated magnetostriction constants of
about -220 ppm for CoFe2O4 and -45 ppm for NiFe2O4 agree well with available
experimental data. We analyze the effect of different cation arrangements used
to represent the inverse spinel structure and show that both LSDA+U and GGA+U
allow for a good quantitative description of these materials. Our results open
the way for further computational investigations of spinel ferrites
Signature of frustrated moments in quantum critical CePdNiAl
CePdAl with Ce moments forming a distorted kagom\'e network is one of
the scarce materials exhibiting Kondo physics and magnetic frustration
simultaneously. As a result, antiferromagnetic (AF) order setting in at
~K encompasses only two thirds of the Ce moments. We
report measurements of the specific heat, , and the magnetic Gr\"uneisen
parameter, , on single crystals of CePdNiAl with
at temperatures down to 0.05~K and magnetic fields up to
~T. Field-induced quantum criticality for various concentrations is observed
with the critical field decreasing to zero at . Remarkably,
two-dimensional (2D) AF quantum criticality of Hertz-Millis-Moriya type arises
for and at the suppression of 3D magnetic order. Furthermore,
shows an additional contribution near ~T for all
concentrations which is ascribed to correlations of the frustrated one third of
Ce moments.Comment: 5+2 pages with 4+3 figure
Optical absorption of non-interacting tight-binding electrons in a Peierls-distorted chain at half band-filling
In this first of three articles on the optical absorption of electrons in
half-filled Peierls-distorted chains we present analytical results for
non-interacting tight-binding electrons. We carefully derive explicit
expressions for the current operator, the dipole transition matrix elements,
and the optical absorption for electrons with a cosine dispersion relation of
band width and dimerization parameter . New correction
(``''-)terms to the current operator are identified. A broad band-to-band
transition is found in the frequency range whose shape
is determined by the joint density of states for the upper and lower Peierls
subbands and the strong momentum dependence of the transition matrix elements.Comment: 17 pages REVTEX 3.0, 2 postscript figures; hardcopy versions before
May 96 are obsolete; accepted for publication in The Philosophical Magazine
Magnetic and structural quantum phase transitions in CeCu6-xAux are independent
The heavy-fermion compound CeCuAu has become a model system for
unconventional magnetic quantum criticality. For small Au concentrations , the compound undergoes a structural transition from
orthorhombic to monoclinic crystal symmetry at a temperature with
for . Antiferromagnetic order sets in
close to . To shed light on the interplay between quantum
critical magnetic and structural fluctuations we performed neutron-scattering
and thermodynamic measurements on samples with . The
resulting phase diagram shows that the antiferromagnetic and monoclinic phase
coexist in a tiny Au concentration range between and . The
application of hydrostatic and chemical pressure allows to clearly separate the
transitions from each other and to explore a possible effect of the structural
transition on the magnetic quantum critical behavior. Our measurements
demonstrate that at low temperatures the unconventional quantum criticality
exclusively arises from magnetic fluctuations and is not affected by the
monoclinic distortion.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
The long noncoding RNA neuroLNC regulates presynaptic activity by interacting with the neurodegeneration-associated protein TDP-43
The cellular and the molecular mechanisms by which long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) may regulate presynaptic function and neuronal activity are largely unexplored. Here, we established an integrated screening strategy to discover lncRNAs implicated in neurotransmitter and synaptic vesicle release. With this approach, we identified neuroLNC, a neuron-specific nuclear lncRNA conserved from rodents to humans. NeuroLNC is tuned by synaptic activity and influences several other essential aspects of neuronal development including calcium influx, neuritogenesis, and neuronal migration in vivo. We defined the molecular interactors of neuroLNC in detail using chromatin isolation by RNA purification, RNA interactome analysis, and protein mass spectrometry. We found that the effects of neuroLNC on synaptic vesicle release require interaction with the RNA-binding protein TDP-43 (TAR DNA binding protein-43) and the selective stabilization of mRNAs encoding for presynaptic proteins. These results provide the first proof of an lncRNA that orchestrates neuronal excitability by influencing presynaptic function
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