On the low energy properies of fermions with singular interactions

We calculate the fermion Green function and particle-hole susceptibilities for a degenerate two-dimensional fermion system with a singular gauge interaction. We show that this is a strong coupling problem, with no small parameter other than the fermion spin degeneracy, N. We consider two interactions, one arising in the context of the $t-J$ model and the other in the theory of half-filled Landau level. For the fermion self energy we show in contrast to previous claims that the qualitative behavior found in the leading order of perturbation theory is preserved to all orders in the interaction. The susceptibility $\chi_Q$ at a general wavevector $\bf{Q} \neq 2\bf{p_F}$ retains the fermi-liquid form. However the $2p_F$ susceptibility $\chi_{2p_F}$ either diverges as $T -> 0$ or remains finite but with nonanalytic wavevector, frequency and temperature dependence. We express our results in the language of recently discussed scaling theories, give the fixed-point action, and show that at this fixed point the fermion-gauge-field interaction is marginal in $d=2$, but irrelevant at low energies in $d \ge 2$.Comment: 21 pages, uuencoded LATEX file with included Postscript figures, R

Quasi-particle behavior of composite fermions in the half-filled Landau level

We calculate the effect of infrared fluctuations of the Chern-Simons gauge field on the single-particle Green's function of composite fermions in the half-filled Landau level via higher-dimensional bosonization on a curved Fermi surface. We find that composite fermions remain well-defined quasi-particles, with an effective mass given by the mean-field value, but with anomalously large damping and a spectral function that contains considerable weight away from the quasi-particle peak.Comment: reference added; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Impurity correlations in dilute Kondo alloys

The single impurity Kondo model is often used to describe metals with dilute concentrations (n_i) of magnetic impurities. Here we examine how dilute the impurities must be for this to be valid by developing a virial expansion in impurity density. The O(n_i^2) term is determined from results on the 2-impurity Kondo problem by averaging over the RKKY coupling. The non-trivial fixed point of the 2-impurity problem could produce novel singularities in the heat capacity of dilute alloys at O(n_i^2).Comment: 6 pages, no figure

Nonequilibrium relaxation of the two-dimensional Ising model: Series-expansion and Monte Carlo studies

We study the critical relaxation of the two-dimensional Ising model from a fully ordered configuration by series expansion in time t and by Monte Carlo simulation. Both the magnetization (m) and energy series are obtained up to 12-th order. An accurate estimate from series analysis for the dynamical critical exponent z is difficult but compatible with 2.2. We also use Monte Carlo simulation to determine an effective exponent, z_eff(t) = - {1/8} d ln t /d ln m, directly from a ratio of three-spin correlation to m. Extrapolation to t = infinity leads to an estimate z = 2.169 +/- 0.003.Comment: 9 pages including 2 figure

Specific heat and validity of quasiparticle approximation in the half-filled Landau level

We calculate the specific heat of composite fermion system in the half-filled Landau level. Two different methods are used to examine validity of the quasiparticle approximation when the two-body interaction is given by $V(q) = V_0 / q^{2-\eta}$ ($1 \le \eta \le 2$). The singular part of the specific heat is calculated from the free energy of the gauge field, which is compared with the specific heat calculated from the quasiparticle approximation via the singular self-energy correction due to the gauge field fluctuations. It turns out that two results are in general different and they coincide only for the case of the Coulomb interaction ($\eta = 1$). This result supports the fact that the quasiparticle approximation is valid only for the case of the Coulomb interaction. It is emphasized that this result is obtained by looking at a gauge-invariant quantity -- the specific heat.Comment: 8 pages, Revte

Influence of gauge-field fluctuations on composite fermions near the half-filled state

Taking into account the transverse gauge field fluctuations, which interact with composite fermions, we examine the finite temperature compressibility of the fermions as a function of an effective magnetic field $\Delta B = B - 2 n_e hc/e$ ($n_e$ is the density of electrons) near the half-filled state. It is shown that, after including the lowest order gauge field correction, the compressibility goes as ${\partial n \over \partial \mu} \propto e^{- \Delta \omega_c / 2 T} \left ( 1 + {A (\eta) \over \eta - 1} {(\Delta \omega_c)^{2 \over 1 + \eta} \over T} \right )$ for $T \ll \Delta \omega_c$, where $\Delta \omega_c = {e \Delta B \over mc}$. Here we assume that the interaction between the fermions is given by $v ({\bf q}) = V_0 / q^{2 - \eta} \ (1 \le \eta \le 2)$, where $A (\eta)$ is a $\eta$ dependent constant. This result can be interpreted as a divergent correction to the activation energy gap and is consistent with the divergent renormalization of the effective mass of the composite fermions.Comment: Plain Tex, 24 pages, 5 figures available upon reques

Effective Mass of Composite Fermions and Fermionic Chern-Simons Theory in Temporal Gauge

The definitions of the effective mass of the composite fermion are discussed for the half-filled Landau level problem. In a recent work, Shankar and Murthy show a finite effective mass of the composite fermion by a canonical transformation while the perturbative calculation gives the logarithmic divergence of the effective mass at the Fermi surface. We will emphasize that the different definition of the effective mass has the different physical processes. The finite one could be defined for any momentum of the composite fermion while the divergence only appears at the Fermi surface. We work with the standard Halperin-Lee-Read model but in the temporal gauge. The advantage of this gauge to be employed is that the finite effective mass could be calculated in the Hartree-Fock approximation. Furthermore, it is precisely equal to the result that Shankar and Murthy obtained which is well-fit with the numerical calculation from the ground state energy analysis and a semi-classical estimation. However, if we consider the random phase approximation, one sees that the divergence of the effective mass of the quasiparticle at the Fermi surface emerges again no matter that we work on the temporal or Coulomb gauges. We develop an effective theory where the finite effective mass serves as a `bare' effective mass and show that the same divergence of the RPA effective mass. On the other hand, the correct behavior of the response functions in the small band mass limit could be seen clearly in the temporal gauge since there is a self-interaction among the magnetoplasmons.Comment: 27 pages,6 eps figure

Quantum Oscillations of Electrons and of Composite Fermions in Two Dimensions: Beyond the Luttinger Expansion

Quantum oscillation phenomena, in conventional 2-dimensional electron systems and in the fractional quantum Hall effect, are usually treated in the Lifshitz-Kosevich formalism. This is justified in three dimensions by Luttinger's expansion, in the parameter $omega_c/\mu$. We show that in two dimensions this expansion breaks down, and derive a new expression, exact in the limit where rainbow graphs dominate the self-energy. Application of our results to the fractional quantum Hall effect near half-filling shows very strong deviations from Lifshitz-Kosevich behaviour. We expect that such deviations will be important in any strongly-interacting 2-dimensional electronic system.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, LaTe

Instantons and the spectral function of electrons in the half-filled Landau level

We calculate the instanton-anti-instanton action $S_{M {\bar M}} (\tau)$ in the gauge theory of the half-filled Landau level. It is found that $S_{M {\bar M}} (\tau) = (3 - \eta) \left [ \Omega_0 (\eta) \ \tau \right ]^{1 / (3 - \eta)}$ for a class of interactions $v ({\bf q}) = V_0 / q^{\eta} \ ( 0 \leq \eta < 2 )$ between electrons. This means that the instanton-anti-instanton pairs are confining so that a well defined `charged' composite fermion can exist. It is also shown that $S_{M {\bar M}} (\tau)$ can be used to calculate the spectral function of electrons from the microscopic theory within a semiclassical approximation. The resulting spectral function varies as $e^{ - \left [ \Omega_0 (\eta) / \omega \right ]^{1 / ( 2 - \eta ) } }$ at low energies.Comment: 13 pages, Plain Tex, MIT-CMT-APR-9

A sol-gel method for growing superconducting MgB2 films

In this paper we report a new sol-gel method for the fabrication of MgB2 films. Polycrystalline MgB2 films were prepared by spin-coating a precursor solution of Mg(BH_4)_2 diethyl ether on (001)Al2O3 substrates followed with annealing in Mg vapor. In comparison with the MgB2 films grown by other techniques, our films show medium qualities including a superconducting transition temperature of Tc ~ 37 K, a critical current density of Jc(5 K, 0 T) ~ 5 {\times} 10^6 A cm^{-2}, and a critical field of H_{c2}(0) ~ 19 T. Such a sol-gel technique shows potential in the commercial fabrication of practically used MgB2 films as well as MgB2 wires and tapes.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure