185 research outputs found
Design requirements for laminar airflow clean rooms and devices
Laminar airflow and airborne contamination control concepts with clean room specifications and laminar flow facility design
Quantum phase transition of Ising-coupled Kondo impurities
We investigate a model of two Kondo impurities coupled via an Ising
interaction. Exploiting the mapping to a generalized single-impurity Anderson
model, we establish that the model has a singlet and a (pseudospin) doublet
phase separated by a Kosterlitz-Thouless quantum phase transition. Based on a
strong-coupling analysis and renormalization group arguments, we show that at
this transition the conductance G through the system either displays a
zero-bias anomaly, G ~ |V|^{-2(\sqrt{2}-1)}, or takes a universal value, G =
e^2/(\pi\hbar) cos^2[\pi/(2\sqrt{2})], depending on the experimental setup.
Close to the Toulouse point of the individual Kondo impurities, the
strong-coupling analysis allows to obtain the location of the phase boundary
analytically. For general model parameters, we determine the phase diagram and
investigate the thermodynamics using numerical renormalization group
calculations. In the singlet phase close to the quantum phase transtion, the
entropy is quenched in two steps: first the two Ising-coupled spins form a
magnetic mini-domain which is, in a second step, screened by a Kondoesque
collective resonance in an effective solitonic Fermi sea. In addition, we
present a flow equation analysis which provides a different mapping of the
two-impurity model to a generalized single-impurity Anderson model in terms of
fully renormalized couplings, which is applicable for the whole range of model
parameters.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figs; (v2) minor changes, flow equation section extende
Propagation dynamics of spin excitations along skyrmion strings
Magnetic skyrmions, topological solitons characterized by a two-dimensional swirling spin texture, have recently attracted attention as stable particle-like objects. In a three-dimensional system, a skyrmion can extend in the third dimension forming a robust and flexible string structure, whose unique topology and symmetry are anticipated to host nontrivial functional responses. Here we experimentally demonstrate the coherent propagation of spin excitations along skyrmion strings for the chiral-lattice magnet CuOSeO. We find that this propagation is directionally non-reciprocal and the degree of non-reciprocity, as well as group velocity and decay length, are strongly dependent on the character of the excitation modes. These spin excitations can propagate over a distance exceeding 50 μm, demonstrating the excellent long-range ordered nature of the skyrmion-string structure. Our combined experimental and theoretical analyses offer a comprehensive account of the propagation dynamics of skyrmion-string excitations and suggest the possibility of unidirectional information transfer along such topologically protected strings
Thermal Conductivity of Spin-1/2 Chains
We study the low-temperature transport properties of clean one-dimensional
spin-1/2 chains coupled to phonons. Due to the presence of approximate
conservation laws, the heat current decays very slowly giving rise to an
exponentially large heat conductivity, . As a result of an
interplay of Umklapp scattering and spinon-phonon coupling, the characteristic
energy scale turns out to be of order , where is
the Debye energy, rather than the magnetic exchange interaction -- in
agreement with recent measurements in SrCuO compounds. A large magnetic field
strongly affects the heat transport by two distinct mechanisms. First, it
induces a LINEAR spinon--phonon coupling, which alters the nature of the fixed point: the elementary excitations of the system are COMPOSITE
SPINON-PHONON objects. Second, the change of the magnetization and the
corresponding change of the wave vector of the spinons strongly affects the way
in which various Umklapp processes can relax the heat current, leading to a
characteristic fractal--like spiky behavior of when plotted as a
function of magnetization at fixed T.Comment: 16 pages, RevTex4, 2 figures included; revised refs. and some useful
comments on experimental relevance. On July 12 2005, added an appendix
correcting an error in the form of the phonon propagator. The main result is
unchange
Universal Resistances of the Quantum RC circuit
We examine the concept of universal quantized resistance in the AC regime
through the fully coherent quantum RC circuit comprising a cavity (dot)
capacitively coupled to a gate and connected via a single spin-polarized
channel to a reservoir lead. As a result of quantum effects such as the Coulomb
interaction in the cavity and global phase coherence, we show that the charge
relaxation resistance is identical for weak and large transmissions and
it changes from to when the frequency (times ) exceeds
the level spacing of the cavity; is the Planck constant and the
electron charge. For large cavities, we formulate a correspondence between the
charge relaxation resistance and the Korringa-Shiba relation of the
Kondo model. Furthermore, we introduce a general class of models, for which the
charge relaxation resistance is universal. Our results emphasize that the
charge relaxation resistance is a key observable to understand the dynamics of
strongly correlated systems.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
Quantum Criticality in Heavy Fermion Metals
Quantum criticality describes the collective fluctuations of matter
undergoing a second-order phase transition at zero temperature. Heavy fermion
metals have in recent years emerged as prototypical systems to study quantum
critical points. There have been considerable efforts, both experimental and
theoretical, which use these magnetic systems to address problems that are
central to the broad understanding of strongly correlated quantum matter. Here,
we summarize some of the basic issues, including i) the extent to which the
quantum criticality in heavy fermion metals goes beyond the standard theory of
order-parameter fluctuations, ii) the nature of the Kondo effect in the quantum
critical regime, iii) the non-Fermi liquid phenomena that accompany quantum
criticality, and iv) the interplay between quantum criticality and
unconventional superconductivity.Comment: (v2) 39 pages, 8 figures; shortened per the editorial mandate; to
appear in Nature Physics. (v1) 43 pages, 8 figures; Non-technical review
article, intended for general readers; the discussion part contains more
specialized topic
Idle hands are the devil’s tools: The geopolitics and geoeconomics of hunger
In current geopolitical and geoeconomic discourses, hunger is understood as both a threat to be contained, resulting in an often severe social and spatial localization of food insecurity, and a humanitarian problem to be solved through diffuse global flows of food and other aid. The resulting scalar tensions demonstrate the potentially contradictory alignment of geopolitics and geoeconomics within processes of globalization and neoliberalization. This article examines the geopolitical and geoeconomic place of hunger and the hungry through a critical analysis of the food-for-work (FFW) approach to combating hunger. FFW programs distribute food aid in exchange for labor, and have long been used to plan and deliver food aid. While debate continues as to whether and under what conditions FFW programs are socially and economically just, governments, international institutions, and NGOs tout them as a flexible and efficient way to deliver targeted aid, promote community development, and improve long-term prospects for economic development and food security. In the post-9/11 period, FFW programs are also cited as effective deterrents to terrorist recruitment strategies, while development and food security more broadly have been incorporated into national security strategies, especially but not only in the United States. The food-for-work approach attempts to resolve the scalar contradictions of hunger through the imposition of a labor requirement that disciplines the threat of the hungry while enforcing global connection. Case studies of FFW programs in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Indonesia illustrate this contradiction, and highlight the development and possible future of approaches to hunger under neoliberal geopolitics
From thermal rectifiers to thermoelectric devices
We discuss thermal rectification and thermoelectric energy conversion from
the perspective of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and dynamical systems
theory. After preliminary considerations on the dynamical foundations of the
phenomenological Fourier law in classical and quantum mechanics, we illustrate
ways to control the phononic heat flow and design thermal diodes. Finally, we
consider the coupled transport of heat and charge and discuss several general
mechanisms for optimizing the figure of merit of thermoelectric efficiency.Comment: 42 pages, 22 figures, review paper, to appear in the Springer Lecture
Notes in Physics volume "Thermal transport in low dimensions: from
statistical physics to nanoscale heat transfer" (S. Lepri ed.
Transport anomaly in the low energy regime of spin chains
The anomalous thermal conductivity in spin chains observed in experiments is
studied for the low temperature regime. In the effective dynamics with most
realistic perturbations, the so-called Umklapp terms is irrelevant to reduce
mean free path in the energy transport at even finite temperatures. This is
consistent with large conductivities found in recent experiments. The Drude
weight which is the prefactor in the divergent conductivity is calculated, and
the temperature dependence is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, no figure. PRB, in pres
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