Topological Dirac states beyond π\pi orbitals for silicene on SiC(0001) surface

The discovery of intriguing properties related to the Dirac states in graphene has spurred huge interest in exploring its two-dimensional group-IV counterparts, such as silicene, germanene, and stanene. However, these materials have to be obtained via synthesizing on substrates with strong interfacial interactions, which usually destroy their intrinsic $\pi$($p_z$)-orbital Dirac states. Here we report a theoretical study on the existence of Dirac states arising from the $p_{x,y}$ orbitals instead of $p_z$ orbitals in silicene on 4H-SiC(0001), which survive in spite of the strong interfacial interactions. We also show that the exchange field together with the spin-orbital coupling give rise to a detectable band gap of 1.3 meV. Berry curvature calculations demonstrate the nontrivial topological nature of such Dirac states with a Chern number $C = 2$, presenting the potential of realizing quantum anomalous Hall effect for silicene on SiC(0001). Finally, we construct a minimal effective model to capture the low-energy physics of this system. This finding is expected to be also applicable to germanene and stanene, and imply great application potentials in nanoelectronics.Comment: 6 Figures , Accepted by Nano Letter

Meson Mass Decomposition

Hadron masses can be decomposed as a sum of components which are defined through hadronic matrix elements of QCD operators. The components consist of the quark mass term, the quark energy term, the glue energy term and the trace anomaly term. We calculate these components of mesons with lattice QCD for the first time. The calculation is carried out with overlap fermion on $2+1$ flavor domain-wall fermion gauge configurations. We confirm that $\sim 50\%$ of the light pion mass comes from the quark mass and $\sim 10\%$ comes from the quark energy, whereas, the contributions are found to be the other way around for the $\rho$ mass. The combined glue components contribute $\sim 40 - 50\%$ for both mesons. It is interesting to observe that the quark mass contribution to the mass of the vector meson is almost linear in quark mass over a large quark mass region below the charm quark mass. For heavy mesons, the quark mass term dominates the masses, while the contribution from the glue components is about $400\sim500$ MeV for the heavy pseudoscalar and vector mesons. The charmonium hyperfine splitting is found to be dominated by the quark energy term which is consistent with the quark potential model.Comment: 7 Pages, 4 figures, contribution to the 32nd International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2014), 23-28 June 2014, Columbia University, New York, NY, US

Open Design and 3D Printing of Face Shields: The Case Study of a UK-China Initiative

At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, many countries lacked personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect healthcare workers. To address this problem, open design and 3D printing technologies were adopted to provide much-in-need PPEs for key workers. This paper reports an initiative by designers and engineers in the UK and China. The case study approach and content analysis method were used to study the stakeholders, the design process, and other relevant issues such as regulation. Good practice and lessons were summarised, and suggestions for using distributed 3D printing to supply PPEs were made. It concludes that 3D printing has played an important role in producing PPEs when there was a shortage of supply, and distributed manufacturing has the potential to quickly respond to local small-bench production needs. In the future, clearer specification, better match of demands and supply, and quicker evaluation against relevant regulations will provide efficiency and quality assurance for 3D printed PPE supplies

A Lattice Study of (Dˉ1D∗)±(\bar{D}_1 D^{*})^\pm Near-threshold Scattering

In this exploratory lattice study, low-energy near threshold scattering of the $(\bar{D}_1 D^{*})^\pm$ meson system is analyzed using lattice QCD with $N_f=2$ twisted mass fermion configurations. Both s-wave ($J^P=0^-$) and p-wave ($J^P=1^+$) channels are investigated. It is found that the interaction between the two charmed mesons is attractive near the threshold in both channels. This calculation provides some hints in the searching of resonances or bound states around the threshold of $(\bar{D}_1 D^{*})^\pm$ system.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, matches the version on PR