Speed of Sound in the Mass Varying Neutrinos Scenario

We discuss about the speed of sound squared in the Mass Varying Neutrinos scenario (MaVaNs). Recently, it was argued that the MaVaNs has a catastrophic instability which is the emergence of an imaginary speed of sound at the non-relativistic limit of neutrinos. As the result of this instability, the neutrino-acceleron fluid cannot act as the dark energy. However, it is found that the speed of sound squared in the neutrino-acceleron fluid could be positive in our model. We examine the speed of sound in two cases of the scalar potential. One is the small fractional power-law potential and another is the logarithmic one. The power-law potential model with the right-handed neutrinos gives a stable one.Comment: 17 pages, References added, minor modification

Fractional Quantum Hall Effect of Hard-Core Bosons in Topological Flat Bands

Recent proposals of topological flat band (TFB) models have provided a new route to realize the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) without Landau levels. We study hard-core bosons with short-range interactions in two representative TFB models, one of which is the well known Haldane model (but with different parameters). We demonstrate that FQHE states emerge with signatures of even number of quasi-degenerate ground states on a torus and a robust spectrum gap separating these states from higher energy spectrum. We also establish quantum phase diagrams for the filling factor 1/2 and illustrate quantum phase transitions to other competing symmetry-breaking phases.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Grand unification in the minimal left-right symmetric extension of the standard model

The simplest minimal left-right symmetric extension of the standard model is studied in the high energy limit, and some consequences of the grand unification hypothesis are explored assuming that the parity breaking scale is the only relevant energy between the electro-weak scale and the unification point. While the model is shown to be compatible with the observed neutrino phenomenology, the parity breaking scale and the heavy boson masses are predicted to be above 10^7 TeV, quite far from the reach of nowadays experiments. Below that scale only an almost sterile right handed neutrino is allowed with a mass M \approx 100 TeV

Dust aerosol impact on North Africa climate: a GCM investigation of aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions using A-Train satellite data

The climatic effects of dust aerosols in North Africa have been investigated using the atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) developed at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The model includes an efficient and physically based radiation parameterization scheme developed specifically for application to clouds and aerosols. Parameterization of the effective ice particle size in association with the aerosol first indirect effect based on ice cloud and aerosol data retrieved from A-Train satellite observations have been employed in climate model simulations. Offline simulations reveal that the direct solar, IR, and net forcings by dust aerosols at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) generally increase with increasing aerosol optical depth. When the dust semi-direct effect is included with the presence of ice clouds, positive IR radiative forcing is enhanced since ice clouds trap substantial IR radiation, while the positive solar forcing with dust aerosols alone has been changed to negative values due to the strong reflection of solar radiation by clouds, indicating that cloud forcing associated with aerosol semi-direct effect could exceed direct aerosol forcing. With the aerosol first indirect effect, the net cloud forcing is generally reduced in the case for an ice water path (IWP) larger than 20 g m<sup>−2</sup>. The magnitude of the reduction increases with IWP. <br><br> AGCM simulations show that the reduced ice crystal mean effective size due to the aerosol first indirect effect results in less OLR and net solar flux at TOA over the cloudy area of the North Africa region because ice clouds with smaller size trap more IR radiation and reflect more solar radiation. The precipitation in the same area, however, increases due to the aerosol indirect effect on ice clouds, corresponding to the enhanced convection as indicated by reduced OLR. Adding the aerosol direct effect into the model simulation reduces the precipitation in the normal rainfall band over North Africa, where precipitation is shifted to the south and the northeast produced by the absorption of sunlight and the subsequent heating of the air column by dust particles. As a result, rainfall is drawn further inland to the northeast. This study represents the first attempt to quantify the climate impact of the aerosol indirect effect using a GCM in connection with A-Train satellite data. The parameterization for the aerosol first indirect effect developed in this study can be readily employed for application to other GCMs

Trapped interacting two-component bosons

In this paper we solve one dimensional trapped SU(2) bosons with repulsive $\delta$-function interaction by means of Bethe-ansatz method. The features of ground state and low-lying excited states are studied by numerical and analytic methods. We show that the ground state is an isospin "ferromagnetic" state which differs from spin-1/2 fermions system. There exist three quasi-particles in the excitation spectra, and both holon-antiholon and holon-isospinon excitations are gapless for large systems. The thermodynamics equilibrium of the system at finite temperature is studied by thermodynamic Bethe ansatz. The thermodynamic quantities, such as specific heat etc. are obtained for the case of strong coupling limit.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Observation of ferromagnetism above 900 K in Cr-GaN and Cr-AlN

We report the observation of ferromagnetism at over 900K in Cr-GaN and Cr-AlN thin films. The saturation magnetization moments in our best films of Cr-GaN and Cr-AlN at low temperatures are 0.42 and 0.6 u_B/Cr atom, respectively, indicating that 14% and 20%, of the Cr atoms, respectively, are magnetically active. While Cr-AlN is highly resistive, Cr-GaN exhibits thermally activated conduction that follows the exponential law expected for variable range hopping between localized states. Hall measurements on a Cr-GaN sample indicate a mobility of 0.06 cm^2/V.s, which falls in the range characteristic of hopping conduction, and a free carrier density (1.4E20/cm^3), which is similar in magnitude to the measured magnetically-active Cr concentration (4.9E19/cm^3). A large negative magnetoresistance is attributed to scattering from loose spins associated with non-ferromagnetic impurities. The results indicate that ferromagnetism in Cr-GaN and Cr-AlN can be attributed to the double exchange mechanism as a result of hopping between near-midgap substitutional Cr impurity bands.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, submitted to AP

Thermodynamics of the half-filled Kondo lattice model around the atomic limit

We present a perturbation theory for studying thermodynamic properties of the Kondo spin liquid phase of the half-filled Kondo lattice model. The grand partition function is derived to calculate chemical potential, spin and charge susceptibilities and specific heat. The treatment is applicable to the model with strong couplings in any dimensions (one, two and three dimensions). The chemical potential equals zero at any temperatures, satisfying the requirement of the particle-hole symmetry. Thermally activated behaviors of the spin(charge) susceptibility due to the spin(quasiparticle) gap can be seen and the two-peak structure of the specific heat is obtained. The same treatment to the periodic Anderson model around atomic limit is also briefly discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Two-dimensional Superconductivity from Dimerization of Atomically Ordered AuTe2Se4/3 Cubes

The emergent phenomena such as superconductivity and topological phase transitions can be observed in strict two-dimensional crystalline matters. Artificial interfaces and one atomic thickness layers are typical 2D materials of this kind. Although having 2D characters, most bulky layered compounds, however, do not possess these striking properties. Here, we report the 2D superconductivity in bulky AuTe2Se4/3,where the reduction in dimensionality is achieved through inducing the elongated covalent Te-Te bonds. The atomic-resolution images reveal that the Au, Te and Se are atomically ordered in a cube, among which are Te-Te bonds of 3.18 A and 3.28 A. The superconductivity at 2.85 K is discovered, which is unraveled to be the quasi-2D nature owing to the BKT topological transition. The nesting of nearly parallel Fermi sheets could give rise to strong electron-phonon coupling. It is proposed to further depleting the thickness could result in more topologically-related phenomena.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures,To be published in Nature Communication

Relic Abundance of Asymmetric Dark Matter

We investigate the relic abundance of asymmetric Dark Matter particles that were in thermal equilibrium in the early universe. The standard analytic calculation of the symmetric Dark Matter is generalized to the asymmetric case. We calculate the asymmetry required to explain the observed Dark Matter relic abundance as a function of the annihilation cross section. We show that introducing an asymmetry always reduces the indirect detection signal from WIMP annihilation, although it has a larger annihilation cross section than symmetric Dark Matter. This opens new possibilities for the construction of realistic models of MeV Dark Matter.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, Accepted by JCA