Novel Properties of Frustrated Low Dimensional Magnets with Pentagonal Symmetry

In the context of magnetism, frustration arises when a group of spins cannot find a configuration that minimizes all of their pairwise interactions simultaneously. We consider the effects of the geometric frustration that arises in a structure having pentagonal loops. Such five-fold loops can be expected to occur naturally in quasicrystals, as seen for example in a number of experimental studies of surfaces of icosahedral alloys. Our model considers classical vector spins placed on vertices of a subtiling of the two dimensional Penrose tiling, and interacting with nearest neighbors via antiferromagnetic bonds. We give a set of recursion relations for this system, which consists of an infinite set of embedded clusters with sizes that increase as a power of the golden mean. The magnetic ground states of this fractal system are studied analytically, and by Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, contribution to ICQ11 (Sapporo, Japan 2010) conference proceeding

Contribution of Unresolved Point Sources to the Diffuse X-ray Background below 1 keV

We present here the analysis of X-rays point sources detected in several observations available in the XMM-Newton public archive. We focused, in particular, on energies below 1 keV, which are of particular relevance to the understanding of the Diffuse X-ray Background. The average field of all the exposures is 0.09 deg^-2. We reached an average flux sensitivity of 5.8x10^-16 erg s^-1 cm^-2 in the soft band (0.5-2.0 keV) and 2.5x10^-16 erg s^-1 cm^-2 in the very soft band (0.4-0.6 keV). In this paper we discuss the logN-logS results, the contribution to the integrated X-ray sky flux, and the properties of the cumulative spectrum from all sources. In particular, we found an excess flux at around 0.5 keV in the composite spectrum of faint sources. The excess seems to be a general property of all the fields observed suggesting an additional class of weak sources is contributing to the X-ray emission at these energies. Combining our results with previous investigations we have also quantified the contribution of the individual components of the diffuse X-ray Background in the 3/4 keV band.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 27 pages, 8 figure

The plaquette phase of the square lattice quantum dimer model

The plaquette phase of the square lattice quantum dimer model is studied using a continuous-time reptation quantum Monte Carlo method for lattices of sizes up to 48x48 sites. We determine the location of the phase transition between the columnar and plaquette phases to occur at V_c/J=0.60 +- 0.05 which is significantly larger than inferred from previous exact diagonalization studies on smaller lattices. Offdiagonal correlation functions are obtained. They exhibit long-range order in the plaquette phase but not at the Rokhsar-Kivelson point. We also observe significant finite-size corrections to scaling for the transition between the plaquette phase and the critical resonating valence bond liquid. This study demonstrates the importance of understanding finite-size effects when considering critical properties of the square lattice quantum dimer model.Comment: 10 pages, 18 figures, considerably revised versio

Penrose Matching Rules from Realistic Potentials in a Model System

We exhibit a toy model of a binary decagonal Al-Co quasicrystal -- closely related to actual structures -- in which realistic pair potentials yield a ground state which appears to perfectly implement Penrose's matching rules, for Hexagon-Boat-Star (HBS) tiles of edge 2.45 A. The second minimum of the potentials is crucial for this result.Comment: 7 pp, 2 figures; proc. "Quasicrystals: Silver Jubilee" (Tel Aviv, 2007), Phil. Mag. in pres

Determination of flavor asymmetry for Σ±\Sigma^{\pm} by the Drell-Yan process

Flavor asymmetries for the valence and sea quarks of the $\Sigma^{\pm}$ can be obtained from Drell-Yan experiments using charged hyperon beams on proton and deuteron targets. A large, measurable difference in sea quark asymmetries is predicted between SU(3) and pseudoscalar meson models. The latter predict that in $\Sigma^{+}$, $\bar{u}/\bar{d} \leq 1/2$, whereas the former predict $\bar{u}/\bar{d} \approx 4/3$. Estimates of valence quark asymmetries based on quark models also show large deviations from SU(3) predictions, which should be measurable.Comment: 15 pages, latex. Figures available from [email protected]. To be published in Phys. Lett.

Omega Meson Cloud and the Proton's Light Anti-Quark Distribution

We use the meson cloud model of the nucleon to calculate distribution functions for $(\bar {d} - \bar{u})$ and $\bar{d}/\bar{u}$ in the proton. Including the effect of the omega meson cloud, with a coupling constant $g_\omega^2/4\pi\approx 8$, allows a reasonably good description of the data.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, LaTe

Compact z=2z=2 Electrodynamics in 2+1 dimensions: Confinement with gapless modes

We consider 2+1 dimensional compact U(1) gauge theory at the Lifshitz point with dynamical critical exponent $z=2$. As in the usual $z=1$ theory, monopoles proliferate the vacuum for any value of the coupling, generating a mass scale. The theory of the dilute monopole gas is written in terms a non-relativistic Sine-Gordon model with two real fields. While monopoles remove some of the massless poles of the perturbative field strength propagator, a gapless mode representing the incomplete screening of monopoles remains, and is protected by a shift invariance of the original theory. Timelike Wilson loops still obey area laws, implying that minimal charges are confined, but the action of spacelike Wilson loops of linear size L goes instead as $L^3$.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX. Some equations simplified. Version to appear in Physical Review Letter

Method of fabricating an object with a thin wall having a precisely shaped slit

A method is described for making a structure with a cavity and a thin wall with a precisely shaped slit. An object with a cavity having two openings, one of which is to be closed by a thin wall with a slit, is placed on the surface of a fixture. The fixture surface has a slot conforming to the size and shape of the slit to be formed in the thin wall