14,970 research outputs found
Correcting 100 years of misunderstanding: electric fields in superconductors, hole superconductivity, and the Meissner effect
From the outset of superconductivity research it was assumed that no
electrostatic fields could exist inside superconductors, and this assumption
was incorporated into conventional London electrodynamics. Yet the London
brothers themselves initially (in 1935) had proposed an electrodynamic theory
of superconductors that allowed for static electric fields in their interior,
which they unfortunately discarded a year later. I argue that the Meissner
effect in superconductors necessitates the existence of an electrostatic field
in their interior, originating in the expulsion of negative charge from the
interior to the surface when a metal becomes superconducting. The theory of
hole superconductivity predicts this physics, and associated with it a
macroscopic spin current in the ground state of superconductors ("Spin Meissner
effect"), qualitatively different from what is predicted by conventional
BCS-London theory. A new London-like electrodynamic description of
superconductors is proposed to describe this physics. Within this theory
superconductivity is driven by lowering of quantum kinetic energy, the fact
that the Coulomb repulsion strongly depends on the character of the charge
carriers, namely whether electron- or hole-like, and the spin-orbit
interaction. The electron-phonon interaction does not play a significant role,
yet the existence of an isotope effect in many superconductors is easily
understood. In the strong coupling regime the theory appears to favor local
charge inhomogeneity. The theory is proposed to apply to all superconducting
materials, from the elements to the high cuprates and pnictides, is
highly falsifiable, and explains a wide variety of experimental observations.Comment: Proceedings of the conference "Quantum phenomena in complex matter
2011 - Stripes 2011", Rome, 10 July -16 July 2011, to be published in J.
Supercond. Nov. Mag
Quantum Monte Carlo and exact diagonalization study of a dynamic Hubbard model
A one-dimensional model of electrons locally coupled to spin-1/2 degrees of
freedom is studied by numerical techniques. The model is one in the class of
that describe the relaxation of an atomic orbital
upon double electron occupancy due to electron-electron interactions. We study
the parameter regime where pairing occurs in this model by exact
diagonalization of small clusters. World line quantum Monte Carlo simulations
support the results of exact diagonalization for larger systems and show that
kinetic energy is lowered when pairing occurs. The qualitative physics of this
model and others in its class, obtained through approximate analytic
calculations, is that superconductivity occurs through hole undressing even in
parameter regimes where the effective on-site interaction is strongly
repulsive. Our numerical results confirm the expected qualitative behavior, and
show that pairing will occur in a substantially larger parameter regime than
predicted by the approximate low energy effective Hamiltonian.Comment: Some changes made in response to referees comments. To be published
in Phys.Rev.
Enhancing with the -penguin
Lepton flavor violation (LFV) has been observed in neutrino oscillations. For
charged lepton FV decays only upper limits are known, but sizable branching
ratios are expected in many neutrino mass models. High scale models, such as
the classical supersymmetric seesaw, usually predict that decays are roughly a factor maller than the corresponding decays . Here we demonstrate that the -penguin diagram can give an
enhancement for decays in many extensions of the MSSM. We first
discuss why the -penguin is not dominant in the MSSM with seesaw and show
that much larger contributions from the -penguin are expected in general.
We then demonstrate the effect numerically in two example models, namely, the
supersymmetric inverse seesaw and R-parity violating supersymmetry.Comment: 5 pages; v2: minor corrections, final version to appear in PR
Predicted electric field near small superconducting ellipsoids
We predict the existence of large electric fields near the surface of
superconducting bodies of ellipsoidal shape of dimensions comparable to the
penetration depth. The electric field is quadrupolar in nature with significant
corrections from higher order multipoles. Prolate (oblate) superconducting
ellipsoids are predicted to exhibit fields consistent with negative (positive)
quadrupole moments, reflecting the fundamental charge asymmetry of matter.Comment: To be published in Phys.Rev.Let
Determining R-parity violating parameters from neutrino and LHC data
In supersymmetric models neutrino data can be explained by R-parity violating
operators which violate lepton number by one unit. The so called bilinear model
can account for the observed neutrino data and predicts at the same time
several decay properties of the lightest supersymmetric particle. In this paper
we discuss the expected precision to determine these parameters by combining
neutrino and LHC data and discuss the most important observables. We show that
one can expect a rather accurate determination of the underlying R-parity
parameters assuming mSUGRA relations between the R-parity conserving ones and
discuss briefly also the general MSSM as well as the expected accuracies in
case of a prospective e+ e- linear collider. An important observation is that
several parameters can only be determined up to relative signs or more
generally relative phases.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figure
Quasiparticle undressing in a dynamic Hubbard model: exact diagonalization study
Dynamic Hubbard models have been proposed as extensions of the conventional
Hubbard model to describe the orbital relaxation that occurs upon double
occupancy of an atomic orbital. These models give rise to pairing of holes and
superconductivity in certain parameter ranges. Here we explore the changes in
carrier effective mass and quasiparticle weight and in one- and two-particle
spectral functions that occur in a dynamic Hubbard model upon pairing, by exact
diagonalization of small systems. It is found that pairing is associated with
lowering of effective mass and increase of quasiparticle weight, manifested in
transfer of spectral weight from high to low frequencies in one- and
two-particle spectral functions. This 'undressing' phenomenology resembles
observations in transport, photoemission and optical experiments in high T_c
cuprates. This behavior is contrasted with that of a conventional electron-hole
symmetric Holstein-like model with attractive on-site interaction, where
pairing is associated with 'dressing' instead of 'undressing'
Modelling tri-bimaximal neutrino mixing
We model tri-bimaximal lepton mixing from first principles in a way that
avoids the problem of the vacuum alignment characteristic of such models. This
is achieved by using a softly broken A4 symmetry realized with an isotriplet
fermion, also triplet under A4. No scalar A4-triplet is introduced. This
represents one possible realization of general schemes characterized by the
minimal set of either three or five physical parameters. In the three parameter
versions mee vanishes, while in the five parameter schemes the absolute scale
of neutrino mass, although not predicted, is related to the two Majorana
phases. The model realization we discuss is potentially testable at the LHC
through the peculiar leptonic decay patterns of the fermionic and scalar
triplets.Comment: some changing, reference adde
Probing the Majorana nature of the neutrino with neutrinoless double beta decay
Neutrinoless double beta decay (NDBD) is the only experiment that could probe
the Majorana nature of the neutrino. Here we study the theoretical implications
of NDBD for models yielding tri-bimaximal lepton mixing like A4 and S4.Comment: Talk given at TAUP09, July 1-5, 2009 (Roma).The proceeding will be
published in Journal of Physics, Conference Series (Editors: E. Coccia, L.
Pandola, N. Fornengo, R. Aloisio
Meissner effect, Spin Meissner effect and charge expulsion in superconductors
The Meissner effect and the Spin Meissner effect are the spontaneous
generation of charge and spin current respectively near the surface of a metal
making a transition to the superconducting state. The Meissner effect is well
known but, I argue, not explained by the conventional theory, the Spin Meissner
effect has yet to be detected. I propose that both effects take place in all
superconductors, the first one in the presence of an applied magnetostatic
field, the second one even in the absence of applied external fields. Both
effects can be understood under the assumption that electrons expand their
orbits and thereby lower their quantum kinetic energy in the transition to
superconductivity. Associated with this process, the metal expels negative
charge from the interior to the surface and an electric field is generated in
the interior. The resulting charge current can be understood as arising from
the magnetic Lorentz force on radially outgoing electrons, and the resulting
spin current can be understood as arising from a spin Hall effect originating
in the Rashba-like coupling of the electron magnetic moment to the internal
electric field. The associated electrodynamics is qualitatively different from
London electrodynamics, yet can be described by a small modification of the
conventional London equations. The stability of the superconducting state and
its macroscopic phase coherence hinge on the fact that the orbital angular
momentum of the carriers of the spin current is found to be exactly ,
indicating a topological origin. The simplicity and universality of our theory
argue for its validity, and the occurrence of superconductivity in many classes
of materials can be understood within our theory.Comment: Submitted to SLAFES XX Proceeding
Superconductivity from Undressing. II. Single Particle Green's Function and Photoemission in Cuprates
Experimental evidence indicates that the superconducting transition in high
cuprates is an 'undressing' transition. Microscopic mechanisms giving
rise to this physics were discussed in the first paper of this series. Here we
discuss the calculation of the single particle Green's function and spectral
function for Hamiltonians describing undressing transitions in the normal and
superconducting states. A single parameter, , describes the strength
of the undressing process and drives the transition to superconductivity. In
the normal state, the spectral function evolves from predominantly incoherent
to partly coherent as the hole concentration increases. In the superconducting
state, the 'normal' Green's function acquires a contribution from the anomalous
Green's function when is non-zero; the resulting contribution to
the spectral function is for hole extraction and for hole
injection. It is proposed that these results explain the observation of sharp
quasiparticle states in the superconducting state of cuprates along the
direction and their absence along the direction.Comment: figures have been condensed in fewer pages for easier readin
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