55 research outputs found
Diffusion-limited loop formation of semiflexible polymers: Kramers theory and the intertwined time scales of chain relaxation and closing
We show that Kramers rate theory gives a straightforward, accurate estimate
of the closing time of a semiflexible polymer that is valid in cases
of physical interest. The calculation also reveals how the time scales of chain
relaxation and closing are intertwined, illuminating an apparent conflict
between two ways of calculating in the flexible limit.Comment: Europhys. Lett., 2003 (in press). 8 pages, 3 figures. See also,
physics/0101087 for physicist's approach to and the importance of
semiflexible polymer looping, in DNA replicatio
DNA Spools under Tension
DNA-spools, structures in which DNA is wrapped and helically coiled onto
itself or onto a protein core are ubiquitous in nature. We develop a general
theory describing the non-equilibrium behavior of DNA-spools under linear
tension. Two puzzling and seemingly unrelated recent experimental findings, the
sudden quantized unwrapping of nucleosomes and that of DNA toroidal condensates
under tension are theoretically explained and shown to be of the same origin.
The study provides new insights into nucleosome and chromatin fiber stability
and dynamics
Semi-classical buckling of stiff polymers
A quantitative theory of the buckling of a worm like chain based on a
semi-classical approximation of the partition function is presented. The
contribution of thermal fluctuations to the force-extension relation that
allows to go beyond the classical Euler buckling is derived in the linear and
non-linear regime as well. It is shown that the thermal fluctuations in the
nonlinear buckling regime increase the end-to-end distance of the semiflexible
rod if it is confined to 2 dimensions as opposed to the 3 dimensional case. Our
approach allows a complete physical understanding of buckling in D=2 and in D=3
below and above the Euler transition.Comment: Revtex, 17 pages, 4 figure
Anisotropic impurities in anisotropic superconductors
Physical properties of anisotropic superconductors like the critical
temperature and others depend sensitively on the electron mean free path. The
sensitivity to impurity scattering and the resulting anomalies are considered a
characteristic feature of strongly anisotropic pairing. These anomalies are
usually analyzed in terms of s-wave impurity scattering which leads to
universal pair breaking effects depending on only two scattering parameters,
the mean free path and the impurity cross section. We investigate here
corrections coming from anisotropies in the scattering cross section, and find
not only quantitative but also qualitative deviations from universal s-wave
isotropic pairbreaking. The properties we study are the transition temperature,
the density of states, quasiparticle bound states at impurities, and pinning of
flux lines by impurities.Comment: 19 page
Time of life as it is in LiFeAs
The time of life of fermionic quasiparticles, the distribution of which in
the momentum-energy space can be measured by angle resolved photoemission
(ARPES), is the first quantity to look for fingerprints of interaction
responsible for the superconducting pairing. Such an approach has been recently
used for superconducting cuprates, but its direct application to pnictides was
not possible due to essential three-dimensionality of the electronic band
structure and magnetic ordering. Here, we report the investigation of the
quasiparticle lifetime in LiFeAs, a non-magnetic stoichiometric superconductor
with a well separated two-dimensional band. We have found two energy scales:
the lower one contains clear fingerprints of optical phonon modes while the
higher scale indicates a presence of strong electron-electron interaction. The
result suggests that LiFeAs is a phonon mediated superconductor with strongly
enhanced electronic density of states at the Fermi level.Comment: reevaluated electron-phonon coupling strength, added reference
Theory of Interplay of Nuclear Magnetism and Superconductivity in AuIn2
The recently reported coexistence of a magnetic order, with the critical
temperature T_M=35 \mu*K, and superconductivity, with the critical temperature
T_S=207 m*K, in AuIn_2 is studied theoretically. It is shown that
superconducting (S) electrons and localized nuclear magnetic moments (LM's)
interact dominantly via the contact hyperfine (EX) interaction, giving rise to
a spiral (or domain-like) magnetic order in superconducting phase. The
electromagnetic interaction between LM's and S electrons is small compared to
the EX one giving minor contribution to the formation of the oscillatory
magnetic order. In clean samples (l>\xi_0) of AuIn the oscillatory magnetic
order should produce a line of nodes in the quasiparticle spectrum of S
electrons giving rise to the power law behavior. The critical field H_c(T=0) in
the coexistence phase is reduced by factor two with respect to its bare value.Comment: 4 pages with 2 PS figures, RevTeX, submitted to Physical Review B -
Rapid Communication
Eliashberg-type equations for correlated superconductors
The derivation of the Eliashberg -- type equations for a superconductor with
strong correlations and electron--phonon interaction has been presented. The
proper account of short range Coulomb interactions results in a strongly
anisotropic equations. Possible symmetries of the order parameter include s, p
and d wave. We found the carrier concentration dependence of the coupling
constants corresponding to these symmetries. At low hole doping the d-wave
component is the largest one.Comment: RevTeX, 18 pages, 5 ps figures added at the end of source file, to be
published in Phys.Rev. B, contact: [email protected]
The Electron-Phonon Interaction in the Presence of Strong Correlations
We investigate the effect of strong electron-electron repulsion on the
electron-phonon interaction from a Fermi-liquid point of view: the strong
interaction is responsible for vertex corrections, which are strongly dependent
on the ratio. These corrections generically lead to a strong
suppression of the effective coupling between quasiparticles mediated by a
single phonon exchange in the limit. However, such effect
is not present when . Analyzing the Landau stability
criterion, we show that a sizable electron-phonon interaction can push the
system towards a phase-separation instability. A detailed analysis is then
carried out using a slave-boson approach for the infinite-U three-band Hubbard
model. In the presence of a coupling between the local hole density and a
dispersionless optical phonon, we explicitly confirm the strong dependence of
the hole-phonon coupling on the transferred momentum versus frequency ratio. We
also find that the exchange of phonons leads to an unstable phase with negative
compressibility already at small values of the bare hole-phonon coupling. Close
to the unstable region, we detect Cooper instabilities both in s- and d-wave
channels supporting a possible connection between phase separation and
superconductivity in strongly correlated systems.Comment: LateX 3.14, 04.11.1994 Preprint no.101
Interplay between superconductivity and flux phase in the t-J model
We study the phase diagram of the t-J model using a mean field type
approximation within the Baym-Kadanoff perturbation expansion for Hubbard
-operators. The line separating the normal state from a d-wave flux or
bond-order state starts near optimal doping at T=0 and rises quickly with
decreasing doping. The transition temperature for d-wave
superconductivity increases monotonically in the overdoped region towards
optimal doping. Near optimaldoping a strong competition between the two d-wave
order parameters sets in leading to a strong suppression of in the
underdoped region. Treating for simplicity the flux phase as commensurate the
superconducting and flux phases coexist in the underdoped region below ,
whereas a pure flux phase exists above with a pseudo-gap of d-wave
symmetry in the excitation spectrum. We also find that incommensurate
charge-density-wave ground states due to Coulomb interactions do not modify
strongly the above phase diagram near the superconducting phase, at least, as
long as the latter exists at all.Comment: 15 pages revtex, 8 postscript figures include
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