Unconventional metallic conduction in two-dimensional Hubbard-Wigner lattices

The interplay between long-range and local Coulomb repulsion in strongly interacting electron systems is explored through a two-dimensional Hubbard-Wigner model. An unconventional metallic state is found in which collective low-energy excitations characteristic of the Wigner crystal induce a flow of electrical current despite the absence of one-electron spectral weight at the Fermi surface. Photoemission experiments on certain quarter-filled layered molecular crystals should observe a gap in the excitation spectrum whereas optical spectroscopy should find a finite Drude weight indicating metallic behavior.Comment: 10 pages, accepted for publication in PR

Coexistence of Spin Density Wave and Triplet Superconductivity

We discuss the possibility of coexistence of spin density wave (antiferromagnetism) and triplet superconductivity as a particular example of a broad class of systems where the interplay of magnetism and superconductivity is important. We focus on the case of quasi-one-dimensional metals, where it is known experimentally that antiferromagnetism is in close proximity to triplet superconductivity in the temperature versus pressure phase diagram. Over a narrow range of pressures, we propose an intermediate non-uniform phase consisting of alternating antiferromagnetic and triplet superconducting stripes. Within the non-uniform phase there are also changes between two and three dimensional behavior.Comment: Revtex4, 4 pages, 5 figure

Magic angle effects in the interlayer magnetoresistance of quasi-one-dimensional metals due to interchain incoherence

The dependence of the magnetoresistance of quasi-one-dimensional metals on the direction of the magnetic field show dips when the field is tilted at the so called magic angles determined by the structural dimensions of the materials. There is currently no accepted explanation for these magic angle effects. We present a possible explanation. Our model is based on the assumption that, the intralayer transport in the second most conducting direction has a small contribution from incoherent electrons. This incoherence is modelled by a small uncertainty in momentum perpendicular to the most conducting (chain) direction. Our model predicts the magic angles seen in interlayer transport measurements for different orientations of the field. We compare our results to predictions by other models and to experiment.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, Submitted To Phys. Rev.

Superconductivity without attraction in a quasi-one-dimensional metal

An array of one-dimensional conductors coupled by transverse hopping and interaction is studied with the help of a variational wave function. This wave function is devised as to account for one-dimensional correlation effects. We show that under broad conditions our system possesses the superconducting ground state even if no attraction is present. The superconducting mechanism is of many-body nature and deviates substantially from BCS. The phase diagram of the model is mapped. It consists of two ordered phases competing against each other: density wave, spin or charge, and unconventional superconductivity. These phases are separated by the first order transition. The symmetry of the superconducting order parameter is a non-universal property. It depends on particulars of the Hamiltonian. Within the framework of our model possible choices are the triplet $f$-wave and the singlet $d_{xy}$-wave. Organic quasi-one-dimensional superconductors have similar phase diagram.Comment: 12 pages, 2 Encapsulated PostScript figures, revtex4; the model's Hamiltonian is revised as compared to previous version, this revision affects prediction of the order parameter symmetr

Effects of non-magnetic impurities on spin-fluctuations induced superconductivity

We study the effects of non-magnetic impurities on the phase diagram of a system of interacting electrons with a flat Fermi surface. The one-loop Wilsonian renormalization group flow of the angle dependent diffusion function $D(\theta_1,\theta_2,\theta_3)$ and interaction $U(\theta_1,\theta_2,\theta_3)$ determines the critical temperature and the nature of the low temperature state. As the imperfect nesting increases the critical temperature decreases and the low temperature phase changes from the spin-density wave (SDW) to the d-wave superconductivity (dSC) and finally, for bad nesting, to the random antiferromagnetic state (RAF). Both SDW and dSC phases are affected by disorder. The pair breaking depends on the imperfect nesting and is the most efficient when the critical temperature for superconductivity is maximal.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to PR

EEG theta and Mu oscillations during perception of human and robot actions.

The perception of others' actions supports important skills such as communication, intention understanding, and empathy. Are mechanisms of action processing in the human brain specifically tuned to process biological agents? Humanoid robots can perform recognizable actions, but can look and move differently from humans, and as such, can be used in experiments to address such questions. Here, we recorded EEG as participants viewed actions performed by three agents. In the Human condition, the agent had biological appearance and motion. The other two conditions featured a state-of-the-art robot in two different appearances: Android, which had biological appearance but mechanical motion, and Robot, which had mechanical appearance and motion. We explored whether sensorimotor mu (8-13 Hz) and frontal theta (4-8 Hz) activity exhibited selectivity for biological entities, in particular for whether the visual appearance and/or the motion of the observed agent was biological. Sensorimotor mu suppression has been linked to the motor simulation aspect of action processing (and the human mirror neuron system, MNS), and frontal theta to semantic and memory-related aspects. For all three agents, action observation induced significant attenuation in the power of mu oscillations, with no difference between agents. Thus, mu suppression, considered an index of MNS activity, does not appear to be selective for biological agents. Observation of the Robot resulted in greater frontal theta activity compared to the Android and the Human, whereas the latter two did not differ from each other. Frontal theta thus appears to be sensitive to visual appearance, suggesting agents that are not sufficiently biological in appearance may result in greater memory processing demands for the observer. Studies combining robotics and neuroscience such as this one can allow us to explore neural basis of action processing on the one hand, and inform the design of social robots on the other

Density Induced Quantum Phase Transitions in Triplet Superconductors

We consider the possibility of quantum phase transitions in the ground state of triplet superconductors where particle density is the tunning parameter. For definiteness, we focus on the case of one band quasi-one-dimensional triplet superconductors but many of our conclusions regarding the nature of the transition are quite general. Within the functional integral formulation, we calculate the electronic compressibility and superfluid density tensor as a function of the particle density for various triplet order parameter symmetries and find that these quantities are non-analytic when a critical value of the particle density is reached.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Magnetic Determination of Hc2H_{c2} under Accurate Alignment in (TMTSF)2_2ClO4_4

Cantilever magnetometry has been used to measure the upper critical magnetic field $H_{c2}$ of the quasi-one dimensional molecular organic superconductor (TMTSF)$_2$ClO$_4$. From simultaneous resistivity and torque magnetization experiments conducted under precise field alignment, $H_{c2}$ at low temperature is shown to reach 5T, nearly twice the Pauli paramagnetic limit imposed on spin singlet superconductors. These results constitute the first thermodynamic evidence for a large $H_{c2}$ in this system and provide support for spin triplet pairing in this unconventional superconductorComment: Submitted July 1, 2003, Accepted December 9, 2003, Physical Review Letter

Point-contact tunneling involving low-dimensional spin-triplet superconductors

We modify and extend previous microscopic calculations of tunneling in superconducting junctions based on a non-equilibrium Green function formalism to include the case of spin-triplet pairing. We show that distinctive features are present in the I-V characteristics of different kinds of junctions, in particular when the effects of magnetic fields are taken into account, that permit to identify the type of pairing. We discuss the relevance of these results in the context of quasi one-dimensional organic superconductors like (TMTSF)_2(PF_6) and layered compounds like Sr_2RuO_4.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur