4D-XY quantum criticality in a doped Mott insulator

A new phenomenology is proposed for the superfluid density of strongly underdoped cuprate superconductors based on recent data for ultra-clean single crystals of YBCO. The data feature a puzzling departure from Uemura scaling and a decline of the slope as the T_c = 0 quantum critical point is approached. We show that this behavior can be understood in terms of the renormalization of quasiparticle effective charge by quantum fluctuations of the superconducting phase as described by a (3+1)-dimensional XY model. We calculate the renormalization of the superfluid density and its slope, explain the new phenomenology, and predict its eventual demise close to the QCP.Comment: Version published in PRL. For additional info and related work visit http://www.physics.ubc.ca/~fran

On a Characium growing on Anopheles larvae

This article does not have an abstract

Improvement of Characteristics of a Liquefiable Soil Deposit by Pile Driving Operations

Large scale failures of pile foundations driven in liquefiable soil deposits have been reported during the 1964 Alaska and Nighaata Earthquakes. Where the subsoil did not liquefy, the piles did not fail. These conclusions were the basis of selection of a proper pile type for the Bonoaigaon Complex wherein it was intended that the pile installation procedure shall also adequately densify the loose saturated sandy and silty subsoils prone to liquefaction during expected earthquakes at site. Studies were carried out to assess soil characteristics before and after piling and the resulting improvement in the subsoil. It is concluded that the subsoil densification achieved after piling is adequate to guard against possibility of liquefaction occurring within pile groups and thus ensure the safety of the piles

Free resolutions over short local rings

The structure of minimal free resolutions of finite modules M over commutative local rings (R,m,k) with m^3=0 and rank_k(m^2) < rank_k(m/m^2)is studied. It is proved that over generic R every M has a Koszul syzygy module. Explicit families of Koszul modules are identified. When R is Gorenstein the non-Koszul modules are classified. Structure theorems are established for the graded k-algebra Ext_R(k,k) and its graded module Ext_R(M,k).Comment: 17 pages; number of minor changes. This article will appear in the Journal of the London Math. So

Reliable and robust molecular sexing of the hen harrier (Circus cyaneus) using PCR-RFLP of the CHD1 gene

The hen harrier (Circus cyaneus) is a bird of prey that is persecuted in the United Kingdom, and there is a need for a DNA-based individual identification and sexing system for the use in forensic investigations. This study reports a new set of PCR primers for the chromo-helicase-DNA-binding protein 1 gene, which allows sexing using PCR-RFLP. Instead of exonic primers that amplify across a large intron, this set consists of a primer within the intron, enabling reduction in amplicon sizes from 356 to 212 bp and 565 to 219 bp in W and Z chromosomes. DNA degradation and dilution experiments demonstrate that this set is significantly more robust than one that amplifies across the intron, and sequencing of the intronic primer-binding region across several individuals shows that it is highly conserved. While our objective is to incorporate this primer set into an STR-based individualization kit, it may in the meantime prove useful in forensic or conservation studies

Exact summation of vertex corrections to the penetration depth in d-wave superconductors

A variety of experiments suggest that in the cuprates, the low-energy superconducting quasiparticles undergo forward scattering from extended impurity potentials. We argue that when such potentials dominate the scattering, the penetration depth may be computed in a simple zero-angle scattering approximation (ZSA), in which the vertex corrections to the Meissner effect may be summed exactly. We find a remarkably simple relationship between the normal fluid density and the quasiparticle density of states of the disordered system which holds for every realization of the disorder. We expect this result to be relevant to the $ab$-plane penetration depth in high-purity single crystals of underdoped YBCO.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to PR