81 research outputs found
Octahedral Tilt Instability of ReO_3-type Crystals
The octahedron tilt transitions of ABX_3 perovskite-structure materials lead
to an anti-polar (or antiferroelectric) arrangement of dipoles, with the low
temperature structure having six sublattices polarized along various
crystallographic directions. It is shown that an important mechanism driving
the transition is long range dipole-dipole forces acting on both displacive and
induced parts of the anion dipole. This acts in concert with short range
repulsion, allowing a gain of electrostatic (Madelung) energy, both
dipole-dipole and charge-charge, because the unit cell shrinks when the hard
ionic spheres of the rigid octahedron tilt out of linear alignment.Comment: 4 page with 3 figures included; new version updates references and
clarifies the argument
Magnetism in Dense Quark Matter
We review the mechanisms via which an external magnetic field can affect the
ground state of cold and dense quark matter. In the absence of a magnetic
field, at asymptotically high densities, cold quark matter is in the
Color-Flavor-Locked (CFL) phase of color superconductivity characterized by
three scales: the superconducting gap, the gluon Meissner mass, and the
baryonic chemical potential. When an applied magnetic field becomes comparable
with each of these scales, new phases and/or condensates may emerge. They
include the magnetic CFL (MCFL) phase that becomes relevant for fields of the
order of the gap scale; the paramagnetic CFL, important when the field is of
the order of the Meissner mass, and a spin-one condensate associated to the
magnetic moment of the Cooper pairs, significant at fields of the order of the
chemical potential. We discuss the equation of state (EoS) of MCFL matter for a
large range of field values and consider possible applications of the magnetic
effects on dense quark matter to the astrophysics of compact stars.Comment: To appear in Lect. Notes Phys. "Strongly interacting matter in
magnetic fields" (Springer), edited by D. Kharzeev, K. Landsteiner, A.
Schmitt, H.-U. Ye
Optically detected magnetic resonance and spin coherence of self-trapped hole centers in an excited spin-quartet state in calcium oxide
- …