Bosonization solution of the Falicov-Kimball model

We use a novel approach to analyze the one dimensional spinless Falicov-Kimball model. We derive a simple effective model for the occupation of the localized orbitals which clearly reveals the origin of the known ordering. Our study is extended to a quantum model with hybridization between the localized and itinerant states; we find a crossover between the well-known weak- and strong-coupling behaviour. The existence of electronic polarons at intermediate coupling is confirmed. A phase diagram is presented and discussed in detail.Comment: RevTex, 10 pages, 1 figur

Slave boson theory of the extended Falicov-Kimball model

The extended Falicov-Kimball model, with both an on-site hybridization potential and dispersive narrow band, is examined within the saddle-point approximation to the Kotliar-Ruckenstein slave boson theory. We first set the hybridization potential to zero and find that the phase diagram depends strongly upon the orbital structure: for degenerate orbitals, a correlated-insulating state is found at sufficiently strong interaction strengths, whereas a finite orbital energy difference can lead to discontinuous valence transitions. The obtained phase diagram is very sensitive to the presence of a finite hybridization potential. As in Hartree-Fock theory, we find an enhancement of the hybridization by the inter-orbital Coulomb repulsion. The more precise treatment of correlation effects, however, leads to large deviations from the Hartree-Fock results. In the limit of vanishing hybridization an excitonic insulator state is only found when the orbitals are degenerate, which restricts this phase to a much smaller parameter space than in other available mean-field theories.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Competing Orderings in an Extended Falicov-Kimball Model

We present a Hartree-Fock study of the Falicov-Kimball model extended by both on-site and non-local hybridization. We examine the interplay between excitonic effects and the charge-density wave (CDW) instability known to exist at zero hybridization. It is found that the CDW state remains stable in the presence of finite hybridization; for on-site hybridization the Coulomb interaction nevertheless strongly enhances the excitonic average above its value in the noninteracting system. In contrast, for non-local hybridization, we observe no such enhancement of the excitonic average or a spontaneous on-site hybridization potential. Instead, we find only a significant suppression of the excitonic correlations in the CDW state. A phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau analysis is also provided to understand the interplay.Comment: RevTex, 5 pages, 4 figures; expanded and corrected, typos added, references adde

Hostility and cellular aging in men from the Whitehall II cohort.

Hostility is associated with a significantly increased risk of age-related disease and mortality, yet the pathophysiological mechanisms involved remain unclear. Here we investigated the hypothesis that hostility might impact health by promoting cellular aging

Telecentric F-theta fisheye lens for space applications

A very wide angle lens with a field of view of 360°x180° - a fisheye lens - has been designed to be used in a space environment. As a case study, the lens is assumed to be mounted on a spinning probe passing through a comet’s tail. The lens, rotating with the probe passing through the comet coma, may map the entire sky as viewed from the interior tail, providing unprecedented data on the spatial distribution of plasma and dust. Considering the foreseen space applications for the lens, radiation hardened glass has been taken into account for the design. A key feature of the lens is the “angular scale” uniformity (F-theta) of the sky distribution map projected on the focal plane allowing to obtain a reliable whole sky reconstruction. Care has also been taken to obtain an almost telecentric design, in order to permit filters placed on the focal plane to work properly. A telecentric fisheye operating with a pixel-limited resolution in the waveband from 500 nm up to 770 nm and with an F-theta distortion is presented in this paper

Charge Order in the Falicov-Kimball Model

We examine the spinless one-dimensional Falicov-Kimball model (FKM) below half-filling, addressing both the binary alloy and valence transition interpretations of the model. Using a non-perturbative technique, we derive an effective Hamiltonian for the occupation of the localized orbitals, providing a comprehensive description of charge order in the FKM. In particular, we uncover the contradictory ordering roles of the forward-scattering and backscattering itinerant electrons: the latter are responsible for the crystalline phases, while the former produces the phase separation. We find an Ising model describes the transition between the phase separated state and the crystalline phases; for weak-coupling we present the critical line equation, finding excellent agreement with numerical results. We consider several extensions of the FKM that preserve the classical nature of the localized states. We also investigate a parallel between the FKM and the Kondo lattice model, suggesting a close relationship based upon the similar orthogonality catastrophe physics of the associated single-impurity models.Comment: 39 pages, 6 figure

Microscopic derivation of Ginzburg-Landau equations for coexistent states of superconductivity and magnetism

Ginzburg-Landau (GL) equations for the coexistent states of superconductivity and magnetism are derived microscopically from the extended Hubbard model with on-site repulsive and nearest-neighbor attractive interactions. In the derived GL free energy a cubic term that couples the spin-singlet and spin-triplet components of superconducting order parameters (SCOP) with magnetization exists. This term gives rise to a spin-triplet SCOP near the interface between a spin-singlet superconductor and a ferromagnet, consistent with previous theoretical studies based on the Bogoliubov de Gennes method and the quasiclassical Green's function theory. In coexistent states of singlet superconductivity and antiferromagnetism it leads to the occurrence of pi-triplet SCOPs.Comment: 18 page

The fisheye of the comet interceptor's EnVisS camera

Entire Visible Sky (EnVisS) camera is one of the payload proposed for the ESA selected F-Class mission Comet Interceptor. The main aim of the mission is the study of a dynamic new comet, or an interstellar object, entering the inner solar system for the first time. The Comet Interceptor mission is conceived to be composed of three spacecraft: a parent spacecraft A and two, spacecraft B1 and B2, dedicated to a close and risky fly-by. EnVisS will be mounted on spacecraft B2, which is foreseen to be spin-stabilized. The EnVisS camera is designed to capture the entire sky in some visible wavelength bands while the spacecraft pass through the comet's coma. EnVisS optical head is composed of a fisheye lens with a field of view of 180° x 40° coupled with an imaging detector equipped with both band-pass and polarimetric filters. The design of fisheye lenses requires to take into account some issues typical of very wide-angle lenses. The fundamental origin of the optical problems resides on the entrance pupil shift at large angle, where the paraxial approximation is no more valid: chief rays angles on the object side are not preserved passing through the optics preceding the aperture stop (fore-optics). This effect produces an anamorphic deformation of the image on the focal plane, i.e. the focal length is changing along the elevation angles. Tracing the rays appropriately requires some effort by the designer. It has to be considered that distortion, including anamorphism, is an aberration that does not affect the quality of a point source image, thus it can be present also in well corrected lenses. In this paper the optical design of the fisheye lens, that will be mounted on the EnVisS camera for the ESA F-class "Comet Interceptor" mission, will be presented together with the initial optical requirements and the final expected optical performances

Magnetic order in orbital models of the iron pnictides

We examine the appearance of the experimentally-observed stripe spin-density-wave magnetic order in five different orbital models of the iron pnictide parent compounds. A restricted mean-field ansatz is used to determine the magnetic phase diagram of each model. Using the random phase approximation, we then check this phase diagram by evaluating the static spin susceptibility in the paramagnetic state close to the mean-field phase boundaries. The momenta for which the susceptibility is peaked indicate in an unbiased way the actual ordering vector of the nearby mean-field state. The dominant orbitally resolved contributions to the spin susceptibility are also examined to determine the origin of the magnetic instability. We find that the observed stripe magnetic order is possible in four of the models, but it is extremely sensitive to the degree of the nesting between the electron and hole Fermi pockets. In the more realistic five-orbital models, this order competes with a strong-coupling incommensurate state which appears to be controlled by details of the electronic structure below the Fermi energy. We conclude by discussing the implications of our work for the origin of the magnetic order in the pnictides.Comment: 19 pages, 19 figures; published version, typos corrected, references adde

Interplay of ferromagnetism and triplet superconductivity in a Josephson junction

In this paper we extend our earlier analysis of the novel Josephson effect in triplet superconductor--ferromagnet--triplet superconductor (TFT) junctions [B. Kastening \emph{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf{96}}, 047009 (2006)]. In our more general formulation of the TFT junction we allow for potential scattering at the barrier and an arbitrary orientation of the ferromagnetic moment. Several new effects are found upon the inclusion of these extra terms: for example, we find that a Josephson current can flow even when there is vanishing phase difference between the superconducting condensates on either side of the barrier. The critical current for a barrier with magnetization parallel to the interface is calculated as a function of the junction parameters, and is found to display strong non-analyticities. Furthermore, the Josephson current switches first identified in our previous work are found to be robust features of the junction, while the unconventional temperature-dependence of the current is very sensitive to the extra terms in the barrier Hamiltonian.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figure