Short-term effect of soil disturbance by mechanical weeding on plant available nutrients in an organic vs conventional rotations experiment

The question whether soil disturbance from mechanical weeding in organic systems affects nutrient release from organic matter in compost-amended soil was examined in a long-term organic-versus-conventional rotational cropping system experiment over three years. The experimental design included continuous snap beans, and a fully phased snap beans/fall rye crop rotation sequence. Treatments were combinations of yearly applied fertiliser (synthetic fertiliser, 1× compost, 3× compost) and weed control (herbicide, mechanical weeding). The 1× compost rate was calculated to deliver the equivalent of 50 kg N ha-1: equal to the rate ofN in the synthetic fertiliser treatments. Ion exchange membranes were buried for 24 hours following mechanical weeding in bean plots. Adsorbed ions were then eluted and quantified. Available ammonium-nitrogen was not affected byweeding treatment, but nitrate-nitrogen was consistently less in mechanically weeded plots than in plots treated with herbicide. Principal component analysis of NH4-N, NO3-N, P, K, Ca and Mg availabilities showed distinct groupings of treatments according to fertility treatment rather than weeding treatment. The effect of cropping sequence on available nutrients was pronounced (P ≤ 0.001) only in plots amended with synthetic fertilisers

opendf - an implementation of the dual fermion method for strongly correlated systems

The dual fermion method is a multiscale approach for solving lattice problems of interacting strongly correlated systems. In this paper, we present the \texttt{opendf} code, an open-source implementation of the dual fermion method applicable to fermionic single-orbital lattice models in dimensions $D=1,2,3$ and $4$. The method is built on a dynamical mean field starting point, which neglects all local correlations, and perturbatively adds spatial correlations. Our code is distributed as an open-source package under the GNU public license version 2.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 28th Annual CSP Workshop proceeding

Impact of Electron-Phonon Coupling on Near-Field Optical Spectra

The finite momentum transfer ($\boldsymbol{q}$) longitudinal optical response $\sigma^L(\boldsymbol{q},\omega)$ of graphene has a peak at an energy $\omega=\hbar v_F q$. This corresponds directly to a quasiparticle peak in the spectral density at momentum relative to the Fermi momentum $k_F -q$. Inclusion of coupling to a phonon mode at $\omega_E$ results, for $\omega<|\omega_E|$, in a constant electron-phonon renormalization of the bare bands by a mass enhancement factor $(1+\lambda)$ and this is followed by a phonon kink at $\omega_E$ where additional broadening begins. Here we study the corresponding changes in the optical quasiparticle peaks which we find to continue to directly track the renormalized quasiparticle energies until $q$ is large enough that the optical transitions begin to sample the phonon kink region of the dispersion curves where linearity in momentum is lost in the renormalized Dirac Fermion dispersion curves and the correspondence to a single quasiparticle energy is lost. Nevertheless there remains in $\sigma^L(\boldsymbol{q},\omega)$ features analogous to the phonon kinks of the dispersion curves which are observable through variation of $q$ and $\omega$.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Signatures of Fermi surface reconstruction in Raman spectra of underdoped cuprates

We have calculated the Raman B$_{1g}$ and B$_{2g}$ spectra as a function of temperature, as well as doping, for the underdoped cuprates, using a model based on the resonating valence-bond spin-liquid. We discuss changes in intensity and peak position brought about by the presence of a pseudogap and the implied Fermi surface reconstruction, which are elements of this model. Signatures of Fermi surface reconstruction are evident as a sharp rise in the doping dependence of the antinodal to nodal peak ratio which occurs below the quantum critical point. The temperature dependence of the B$_{1g}$ polarization can be used to determine if the superconducting gap is limited to the Fermi pocket, as seen in angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy, or extends beyond. We find that the slope of the linear low energy B$_{2g}$ spectrum maintains its usual d-wave form, but with an effective gap which reflects the gap amplitude projected on the Fermi pocket. Our calculations capture the main qualitative features revealed in the extensive data set available on the HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+\delta}$ (Hg-1201) cuprate.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figure