Superfluid vs Ferromagnetic Behaviour in a Bose Gas of Spin-1/2 Atoms

We study the thermodynamic phases of a gas of spin-1/2 atoms in the Hartree-Fock approximation. Our main result is that, for repulsive or weakly-attractive inter-component interaction strength, the superfluid and ferromagnetic phase transitions occur at the same temperature. For strongly-attractive inter-component interaction strength, however, the ferromagnetic phase transition occurs at a higher temperature than the superfluid phase transition. We also find that the presence of a condensate acts as an effective magnetic field that polarizes the normal cloud. We finally comment on the validity of the Hartree-Fock approximation in describing different phenomena in this system.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events

The $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of 23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives $\Delta m_d = 0.493 \pm 0.012{(stat)}\pm 0.009{(syst)}$ ps$^{-1}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Deformation and Fracture Behavior of Metallic Glassy Alloys and Glassy-Crystal Composites

International audienceThe present work demonstrates the deformation behavior of Zr-Cu-Ni-Al bulk glassy alloys and Zr-Ni-Cu-Al-Pd glassy foils as well as Ni-Cu-Ti-Zr bulk crystal-glassy composites. Fracture of Zr(60)Cu(16)Ni(14)Al(10) and Zr(64.13)Ni(10.12)Cu(15.75)Al(10) bulk glassy alloys is featured by nearly equal fraction areas of cleavage-like and vein-type relief. The observed pattern of alternating cleavage-like and vein-type patterns illustrates a result of dynamically self-organizing shear propagation at the final catastrophic stage. The deformation behavior of Zr(64.13)Ni(10.12)Cu(15.75)Al(10) alloy has also been tested at LN(2) temperature. The strength of the sample decreases with temperature, and no clear serrated flow typical for bulk glassy samples tested at room temperature is observed in the case of the samples tested at LN(2) temperature. We also studied the deformation behavior of Zr-Ni-Cu-Al-Pd glassy foils thinned to electron transparency in situ in tension in a transmission electron microscope. We also present a Ni-Cu-Ti-Zr crystal-glassy composite material having a superior strength paired with a considerable ductility exceeding 10 pct. The metastable cP2 crystalline phase promotes a strain-induced martensitic transformation leading to pseudoelastic behavior as well as enhanced plasticity at room temperature. Underlying mechanisms of plastic deformation are discussed in terms of the interplay between the dislocation slip in the crystalline phase and the shear deformation in the glassy matrix