1,578 research outputs found
Compressing nearly hard sphere fluids increases glass fragility
We use molecular dynamics to investigate the glass transition occurring at
large volume fraction, phi, and low temperature, T, in assemblies of soft
repulsive particles. We find that equilibrium dynamics in the (phi, T) plane
obey a form of dynamic scaling in the proximity of a critical point at T=0 and
phi=phi_0, which should correspond to the ideal glass transition of hard
spheres. This glass point, `point G', is distinct from athermal jamming
thresholds. A remarkable consequence of scaling behaviour is that the dynamics
at fixed phi passes smoothly from that of a strong glass to that of a very
fragile glass as phi increases beyond phi_0. Correlations between fragility and
various physical properties are explored.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; Version accepted at Europhys. Let
Revisiting the slow dynamics of a silica melt using Monte Carlo simulations
We implement a standard Monte Carlo algorithm to study the slow, equilibrium
dynamics of a silica melt in a wide temperature regime, from 6100 K down to
2750 K. We find that the average dynamical behaviour of the system is in
quantitative agreement with results obtained from molecular dynamics
simulations, at least in the long-time regime corresponding to the
alpha-relaxation. By contrast, the strong thermal vibrations related to the
Boson peak present at short times in molecular dynamics are efficiently
suppressed by the Monte Carlo algorithm. This allows us to reconsider silica
dynamics in the context of mode-coupling theory, because several shortcomings
of the theory were previously attributed to thermal vibrations. A mode-coupling
theory analysis of our data is qualitatively correct, but quantitative tests of
the theory fail, raising doubts about the very existence of an avoided
singularity in this system. We discuss the emergence of dynamic heterogeneity
and report detailed measurements of a decoupling between translational
diffusion and structural relaxation, and of a growing four-point dynamic
susceptibility. Dynamic heterogeneity appears to be less pronounced than in
more fragile glass-forming models, but not of a qualitatively different nature.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures; to be published in Phys. Rev.
NMR evidence for a strong modulation of the Bose-Einstein Condensate in BaCuSiO
We present a Cu and Si NMR study of the quasi-2D coupled
spin 1/2 dimer compound BaCuSiO in the magnetic field range 13-26 T and
at temperatures as low as 50 mK. NMR data in the gapped phase reveal that below
90 K different intra-dimer exchange couplings and different gaps
( = 1.16) exist in every second plane along
the c-axis, in addition to a planar incommensurate (IC) modulation. Si
spectra in the field induced magnetic ordered phase reveal that close to the
quantum critical point at = 23.35 T the average boson density
of the Bose-Einstein condensate is strongly modulated along the
c-axis with a density ratio for every second plane
. An IC modulation of the local
density is also present in each plane. This adds new constraints for the
understanding of the 2D value = 1 of the critical exponent describing
the phase boundary
Spatially Resolved Magnetization in the Bose-Einstein Condensed State of BaCuSi2O6: Evidence for Imperfect Frustration
In order to understand the nature of the two-dimensional Bose-Einstein
condensed (BEC) phase in BaCuSi2O6, we performed detailed 63Cu and 29Si NMR
above the critical magnetic field, Hc1= 23.4 T. The two different alternating
layers present in the system have very different local magnetizations close to
Hc1; one is very weak, and its size and field dependence are highly sensitive
to the nature of inter-layer coupling. Its precise value could only be
determined by "on-site" 63Cu NMR, and the data are fully reproduced by a model
of interacting hard-core bosons in which the perfect frustration associated to
tetragonal symmetry is slightly lifted, leading to the conclusion that the
population of the less populated layers is not fully incoherent but must be
partially condensed
Cu NMR evidence for enhanced antiferromagnetic correlations around Zn impurities in YBa2Cu3O6.7
Doping the high-Tc superconductor YBa2Cu3O6.7 with 1.5 % of non-magnetic Zn
impurities in CuO2 planes is shown to produce a considerable broadening of 63Cu
NMR spectra, as well as an increase of low-energy magnetic fluctuations
detected in 63Cu spin-lattice relaxation measurements. A model-independent
analysis demonstrates that these effects are due to the development of
staggered magnetic moments on many Cu sites around each Zn and that the
Zn-induced moment in the bulk susceptibility might be explained by this
staggered magnetization. Several implications of these enhanced
antiferromagnetic correlations are discussed.Comment: 4 pages including 2 figure
Crystallization in suspensions of hard spheres: A Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics simulation study
The crystallization of a metastable melt is one of the most important non
equilibrium phenomena in condensed matter physics, and hard sphere colloidal
model systems have been used for several decades to investigate this process by
experimental observation and computer simulation. Nevertheless, there is still
an unexplained discrepancy between simulation data and experimental nucleation
rate densities. In this paper we examine the nucleation process in hard spheres
using molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulation. We show that the
crystallization process is mediated by precursors of low orientational
bond-order and that our simulation data fairly match the experimental data
sets
Incipient charge order observed by NMR in the normal state of YBa2Cu3Oy
The pseudogap regime of high-temperature cuprates harbours diverse
manifestations of electronic ordering whose exact nature and universality
remain debated. Here, we show that the short-ranged charge order recently
reported in the normal state of YBa2Cu3Oy corresponds to a truly static
modulation of the charge density. We also show that this modulation impacts on
most electronic properties, that it appears jointly with intra-unit-cell
nematic, but not magnetic, order, and that it exhibits differences with the
charge density wave observed at lower temperatures in high magnetic fields.
These observations prove mostly universal, they place new constraints on the
origin of the charge density wave and they reveal that the charge modulation is
pinned by native defects. Similarities with results in layered metals such as
NbSe2, in which defects nucleate halos of incipient charge density wave at
temperatures above the ordering transition, raise the possibility that
order-parameter fluctuations, but no static order, would be observed in the
normal state of most cuprates if disorder were absent.Comment: Updated version. Free download at Nature Comm. website (doi below
NMR imaging of the soliton lattice profile in the spin-Peierls compound CuGeO_3
In the spin-Peierls compound CuGeO, the commensurate-incommensurate
transition concerning the modulation of atomic position and the local
spin-polarization is fully monitored at T=0 by the application of an external
magnetic field () above a threshold value 13 Tesla. The
solitonic profile of the spin-polarization, as well as its absolute magnitude,
has been precisely imaged from NMR lineshapes obtained for
varying from 0.0015 to 2. This offers a unique possibility
to test quantitatively the various numerical and analytical methods developed
to solve a generic Hamiltonian in 1-D physics, namely strongly interacting
fermions in presence of electron-phonon coupling at arbitrary band filling.Comment: 3 pages, 4 eps figures, RevTeX, submitted to Physical Review Lette
Similar glassy features in the NMR response of pure and disordered La1.88Sr0.12CuO4
High Tc superconductivity in La2-xSrxCuO4 coexists with (striped and glassy)
magnetic order. Here, we report NMR measurements of the 139La spin-lattice
relaxation, which displays a stretched-exponential time dependence, in both
pure and disordered x=0.12 single crystals. An analysis in terms of a
distribution of relaxation rates T1^-1 indicates that i) the spin-freezing
temperature is spatially inhomogeneous with an onset at Tg(onset)=20 K for the
pristine samples, and ii) the width of the T1^-1 distribution in the vicinity
of Tg(onset) is insensitive to an ~1% level of atomic disorder in CuO2 planes.
This suggests that the stretched-exponential 139La relaxation, considered as a
manifestation of the systems glassiness, may not arise from quenched disorder.Comment: 7 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Real space application of the mean-field description of spin glass dynamics
The out of equilibrium dynamics of finite dimensional spin glasses is
considered from a point of view going beyond the standard `mean-field theory'
versus `droplet picture' debate of the last decades. The main predictions of
both theories concerning the spin glass dynamics are discussed. It is shown, in
particular, that predictions originating from mean-field ideas concerning the
violations of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem apply quantitatively,
provided one properly takes into account the role of the spin glass coherence
length which plays a central role in the droplet picture. Dynamics in a uniform
magnetic field is also briefly discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures. v2: published versio
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