Magnetotransport in the low carrier density ferromagnet EuB_6

We present a magnetotransport study of the low--carrier density ferromagnet EuB_6. This semimetallic compound, which undergoes two ferromagnetic transitions at T_l = 15.3 K and T_c = 12.5 K, exhibits close to T_l a colossal magnetoresistivity (CMR). We quantitatively compare our data to recent theoretical work, which however fails to explain our observations. We attribute this disagreement with theory to the unique type of magnetic polaron formation in EuB_6.Comment: Conference contribution MMM'99, San Jos

Melting transition of an Ising glass driven by magnetic field

The quantum critical behavior of the Ising glass in a magnetic field is investigated. We focus on the spin glass to paramagnet transition of the transverse degrees of freedom in the presence of finite longitudinal field. We use two complementary techniques, the Landau theory close to the T=0 transition and the exact diagonalization method for finite systems. This allows us to estimate the size of the critical region and characterize various crossover regimes. An unexpectedly small energy scale on the disordered side of the critical line is found, and its possible relevance to experiments on metallic glasses is briefly discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

The metal-insulator transition in Si:X: Anomalous response to a magnetic field

The zero-temperature magnetoconductivity of just-metallic Si:P scales with magnetic field, H, and dopant concentration, n, lying on a single universal curve. We note that Si:P, Si:B, and Si:As all have unusually large magnetic field crossover exponents near 2, and suggest that this anomalously weak response to a magnetic field is a common feature of uncompensated doped semiconductors.Comment: 4 pages (including figures

Hopping Conduction in Uniaxially Stressed Si:B near the Insulator-Metal Transition

Using uniaxial stress to tune the critical density near that of the sample, we have studied in detail the low-temperature conductivity of p-type Si:B in the insulating phase very near the metal-insulator transition. For all values of temperature and stress, the conductivity collapses onto a single universal scaling curve. For large values of the argument, the scaling function is well fit by the exponentially activated form associated with variable range hopping when electron-electron interactions cause a soft Coulomb gap in the density of states at the Fermi energy. The temperature dependence of the prefactor, corresponding to the T-dependence of the critical curve, has been determined reliably for this system, and is proportional to the square-root of T. We show explicitly that nevlecting the prefactor leads to substantial errors in the determination of the scaling parameters and the critical exponents derived from them. The conductivity is not consistent with Mott variable-range hopping in the critical region nor does it obey this form for any range of the parameters. Instead, for smaller argument of the scaling function, the conductivity of Si:B is well fit by an exponential form with exponent 0.31 related to the critical exponents of the system at the metal- insulator transition.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Conductivity of Metallic Si:B near the Metal-Insulator Transition: Comparison between Unstressed and Uniaxially Stressed Samples

The low-temperature dc conductivities of barely metallic samples of p-type Si:B are compared for a series of samples with different dopant concentrations, n, in the absence of stress (cubic symmetry), and for a single sample driven from the metallic into the insulating phase by uniaxial compression, S. For all values of temperature and stress, the conductivity of the stressed sample collapses onto a single universal scaling curve. The scaling fit indicates that the conductivity of si:B is proportional to the square-root of T in the critical range. Our data yield a critical conductivity exponent of 1.6, considerably larger than the value reported in earlier experiments where the transition was crossed by varying the dopant concentration. The larger exponent is based on data in a narrow range of stress near the critical value within which scaling holds. We show explicitly that the temperature dependences of the conductivity of stressed and unstressed Si:B are different, suggesting that a direct comparison of the critical behavior and critical exponents for stress- tuned and concentration-tuned transitions may not be warranted

Пути реконструкции теплофикационных источников малой мощности Республики Беларусь

Thermal power stations of small capacity in the Belarus power system are sources of heat supply in the heat supply systems of some cities or urban districts with 100% electric power generation using heat consumption. Presently it is necessary to find optimum technical solutions concerning their reconstruction.ТЭЦ малой мощности в энергетической системе Беларуси являются источниками теплоснабжения в системах теплоснабжения отдельных городов или городских микрорайонов со 100%-й выработкой электроэнергии на тепловом потреблении. В настоящее время необ­ходим поиск оптимальных технических решений для их реконструкции

Critical Behavior of the Conductivity of Si:P at the Metal-Insulator Transition under Uniaxial Stress

We report new measurements of the electrical conductivity sigma of the canonical three-dimensional metal-insulator system Si:P under uniaxial stress S. The zero-temperature extrapolation of sigma(S,T -> 0) ~\S - S_c\^mu shows an unprecidentedly sharp onset of finite conductivity at S_c with an exponent mu = 1. The value of mu differs significantly from that of earlier stress-tuning results. Our data show dynamical sigma(S,T) scaling on both metallic and insulating sides, viz. sigma(S,T) = sigma_c(T) F(\S - S_cT^y) where sigma_c(T) is the conductivity at the critical stress S_c. We find y = 1/znu = 0.34 where nu is the correlation-length exponent and z the dynamic critical exponent.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Scaling of the Conductivity with Temperature and Uniaxial Stress in Si:B at the Metal-Insulator Transition

Using uniaxial stress to tune Si:B through the metal-insulator transition we find the conductivity at low temperatures shows an excellent fit to scaling with temperature and stress on both sides of the transition. The scaling functions yield the conductivity in the metallic and insulating phases, and allow a reliable determination of the temperature dependence in the critical regions on both sides of the transition

Quadrupling Muscle Mass in Mice by Targeting TGF-ß Signaling Pathways

Myostatin is a transforming growth factor-ß family member that normally acts to limit skeletal muscle growth. Mice genetically engineered to lack myostatin activity have about twice the amount of muscle mass throughout the body, and similar effects are seen in cattle, sheep, dogs, and a human with naturally occurring loss-of-function mutations in the myostatin gene. Hence, there is considerable interest in developing agents capable of inhibiting myostatin activity for both agricultural and human therapeutic applications. We previously showed that the myostatin binding protein, follistatin, can induce dramatic increases in muscle mass when overexpressed as a transgene in mice. In order to determine whether this effect of follistatin results solely from inhibition of myostatin activity, I analyzed the effect of this transgene in myostatin-null mice. Mstn−/− mice carrying a follistatin transgene had about four times the muscle mass of wild type mice, demonstrating the existence of other regulators of muscle mass with similar activity to myostatin. The greatest effect on muscle mass was observed in offspring of mothers homozygous for the Mstn mutation, raising the possibility that either myostatin itself or a downstream regulator may normally be transferred from the maternal to fetal circulations. These findings demonstrate that the capacity for increasing muscle growth by manipulating TGF-ß signaling pathways is much more extensive than previously appreciated and suggest that muscle mass may be controlled at least in part by a systemic mode of action of myostatin