Vortex Lattice Structure of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov Superconductors

In superconductors with singlet pairing, the inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state is expected to be stabilized by a large Zeeman splitting. We develop an efficient method to evaluate the Landau-Ginzburg free energies of FFLO-state vortex lattices and use it to simplify the considerations that determine the optimal vortex configuration at different points in the phasediagram. We demonstrate that the order parameter spatial profile is completely determined, up to a uniform translation, by its Landau level index n and the vortex Lattice structure and derive an explicit expression for the order parameter spatial profile that can be used to determine n from experimental data.Comment: 6 pages with one embedded color figure. Minor changes. Final version as publishe

Comparison of methods for estimating continuous distributions of relaxation times

The nonparametric estimation of the distribution of relaxation times approach is not as frequently used in the analysis of dispersed response of dielectric or conductive materials as are other immittance data analysis methods based on parametric curve fitting techniques. Nevertheless, such distributions can yield important information about the physical processes present in measured material. In this letter, we apply two quite different numerical inversion methods to estimate the distribution of relaxation times for glassy \lila\ dielectric frequency-response data at 225 \kelvin. Both methods yield unique distributions that agree very closely with the actual exact one accurately calculated from the corrected bulk-dispersion Kohlrausch model established independently by means of parametric data fit using the corrected modulus formalism method. The obtained distributions are also greatly superior to those estimated using approximate functions equations given in the literature.Comment: 4 pages and 4 figure

Spin wave dispersion in La2CuO4

We calculate the antiferromagnetic spin wave dispersion in the half-filled Hubbard model for a two-dimensional square lattice and find it to be in excellent agreement with recent high-resolution inelastic neutron scattering performed on La2CuO4 [Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 5377 (2001)].Comment: typos correcte

Can we evaluate population screening strategies in UK general practice? A pilot randomised controlled trial comparing postal and opportunistic screening for genital chlamydial infection

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To assess whether opportunistic and postal screening strategies for Chlamydia trachomatis can be compared with usual care in a randomised trial in general practice DESIGN: Feasibility study for a randomised controlled trial. SETTING: Three West of Scotland general medical practices: one rural, one urban/deprived and one urban/affluent. PARTICIPANTS: 600 women aged 16-30 years, 200 from each of three participating practices selected at random from a sample of West of Scotland practices that had expressed interest in the study. The women could opt out of the study. Those who did not were randomly assigned to one of three groups: postal screening, opportunistic screening or usual care. MAIN RESULTS: 38% (85/221) of the approached practices expressed interest in the study. Data were collected successfully from the 3 participating practices, although intensive support was required. There were considerable workload implications for staff, both in relation to implementing the screening strategies and managing the research process. 124 of the 600 women opted out of the study. During the four-month study period, 55% (81/146) of the control group attended their practice but none was offered screening. 59% (80/136) women in the opportunistic group attended their practice of whom 55% (44/80) were offered screening. Of those, 64% (28/44) accepted, representing 21% of the opportunistic group. 48% (59/124) of the postal group returned samples. CONCLUSION: A randomised controlled trial comparing postal and opportunistic screening for chlamydial infection in general practice is feasible, though resource intensive. There may be problems with generalising from screening trials in which patients may opt out from the offer of screening

Can distributed delays perfectly stabilize dynamical networks?

Signal transmission delays tend to destabilize dynamical networks leading to oscillation, but their dispersion contributes oppositely toward stabilization. We analyze an integro-differential equation that describes the collective dynamics of a neural network with distributed signal delays. With the gamma distributed delays less dispersed than exponential distribution, the system exhibits reentrant phenomena, in which the stability is once lost but then recovered as the mean delay is increased. With delays dispersed more highly than exponential, the system never destabilizes.Comment: 4pages 5figure

Electron-electron interactions in decoupled graphene layers

Multi-layer graphene on the carbon face of silicon carbide is an intriguing electronic system which typically consists of a stack of ten or more layers. Rotational stacking faults in this system dramatically reduce inter-layer coherence. In this article we report on the influence of inter-layer interactions, which remain strong even when coherence is negligible, on the Fermi liquid properties of charged graphene layers. We find that inter-layer interactions increase the magnitudes of correlation energies and decrease quasiparticle velocities, even when remote-layer carrier densities are small, and that they lessen the influence of exchange and correlation on the distribution of carriers across layers.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, submitte

Coordinate shift in the semiclassical Boltzmann equation and the anomalous Hall effect

We propose a gauge invariant expression for the side jump associated with scattering between particular Bloch states. Our expression for the side jump follows from the Born series expansion for the scattering T-matrix in powers of the strength of the scattering potential. Given our gauge invariant side jump expression, it is possible to construct a semiclassical Boltzmann theory of the anomalous Hall effect which expresses all previously identified contributions in terms of gauge invariant quantities and does not refer explicitly to off-diagonal terms in the density-matrix response.Comment: 6 pages, 1 fugure. submitted to PR

Strong Correlation to Weak Correlation Phase Transition in Bilayer Quantum Hall Systems

At small layer separations, the ground state of a nu=1 bilayer quantum Hall system exhibits spontaneous interlayer phase coherence and has a charged-excitation gap E_g. The evolution of this state with increasing layer separation d has been a matter of controversy. In this letter we report on small system exact diagonalization calculations which suggest that a single phase transition, likely of first order, separates coherent incompressible (E_g >0) states with strong interlayer correlations from incoherent compressible states with weak interlayer correlations. We find a dependence of the phase boundary on d and interlayer tunneling amplitude that is in very good agreement with recent experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures included, version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Eigenvalue Separation in Some Random Matrix Models

The eigenvalue density for members of the Gaussian orthogonal and unitary ensembles follows the Wigner semi-circle law. If the Gaussian entries are all shifted by a constant amount c/Sqrt(2N), where N is the size of the matrix, in the large N limit a single eigenvalue will separate from the support of the Wigner semi-circle provided c > 1. In this study, using an asymptotic analysis of the secular equation for the eigenvalue condition, we compare this effect to analogous effects occurring in general variance Wishart matrices and matrices from the shifted mean chiral ensemble. We undertake an analogous comparative study of eigenvalue separation properties when the size of the matrices are fixed and c goes to infinity, and higher rank analogues of this setting. This is done using exact expressions for eigenvalue probability densities in terms of generalized hypergeometric functions, and using the interpretation of the latter as a Green function in the Dyson Brownian motion model. For the shifted mean Gaussian unitary ensemble and its analogues an alternative approach is to use exact expressions for the correlation functions in terms of classical orthogonal polynomials and associated multiple generalizations. By using these exact expressions to compute and plot the eigenvalue density, illustrations of the various eigenvalue separation effects are obtained.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures include