Knotted Defects in Nematic Liquid Crystals

We show that the number of distinct topological states associated to a given knotted defect, $L$, in a nematic liquid crystal is equal to the determinant of the link $L$. We give an interpretation of these states, demonstrate how they may be identified in experiments and describe the consequences for material behaviour and interactions between multiple knots. We show that stable knots can be created in a bulk cholesteric and illustrate the topology by classifying a simulated Hopf link. In addition we give a topological heuristic for the resolution of strand crossings in defect coarsening processes which allows us to distinguish topological classes of a given link and to make predictions about defect crossings in nematic liquid crystals.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Umbilic Lines in Orientational Order

Three-dimensional orientational order in systems whose ground states possess non-zero, chiral gradients typically exhibits line-like structures or defects: $\lambda$ lines in cholesterics or Skyrmion tubes in ferromagnets for example. Here we show that such lines can be identified as a set of natural geometric singularities in a unit vector field, the generalisation of the umbilic points of a surface. We characterise these lines in terms of the natural vector bundles that the order defines and show that they give a way to localise and identify Skyrmion distortions in chiral materials -- in particular that they supply a natural representative of the Poincar\'{e} dual of the cocycle describing the topology. Their global structure leads to the definition of a self-linking number and helicity integral which relates the linking of umbilic lines to the Hopf invariant of the texture.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

Violation of non-interacting V\cal V-representability of the exact solutions of the Schr\"odinger equation for a two-electron quantum dot in a homogeneous magnetic field

We have shown by using the exact solutions for the two-electron system in a parabolic confinement and a homogeneous magnetic field [ M.Taut, J Phys.A{\bf 27}, 1045 (1994) ] that both exact densities (charge- and the paramagnetic current density) can be non-interacting $\cal V$-representable (NIVR) only in a few special cases, or equivalently, that an exact Kohn-Sham (KS) system does not always exist. All those states at non-zero $B$ can be NIVR, which are continuously connected to the singlet or triplet ground states at B=0. In more detail, for singlets (total orbital angular momentum $M_L$ is even) both densities can be NIVR if the vorticity of the exact solution vanishes. For $M_L=0$ this is trivially guaranteed because the paramagnetic current density vanishes. The vorticity based on the exact solutions for the higher $|M_L|$ does not vanish, in particular for small r. In the limit $r \to 0$ this can even be shown analytically. For triplets ($M_L$ is odd) and if we assume circular symmetry for the KS system (the same symmetry as the real system) then only the exact states with $|M_L|= 1$ can be NIVR with KS states having angular momenta $m_1=0$ and $|m_2|=1$. Without specification of the symmetry of the KS system the condition for NIVR is that the small-r-exponents of the KS states are 0 and 1.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Giant thermoelectric effects in a proximity-coupled superconductor-ferromagnet device

The usually negligibly small thermoelectric effects in superconducting heterostructures can be boosted dramatically due to the simultaneous effect of spin splitting and spin filtering. Building on an idea of our earlier work [Phys. Rev. Lett. $\textbf{110}$, 047002 (2013)], we propose realistic mesoscopic setups to observe thermoelectric effects in superconductor heterostructures with ferromagnetic interfaces or terminals. We focus on the Seebeck effect being a direct measure of the local thermoelectric response and find that a thermopower of the order of $\sim200$ $\mu V/K$ can be achieved in a transistor-like structure, in which a third terminal allows to drain the thermal current. A measurement of the thermopower can furthermore be used to determine quantitatively the spin-dependent interface parameters that induce the spin splitting. For applications in nanoscale cooling we discuss the figure of merit for which we find enormous values exceeding 1 for temperature $\lesssim 1$K

Nonlinear thermoelectric effects in high-field superconductor-ferromagnet tunnel junctions

Thermoelectric effects result from the coupling of charge and heat transport, and can be used for thermometry, cooling and harvesting of thermal energy. The microscopic origin of thermoelectric effects is a broken electron-hole symmetry, which is usually quite small in metal structures, and vanishes at low temperatures. We report on a combined experimental and theoretical investigation of thermoelectric effects in superconductor/ferromagnet hybrid structures. We investigate the depencence of thermoelectric currents on the thermal excitation, as well as on the presence of a dc bias voltage across the junction. Large thermoelectric effects are observed in superconductor/ferromagnet and superconductor/normal-metal hybrid structures. The spin-independent signals observed under finite voltage bias are shown to be reciprocal to the physics of superconductor/normal-metal microrefrigerators. The spin-dependent thermoelectric signals in the linear regime are due to the coupling of spin and heat transport, and can be used to design more efficient refrigeratorsComment: 11 pages, submitted to Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnolog

The strength of the radial-breathing mode in single-walled carbon nanotubes

We show by ab initio calculations that the electron-phonon coupling matrix element M of the radial breathing mode in single-walled carbon nanotubes depends strongly on tube chirality. For nanotubes of the same diameter the coupling strength |M|^2 is up to one order of magnitude stronger for zig-zag than for armchair tubes. For (n,m) tubes M depends on the value of (n-m) mod 3, which allows to discriminate semiconducting nano tubes with similar diameter by their Raman scattering intensity. We show measured resonance Raman profiles of the radial breathing mode which support our theoretical predictions

The Geometry of the Cholesteric Phase

We propose a construction of a cholesteric pitch axis for an arbitrary nematic director field as an eigenvalue problem. Our definition leads to a Frenet-Serret description of an orthonormal triad determined by this axis, the director, and the mutually perpendicular direction. With this tool we are able to compare defect structures in cholesterics, biaxial nematics, and smectics. Though they all have similar ground state manifolds, the defect structures are different and cannot be, in general, translated from one phase to the other.Comment: 5 pages, the full catastroph

Geometry of the cholesteric phase

We propose a construction of a cholesteric pitch axis for an arbitrary nematic director field as an eigenvalue problem. Our definition leads to a Frenet-Serret description of an orthonormal triad determined by this axis, the director, and the mutually perpendicular direction. With this tool, we are able to compare defect structures in cholesterics, biaxial nematics, and smectics. Though they all have similar ground state manifolds, the defect structures are different and cannot, in general, be translated from one phase to the other