Acceleration of Plasma Flows Due to Reverse Dynamo Mechanism

The "reverse-dynamo" mechanism - the amplification/generation of fast plasma flows by micro scale (turbulent) magnetic fields via magneto-fluid coupling is recognized and explored. It is shown that macro-scale magnetic fields and flows are generated simultaneously and proportionately from micro scale fields and flows. The stronger the micro-scale driver, the stronger are the macro-scale products. Stellar and astrophysical applications are suggested.Comment: 16 pages including 3 figures. The Astrophys. J. (accepted); additional material is given for clarification; terminology is change

Spin liquid behaviour in Jeff=1/2 triangular lattice Ba3IrTi2O9

Ba3IrTi2O9 crystallizes in a hexagonal structure consisting of a layered triangular arrangement of Ir4+ (Jeff=1/2). Magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity data show no magnetic ordering down to 0.35K inspite of a strong magnetic coupling as evidenced by a large Curie-Weiss temperature=-130K. The magnetic heat capacity follows a power law at low temperature. Our measurements suggest that Ba3IrTi2O9 is a 5d, Ir-based (Jeff=1/2), quantum spin liquid on a 2D triangular lattice.Comment: 10 pages including supplemental material, to be published in Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Comm.

31P NMR study of Na2CuP2O7: a S=1/2 two-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnetic system

The magnetic properties of Na2CuP2O7 were investigated by means of 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), magnetic susceptibility, and heat capacity measurements. We report the 31P NMR shift, the spin-lattice 1/T1, and spin-spin 1/T2 relaxation-rate data as a function of temperature T. The temperature dependence of the NMR shift K(T) is well described by the S=1/2 square lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnetic (HAF) model with an intraplanar exchange of J/k_B \simeq 18\pm2 K and a hyperfine coupling A = (3533\pm185) Oe/mu_B. The 31P NMR spectrum was found to broaden abruptly below T \sim 10 K signifying some kind of transition. However, no anomaly was noticed in the bulk susceptibility data down to 1.8 K. The heat capacity appears to have a weak maximum around 10 K. With decrease in temperatures, the spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T1 decreases monotonically and appears to agree well with the high temperature series expansion expression for a S = 1/2 2D square lattice.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, submitted to J. Phys.: Cond. Ma

Possible spin-orbit driven spin-liquid ground state in the double perovskite phase of Ba3YIr2O9

We report the structural transformation of hexagonal Ba3YIr2O9 to a cubic double perovskite form (stable in ambient conditions) under an applied pressure of 8GPa at 1273K. While the ambient pressure (AP) synthesized sample undergoes long-range magnetic ordering at 4K, the high pressure(HP) synthesized sample does not order down to 2K as evidenced from our susceptibility, heat capacity and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements. Further, for the HP sample, our heat capacity data have the form gamma*T+beta*T3 in the temperature (T) range of 2-10K with the Sommerfeld coefficient gamma=10mJ/mol-Ir K2. The 89Y NMR shift has no T-dependence in the range of 4-120K and its spin-lattice relaxation rate varies linearly with T in the range of 8-45K (above which it is T-independent). Resistance measurements of both the samples confirm that they are semiconducting. Our data provide evidence for the formation of a 5d based, gapless, quantum spin-liquid (QSL) in the cubic (HP) phase of Ba3YIr2O9. In this picture, the T term in the heat capacity and the linear variation of 89Y 1/T1 arises from excitations out of a spinon Fermi surface. Our findings lend credence to the theoretical suggestion [G. Chen, R. Pereira, and L. Balents, Phys. Rev. B 82, 174440 (2010)] that strong spin-orbit coupling can enhance quantum fluctuations and lead to a QSL state in the double perovskite lattice.Comment: 6 pages 5 figure

Bose-Einstein condensation of triplons in the S=1 tetramer antiferromagnet K2Ni2(MoO4)3: A compound close to quantum critical point

The structure of K2Ni2(MoO4)3 consists of S=1 tetramers formed by Ni^{2+} ions. The magnetic susceptibility chi(T) and specific heat Cp(T) data on a single crystal show a broad maximum due to the low-dimensionality of the system with short-range spin correlations. A sharp peak is seen in chi(T) and Cp(T) at about 1.13 K, well below the broad maximum. This is an indication of magnetic long-range order i.e., the absence of spin-gap in the ground state. Interestingly, the application of a small magnetic field (H>0.1 T) induces magnetic behavior akin to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of triplon excitations observed in some spin-gap materials. Our results demonstrate that the temperature-field (T-H) phase boundary follows a power-law (T-T_{N})propotional to H^(1/alpha) with the exponent 1/alpha close to 2/3, as predicted for BEC scenario. The observation of BEC of triplon excitations in small H infers that K2Ni2(MoO4)3 is located in the proximity of a quantum critical point, which separates the magnetically ordered and spin-gap regions of the phase diagram.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, Accepted in Phys. Rev. B Rapid Communication

Spin-gap behaviour in the 2-leg spin-ladder BiCu2PO6

We present magnetic suscceptibility and heat capacity data on a new S=1/2 two-leg spin ladder compound BiCu2PO6. From our susceptibility analysis, we find that the leg coupling J1/k_B is ~ 80 K and the ratio of the rung to leg coupling J2/J1 ~ 0.9. We present the magnetic contribution to the heat capacity of a two-leg ladder. The spin-gap Delta/k_B =3 4 K obtained from the heat capacity agrees very well with that obtained from the magnetic susceptibility. Significant inter-ladder coupling is suggested from the susceptibility analysis. The hopping integrals determined using Nth order muffin tin orbital (NMTO) based downfolding method lead to ratios of various exchange couplings in agreement with our experimental data. Based on our band structure analysis, we find the inter-ladder coupling in the bc-plane J2 to be about 0.75J1 placing the compound presumably close to the quantum critical limit.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Gravitational lensing constraint on the cosmic equation of state

Recent redshift-distance measurements of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) at cosmological distances suggest that two-third of the energy density of the universe is dominated by dark energy component with an effective negative pressure. This dark energy component is described by the equation of state $p_{x} = w \rho_{x}$ $(w \geq -1)$. We use gravitational lensing statistics to constrain the equation of state of this dark energy. We use $n(\Delta\theta)$, image separation distribution function of lensed quasars, as a tool to probe $w$. We find that for the observed range of $\Omega_m \sim 0.2 - 0.4$, $w$ should lie between $-0.8 \leq w \leq -0.4$ in order to have five lensed quasars in a sample of 867 optical quasars. This limit is highly sensitive to lens and Schechter parameters and evolution of galaxies.Comment: Modified results and inclusion of calculations with new set of parameter

Comment on "Localized behavior near the Zn impurity in YBa2Cu4O8 as measured by nuclear quadrupole resonance"

Williams and Kramer [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 64}, 104506 (2001)] have recently argued against the existence of staggered magnetic moments residing on several lattice sites around Zn impurities in YBCO superconductors. This claim, which is in line with an earlier publication by Williams, Tallon and Dupree [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 61}, 4319 (2000)], is however in contradiction with a large body of experimental data from different NMR groups. On the contrary, the authors argue in favor of a very localized spin and charge density on Cu sites first neighbors to Zn. We show that the conclusions of Williams and Kramer arise from erroneous interpretations of NMR and NQR data.Comment: 4 page

Electronic states and magnetic excitations in LiV2O4: Exact diagonalization study

Motivated by recent inelastic neutron scattering experiment we examine magnetic properties of LiV2O4. We consider a model which describes the half-filled localized A1g spins interacting via frustrated antiferromagnetic Heisenberg exchange and coupled by local Hund's interaction with the 1/8-filled itinerant Eg band, and study it within an exact diagonalization scheme. In the present study we limited the analysis to the case of the cluster of two isolated tetrahedrons. We obtained that both the ground state structure and low-lying excitations depend strongly on the value of the Hund's coupling which favors the triplet states. With increasing temperature the triplet states become more and more populated which results in the formation of non-zero residual magnetic moment. We present the temperature dependence of calculated magnetic moment and of the spin-spin correlation functions at different values of Hund's coupling and compare them with the experimental results.Comment: 7 pages. 6 eps figure