On isoperimetric inequalities with respect to infinite measures

We study isoperimetric problems with respect to infinite measures on $R ^n$. In the case of the measure $\mu$ defined by $d\mu = e^{c|x|^2} dx$, $c\geq 0$, we prove that, among all sets with given $\mu-$measure, the ball centered at the origin has the smallest (weighted) $\mu-$perimeter. Our results are then applied to obtain Polya-Szego-type inequalities, Sobolev embeddings theorems and a comparison result for elliptic boundary value problems.Comment: 25 page

Microwave Electrodynamics of the Antiferromagnetic Superconductor GdBa_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta}

The temperature dependence of the microwave surface impedance and conductivity are used to study the pairing symmetry and properties of cuprate superconductors. However, the superconducting properties can be hidden by the effects of paramagnetism and antiferromagnetic long-range order in the cuprates. To address this issue we have investigated the microwave electrodynamics of GdBa_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta}, a rare-earth cuprate superconductor which shows long-range ordered antiferromagnetism below T_N=2.2 K, the Neel temperature of the Gd ion subsystem. We measured the temperature dependence of the surface resistance and surface reactance of c-axis oriented epitaxial thin films at 10.4, 14.7 and 17.9 GHz with the parallel plate resonator technique down to 1.4 K. Both the resistance and the reactance data show an unusual upturn at low temperature and the resistance presents a strong peak around T_N mainly due to change in magnetic permeability.Comment: M2S-HTCS-VI Conference Paper, 2 pages, 2 eps figures, using Elsevier style espcrc2.st

Critical and tricritical singularities of the three-dimensional random-bond Potts model for large qq

We study the effect of varying strength, $\delta$, of bond randomness on the phase transition of the three-dimensional Potts model for large $q$. The cooperative behavior of the system is determined by large correlated domains in which the spins points into the same direction. These domains have a finite extent in the disordered phase. In the ordered phase there is a percolating cluster of correlated spins. For a sufficiently large disorder $\delta>\delta_t$ this percolating cluster coexists with a percolating cluster of non-correlated spins. Such a co-existence is only possible in more than two dimensions. We argue and check numerically that $\delta_t$ is the tricritical disorder, which separates the first- and second-order transition regimes. The tricritical exponents are estimated as $\beta_t/\nu_t=0.10(2)$ and $\nu_t=0.67(4)$. We claim these exponents are $q$ independent, for sufficiently large $q$. In the second-order transition regime the critical exponents $\beta_t/\nu_t=0.60(2)$ and $\nu_t=0.73(1)$ are independent of the strength of disorder.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure

Finsler Hardy inequalities

In this paper we present a unified simple approach to anisotropic Hardy inequalities in various settings. We consider Hardy inequalities which involve a Finsler distance from a point or from the boundary of a domain. The sharpness and the non-attainability of the constants in the inequalities are also proved.Comment: 31 pages. We add "Note added to Proof" in Introduction and several reference

Quantum tricriticality in transverse Ising-like systems

The quantum tricriticality of d-dimensional transverse Ising-like systems is studied by means of a perturbative renormalization group approach focusing on static susceptibility. This allows us to obtain the phase diagram for 3<d<4, with a clear location of the critical lines ending in the conventional quantum critical points and in the quantum tricritical one, and of the tricritical line for temperature T \geq 0. We determine also the critical and the tricritical shift exponents close to the corresponding ground state instabilities. Remarkably, we find a tricritical shift exponent identical to that found in the conventional quantum criticality and, by approaching the quantum tricritical point increasing the non-thermal control parameter r, a crossover of the quantum critical shift exponents from the conventional value \phi = 1/(d-1) to the new one \phi = 1/2(d-1). Besides, the projection in the (r,T)-plane of the phase boundary ending in the quantum tricritical point and crossovers in the quantum tricritical region appear quite similar to those found close to an usual quantum critical point. Another feature of experimental interest is that the amplitude of the Wilsonian classical critical region around this peculiar critical line is sensibly smaller than that expected in the quantum critical scenario. This suggests that the quantum tricriticality is essentially governed by mean-field critical exponents, renormalized by the shift exponent \phi = 1/2(d-1) in the quantum tricritical region.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures; to be published on EPJ

Transport Anomalies and Marginal Fermi-Liquid Effects at a Quantum Critical Point

The behavior of the conductivity and the density of states, as well as the phase relaxation time, of disordered itinerant electrons across a quantum ferromagnetic transition is discussed. It is shown that critical fluctuations lead to anomalies in the temperature and energy dependence of the conductivity and the tunneling density of states, respectively, that are stronger than the usual weak-localization anomalies in a disordered Fermi liquid. This can be used as an experimental probe of the quantum critical behavior. The energy dependence of the phase relaxation time at criticality is shown to be that of a marginal Fermi liquid.Comment: 4 pp., LaTeX, no figs., requires World Scientific style files (included), Contribution to MB1

Disorder induced rounding of the phase transition in the large q-state Potts model

The phase transition in the q-state Potts model with homogeneous ferromagnetic couplings is strongly first order for large q, while is rounded in the presence of quenched disorder. Here we study this phenomenon on different two-dimensional lattices by using the fact that the partition function of the model is dominated by a single diagram of the high-temperature expansion, which is calculated by an efficient combinatorial optimization algorithm. For a given finite sample with discrete randomness the free energy is a pice-wise linear function of the temperature, which is rounded after averaging, however the discontinuity of the internal energy at the transition point (i.e. the latent heat) stays finite even in the thermodynamic limit. For a continuous disorder, instead, the latent heat vanishes. At the phase transition point the dominant diagram percolates and the total magnetic moment is related to the size of the percolating cluster. Its fractal dimension is found d_f=(5+\sqrt{5})/4 and it is independent of the type of the lattice and the form of disorder. We argue that the critical behavior is exclusively determined by disorder and the corresponding fixed point is the isotropic version of the so called infinite randomness fixed point, which is realized in random quantum spin chains. From this mapping we conjecture the values of the critical exponents as \beta=2-d_f, \beta_s=1/2 and \nu=1.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, version as publishe

Interface mapping in two-dimensional random lattice models

We consider two disordered lattice models on the square lattice: on the medial lattice the random field Ising model at T=0 and on the direct lattice the random bond Potts model in the large-q limit at its transition point. The interface properties of the two models are known to be related by a mapping which is valid in the continuum approximation. Here we consider finite random samples with the same form of disorder for both models and calculate the respective equilibrium states exactly by combinatorial optimization algorithms. We study the evolution of the interfaces with the strength of disorder and analyse and compare the interfaces of the two models in finite lattices.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure