888 research outputs found
Kondo Effects and Multipolar Order in the cubic PrTr2Al20 (Tr=Ti, V)
Our single crystal study reveals that PrTr2Al20 (Tr = Ti and V) provides the
first examples of a cubic {\Gamma}3 nonmagnetic ground doublet system that
shows the Kondo effect including a -ln T dependent resistivity. The {\Gamma}3
quadrupolar moments in PrV2Al20 induce anomalous metallic behavior through
hybridization with conduction electrons, such as T^{1/2} dependent resistivity
and susceptibility below ~ 20 K down to its ordering temperature T_O = 0.6 K.
In PrTi2Al20, however, quadrupoles are well-localized and exhibit an order at
T_O = 2.0 K. Stronger Kondo coupling in PrV2Al20 than in PrTi2Al20 suppresses
quadrupolar ordering, and instead promotes hybridization between the {\Gamma}3
doublet and conduction electrons, leading to most likely the quadrupolar Kondo
effect.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Large wetted areas of divertor power loads at Wendelstein 7-X
Wendelstein 7-X(W7-X), an optimized stellarator, conducted its first divertor operation. It uses an island divertor concept for the heat and particle exhaust. Large wetted areas of up to 1.5 m(2)have been reached, showing the benefits of the divertor concept and very efficient heat flux spreading. Moreover, a positive scaling of the wetted area with increasing SOL power is observed, which is important for operations at high input power. A definition of the wetted area is made based on thermographic camera observations for the 3D structure of W7-X with comparability to the definitions of other machines (e.g. tokamaks)
Superconductivity in the Ferroquadrupolar State in the Quadrupolar Kondo Lattice PrTiAl
The cubic compound PrTiAl is a quadrupolar Kondo lattice system
that exhibits quadrupolar ordering due to the non-Kramers ground
doublet and has strong hybridization between and conduction electrons. Our
study using high-purity single crystal reveals that PrTiAl exhibits
type-II superconductivity at mK in the nonmagnetic
ferroquadrupolar state. The superconducting critical temperature and field
phase diagram suggests moderately enhanced effective mass of
First insights into the phylogenetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Nepal
BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in Nepal. Strain variation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis may influence the outcome of TB infection and disease. To date, the phylogenetic diversity of M. tuberculosis in Nepal is unknown. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We analyzed 261 M. tuberculosis isolates recovered from pulmonary TB patients recruited between August 2009 and August 2010 in Nepal. M. tuberculosis lineages were determined by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) typing and spoligotyping. Drug resistance was determined by sequencing the hot spot regions of the relevant target genes. Overall, 164 (62.8%) TB patients were new, and 97 (37.2%) were previously treated. Any drug resistance was detected in 50 (19.2%) isolates, and 16 (6.1%) were multidrug-resistant. The most frequent M. tuberculosis lineage was Lineage 3 (CAS/Delhi) with 106 isolates (40.6%), followed by Lineage 2 (East-Asian lineage, includes Beijing genotype) with 84 isolates (32.2%), Lineage 4 (Euro-American lineage) with 41 (15.7%) isolates, and Lineage 1 (Indo-Oceanic lineage) with 30 isolates (11.5%). Based on spoligotyping, we found 45 different spoligotyping patterns that were previously described. The Beijing (83 isolates, 31.8%) and CAS spoligotype (52, 19.9%) were the dominant spoligotypes. A total of 36 (13.8%) isolates could not be assigned to any known spoligotyping pattern. Lineage 2 was associated with female sex (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.58, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.42-4.67, p = 0.002), and any drug resistance (aOR 2.79; 95% CI 1.43-5.45; p = 0.002). We found no evidence for an association of Lineage 2 with age or BCG vaccination status. CONCLUSIONS: We found a large genetic diversity of M. tuberculosis in Nepal with representation of all four major lineages. Lineages 3 and 2 were dominating. Lineage 2 was associated with clinical characteristics. This study fills an important gap on the map of the M. tuberculosis genetic diversity in the Asian reg
Experimental signatures of the mixed axial-gravitational anomaly in the Weyl semimetal NbP
Weyl semimetals are materials where electrons behave effectively as a kind of
massless relativistic particles known asWeyl fermions. These particles occur in
two flavours, or chiralities, and are subject to quantum anomalies, the
breaking of a conservation law by quantum fluctuations. For instance, the
number of Weyl fermions of each chirality is not independently conserved in
parallel electric and magnetic field, a phenomenon known as the chiral anomaly.
In addition, an underlying curved spacetime provides a distinct contribution to
a chiral imbalance, an effect known as the mixed axial-gravitational anomaly,
which remains experimentally elusive. However, the presence of a mixed
gauge-gravitational anomaly has recently been tied to thermoelectrical
transport in a magnetic field, even in flat spacetime, opening the door to
experimentally probe such type of anomalies in Weyl semimetals. Using a
temperature gradient, we experimentally observe a positive longitudinal
magnetothermoelectric conductance (PMTC) in the Weyl semimetal NbP for
collinear temperature gradients and magnetic fields (DT || B) that vanishes in
the ultra quantum limit. This observation is consistent with the presence of a
mixed axial-gravitational anomaly. Our work provides clear experimental
evidence for the existence of a mixed axial-gravitational anomaly of Weyl
fermions, an outstanding theoretical concept that has so far eluded
experimental detection
Unusual Field-Insensitive Phase Transition and Kondo Behavior in SmTiAl
Magnetization, electrical resistivity and specific heat measurements were
performed on high-quality single crystalline SmTiAl (residual
resistivity ratio 40) grown by Al self-flux method. A Kondo-like dependence in the resistivity is observed below 50 K. We discovered a
field-insensitive phase transition at = 6.5 K and a field-insensitive
heavy fermion behavior with the electronic specific heat coefficient =
150 mJ/(K mol). Specific heat analysis reveals that the ground state is a
quartet state and the Sm magnetic dipole moment
( at 0) orders below in spite of the
field-insensitive behavior. Possible reasons for the field insensitiveness will
be discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 80 (2011
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