698 research outputs found
Comment on "Evolution of a Quasi-Stationary State"
Approximately forty years ago it was realized that the time development of
decaying systems might not be precisely exponential. Rolf Winter (Phys. Rev.
{\bf 123}, 1503 (1961)) analyzed the simplest nontrivial system - a particle
tunneling out of a well formed by a wall and a delta-function. He calculated
the probability current just outside the well and found irregular oscillations
on a short time scale followed by an exponential decrease followed by more
oscillations and finally by a decrease as a power of the time. We have
reanalyzed this system, concentrating on the survival probability of the
particle in the well rather than the probability current, and find a different
short time behavior.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, RevTex
Arrival time and magnitude of airborne fission products from the Fukushima, Japan, reactor incident as measured in Seattle, WA, USA
We report results of air monitoring started due to the recent natural
catastrophe on 11 March 2011 in Japan and the severe ensuing damage to the
Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor complex. On 17-18 March 2011, we registered
the first arrival of the airborne fission products 131-I, 132-I, 132-Te,
134-Cs, and 137-Cs in Seattle, WA, USA, by identifying their characteristic
gamma rays using a germanium detector. We measured the evolution of the
activities over a period of 23 days at the end of which the activities had
mostly fallen below our detection limit. The highest detected activity amounted
to 4.4 +/- 1.3 mBq/m^3 of 131-I on 19-20 March.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, published in Journal of Environmental
Radioactivit
Evolution of the pairing pseudogap in the spectral function with interplane anisotropy
We study the pairing pseudogap in the spectral function as a function of
interplane coupling. The analytical expressions for the self-energy in the
critical regime are obtained for any degree of anisotropy. The frequency
dependence of the self-energy is found to be qualitatively different in two and
three dimensions, and the crossover from two to three dimensional behavior is
discussed. In particular, by considering the anisotropy of the Fermi velocity
and gap along the Fermi surface, we can qualitatively explain recent
photoemission experiments on high temperature superconductors concerning the
temperature dependent Fermi arcs seen in the pseudogap phase.Comment: 20 pages, revtex, 5 encapsulated postscript figures include
The electronic specific heat in the pairing pseudogap regime
When pairing correlations in a quasi two dimensional electron system induce a
pseudogap in the single particle density of states, the specific heat must also
contain a sizeable pair contribution. The theoretically calculated specific
heat for such a system is compared to the experimental results of Loram and his
collaborators for underdoped YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x} and La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_4 samples.
The size and doping dependence of the extracted pseudogap energy scale for both
materials is comparable to the values obtained from a variety of other
experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 5 eps figure
Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell state in quasi-one-dimensional superconductors
The properties of a quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) superconductor with {\it
an open Fermi surface} are expected to be unusual in a magnetic field. On the
one hand, the quasi-1D structure of the Fermi surface strongly favors the
formation of a non-uniform state (Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell (LOFF)
state) in the presence of a magnetic field acting on the electron spins. On the
other hand, a magnetic field acting on an open Fermi surface induces a
dimensional crossover by confining the electronic wave-functions wave-functions
along the chains of highest conductivity, which results in a divergence of the
orbital critical field and in a stabilization at low temperature of a cascade
of superconducting phases separated by first order transistions. In this paper,
we study the phase diagram as a function of the anisotropy. We discuss in
details the experimental situation in the quasi-1D organic conductors of the
Bechgaard salts family and argue that they appear as good candidates for the
observation of the LOFF state, provided that their anisotropy is large enough.
Recent experiments on the organic quasi-1D superconductor (TMTSF)ClO
are in agreement with the results obtained in this paper and could be
interpreted as a signature of a high-field superconducting phase. We also point
out the possibility to observe a LOFF state in some quasi-2D organic
superconductors.Comment: 24 pages+17 figures (upon request), RevTex, ORSAY-LPS-24109
Impurity induced resonant state in a pseudogap state of a high temperature superconductor
We predict a resonance impurity state generated by the substitution of one Cu
atom with a nonmagnetic atom, such as Zn, in the pseudogap state of a high-T_c
superconductor. The precise microscopic origin of the pseudogap is not
important for this state to be formed, in particular this resonance will be
present even in the absence of superconducting fluctuations in the normal
state. In the presence of superconducting fluctuations, we predict the
existence of a counterpart impurity peak on a symmetric bias.
The nature of impurity resonance is similar to the previously studied
resonance in the d-wave superconducting state.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Quasiparticle scattering and local density of states in the d-density wave phase
We study the effects of single-impurity scattering on the local density of
states in the high- cuprates. We compare the quasiparticle interference
patterns in three different ordered states: d-wave superconductor (DSC),
d-density wave (DDW), and coexisting DSC and DDW (DSC-DDW). In the coexisting
state, at energies below the DSC gap, the patterns are almost identical to
those in the pure DSC state with the same DSC gap. However, they are
significantly different for energies greater than or equal to the DSC gap. This
transition at an energy around the DSC gap can be used to test the nature of
the superconducting state of the underdoped cuprates by scanning tunneling
microscopy. Furthermore, we note that in the DDW state the effect of the
coherence factors is stronger than in the DSC state. The new features arising
due to DDW ordering are discussed.Comment: 6 page, 5 figures (Higher resolution figures are available by
request
The anomaly of the oxygen bond-bending mode at 320 cm and the additional absorption peak in the c-axis infrared conductivity of underdoped YBaCuO single crystals revisited by ellipsometricmeasurements
We have performed ellipsometric measurements of the far-infrared c-axis
dielectric response of underdoped YBaCuO single
crystals. Here we report a detailed analysis of the temperature-dependent
renormalization of the oxygen bending phonon mode at 320 cm and the
formation of the additional absorption peak around 400-500 cm. For a
strongly underdoped YBaCuO crystal with T=52 K we
find that, in agreement with previous reports based on conventional reflection
measurements, the gradual onset of both features occurs well above T at
T*150 K. Contrary to some of these reports, however, our data establish
that the phonon anomaly and the formation of the additional peak exhibit very
pronounced and steep changes right at T. For a less underdoped
YBaCuO crystal with T=80 K, the onset temperature of
the phonon anomaly almost coincides with T. Also in contrast to some
previous reports, we find for both crystals that a sizeable fraction of the
spectral weight of the additional absorption peak cannot be accounted for by
the spectral-weight loss of the phonon modes but instead arises from a
redistribution of the electronic continuum. Our ellipsometric data are
consistent with a model where the bilayer cuprate compounds are treated as a
superlattice of intra- and inter-bilayer Josephson-junctions
Pairing symmetry and long range pair potential in a weak coupling theory of superconductivity
We study the superconducting phase with two component order parameter
scenario, such as, , where . We show, that in absence of orthorhombocity, the usual
does not mix with usual symmetry gap in an anisotropic band
structure. But the symmetry does mix with the usual d-wave for . The d-wave symmetry with higher harmonics present in it also mixes with
higher order extended wave symmetry. The required pair potential to obtain
higher anisotropic and extended s-wave symmetries, is derived by
considering longer ranged two-body attractive potential in the spirit of tight
binding lattice. We demonstrate that the dominant pairing symmetry changes
drastically from to like as the attractive pair potential is obtained
from longer ranged interaction. More specifically, a typical length scale of
interaction , which could be even/odd multiples of lattice spacing leads
to predominant wave symmetry. The role of long range interaction on
pairing symmetry has further been emphasized by studying the typical interplay
in the temperature dependencies of these higher order and wave pairing
symmetries.Comment: Revtex 8 pages, 7 figures embeded in the text, To appear in PR
c-Axis Transport and Resistivity Anisotropy of Lightly- to Moderately-Doped La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} Single Crystals: Implications on the Charge Transport Mechanism
Both the in-plane and the out-of-plane resistivities (\rho_{ab} and \rho_{c})
are measured in high-quality La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} (LSCO) single crystals in
the lightly- to moderately-doped region, x = 0.01 to 0.10, and the resistivity
anisotropy is determined. In all the samples studied, the anisotropy ratio \rho
_{c}/\rho_{ab} quickly increases with decreasing temperature, although in
non-superconducting samples the strong localization effect causes \rho
_{c}/\rho_{ab} to decrease at low temperatures. Most notably, it is found that
\rho_{c}/\rho_{ab} at moderate temperatures (100 - 300 K) is almost completely
independent of doping in the non-superconducting regime (x = 0.01 to 0.05);
this indicates that the same charge confinement mechanism that renormalizes the
c-axis hopping rate is at work down to x = 0.01. It is discussed that this
striking x-independence of \rho_{c}/\rho_{ab} is consistent with the idea that
holes form a self-organized network of hole-rich regions, which also explains
the unusually metallic in-plane transport of the holes in the lightly-doped
region. Furthermore, the data for x > 0.05 suggest that the emergence of the
superconductivity is related to an increase in the c-axis coupling.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
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