Non-Fermi-liquid behavior and anomalous suppression of Landau damping in layered metals close to ferromagnetism

We analyse the low-energy physics of nearly ferromagnetic metals in two spatial dimensions using the functional renormalization group technique. We find a new low-energy fixed point, at which the fermionic (electron-like) excitations are non-Fermi-liquid ($z_f = 13/10$) and the magnetic fluctuations exhibit an anomalous Landau damping whose rate vanishes as $\Gamma_{\bf q} \sim \vert {\bf q} \vert^{3/5}$ in the low-$\vert {\bf q} \vert$ limit. We discuss this renormalization of the Landau-damping exponent, which is the major novel prediction of our work, and highlight the possible link between that renormalization and neutron-scattering data on UGe$_2$ and related compounds. Implications of our analysis for YFe$_2$Al$_{10}$ are also discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; action modified to include spin of fermions, resulting in quantitative changes to exponents but same essential physic

Loop-Induced Stochastic Bias at Small Wavevectors

Primordial non-Gaussianities enhanced at small wavevectors can induce a power spectrum of the galaxy overdensity that differs greatly from that of the matter overdensity at large length scales. In previous work, it was shown that "squeezed" three-point and "collapsed" four-point functions of the curvature perturbation $\zeta$ can generate these non-Gaussianities and give rise to so-called scale-dependent and stochastic bias in the galaxy overdensity power spectrum. We explore a third way to generate non-Gaussianities enhanced at small wavevectors: the infrared behavior of quantum loop contributions to the four-point correlations of $\zeta$. We show that these loop effects lead to stochastic bias, which can be observable in the context of quasi-single field inflation.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Nanoscale density fluctuations in swift heavy ion irradiated amorphous SiO2

We report on the observation of nanoscale density fluctuations in 2 μm thick amorphous SiO₂ layers irradiated with 185 MeV Au ions. At high fluences, in excess of approximately 5 × 10¹² ions/cm², where the surface is completely covered by ion tracks, synchrotron small angle x-ray scattering measurements reveal the existence of a steady state of density fluctuations. In agreement with molecular dynamics simulations, this steady state is consistent with an ion track “annihilation” process, where high-density regions generated in the periphery of new tracks fill in low-density regions located at the center of existing tracks.The authors acknowledge the Australian Research Council and the Australian Synchrotron Research Program for financial support and thank the staff at the ANU Heavy Ion facility for their continued technical assistance. O.P., F.D., and K.N. acknowledge financial support from the Academy of Finland under its Centre of Excellence program as well as the OPNA project, and grants of computer capacity from CSC

Topological Optimization of the Evaluation of Finite Element Matrices

We present a topological framework for finding low-flop algorithms for evaluating element stiffness matrices associated with multilinear forms for finite element methods posed over straight-sided affine domains. This framework relies on phrasing the computation on each element as the contraction of each collection of reference element tensors with an element-specific geometric tensor. We then present a new concept of complexity-reducing relations that serve as distance relations between these reference element tensors. This notion sets up a graph-theoretic context in which we may find an optimized algorithm by computing a minimum spanning tree. We present experimental results for some common multilinear forms showing significant reductions in operation count and also discuss some efficient algorithms for building the graph we use for the optimization

Extended x-ray absorption fine structure study of porous GaSb formed by ion implantation

Porous GaSb has been formed by Ga ion implantation into crystalline GaSb substrates at either room temperature or −180 °C. The morphology has been characterized using scanning electron microscopy and the atomic structure was determined using extended x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. Room-temperature implantation at low fluences leads to the formation of ∼20-nm voids though the material remains crystalline. Higher fluences cause the microstructure to evolve into a network of amorphous GaSb rods ∼15 nm in diameter. In contrast, implantation at −180 °C generates large, elongated voids but no rods. Upon exposure to air, the surface of the porous material is readily oxidized yielding Ga₂O₃ and metallic Sb precipitates, the latter resulting from the reduction of unstable Sb₂O₃. We consider and discuss the atomic-scale mechanisms potentially operative during the concurrent crystalline-to-amorphous and continuous-to-porous transformations

Exoplanets imaging with a Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization Coronagraph - I. Principle

Using 2 aspheric mirrors, it is possible to apodize a telescope beam without losing light or angular resolution: the output beam is produced by ``remapping'' the entrance beam to produce the desired light intensity distribution in a new pupil. We present the Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization Coronagraph (PIAAC) concept, which uses this technique, and we show that it allows efficient direct imaging of extrasolar terrestrial planets with a small-size telescope in space. The suitability of the PIAAC for exoplanet imaging is due to a unique combination of achromaticity, small inner working angle (about 1.5 $\lambda/d$), high throughput, high angular resolution and large field of view. 3D geometrical raytracing is used to investigate the off-axis aberrations of PIAAC configurations, and show that a field of view of more than 100 $\lambda/d$ in radius is available thanks to the correcting optics of the PIAAC. Angular diameter of the star and tip-tilt errors can be compensated for by slightly increasing the size of the occulting mask in the focal plane, with minimal impact on the system performance. Earth-size planets at 10 pc can be detected in less than 30s with a 4m telescope. Wavefront quality requirements are similar to classical techniques.Comment: 35 pages, 16 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap