712 research outputs found
Impact of disorder on dynamics and ordering in the honeycomb-lattice iridate Na2IrO3
Kitaev's honeycomb spin-liquid model and its proposed realization in materials such as α-RuCl3, Li2IrO3, and Na2IrO3 continue to present open questions about how the dynamics of a spin liquid are modified in the presence of non-Kitaev interactions as well as the presence of inhomogeneities. Here we use Na23 nuclear magnetic resonance to probe both static and dynamical magnetic properties in single-crystal Na2IrO3. We find that the NMR shift follows the bulk susceptibility above 30 K but deviates from it below; moreover below TN the spectra show a broad distribution of internal magnetic fields. Both of these results provide evidence for inequivalent magnetic sites at low temperature, suggesting inhomogeneities are important for the magnetism. The spin-lattice relaxation rate is isotropic and diverges at TN, suggesting that the Kitaev cubic axes may control the critical quantum spin fluctuations. In the ordered state, we observe gapless excitations, which may arise from site substitution, emergent defects from milder disorder, or possibly be associated with nearby quantum paramagnetic states distinct from the Kitaev spin liquid
Non-coplanar and counter-rotating incommensurate magnetic order stabilized by Kitaev interactions in -Li2IrO3
Materials that realize Kitaev spin models with bond-dependent anisotropic
interactions have long been searched for, as the resulting frustration effects
are predicted to stabilize novel forms of magnetic order or quantum spin
liquids. Here we explore the magnetism of -LiIrO, which has the
topology of a 3D Kitaev lattice of inter-connected Ir honeycombs. Using
resonant magnetic x-ray diffraction we find a complex, yet highly-symmetric
incommensurate magnetic structure with non-coplanar and counter-rotating Ir
moments. We propose a minimal Kitaev-Heisenberg Hamiltonian that naturally
accounts for all key features of the observed magnetic structure. Our results
provide strong evidence that -LiIrO realizes a spin Hamiltonian
with dominant Kitaev interactions.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
Disorder-controlled relaxation in a 3D Hubbard model quantum simulator
Understanding the collective behavior of strongly correlated electrons in
materials remains a central problem in many-particle quantum physics. A minimal
description of these systems is provided by the disordered Fermi-Hubbard model
(DFHM), which incorporates the interplay of motion in a disordered lattice with
local inter-particle interactions. Despite its minimal elements, many dynamical
properties of the DFHM are not well understood, owing to the complexity of
systems combining out-of-equilibrium behavior, interactions, and disorder in
higher spatial dimensions. Here, we study the relaxation dynamics of doubly
occupied lattice sites in the three-dimensional (3D) DFHM using
interaction-quench measurements on a quantum simulator composed of fermionic
atoms confined in an optical lattice. In addition to observing the widely
studied effect of disorder inhibiting relaxation, we find that the cooperation
between strong interactions and disorder also leads to the emergence of a
dynamical regime characterized by \textit{disorder-enhanced} relaxation. To
support these results, we develop an approximate numerical method and a
phenomenological model that each capture the essential physics of the decay
dynamics. Our results provide a theoretical framework for a previously
inaccessible regime of the DFHM and demonstrate the ability of quantum
simulators to enable understanding of complex many-body systems through minimal
models
Exact Chiral Spin Liquids and Mean-Field Perturbations of Gamma Matrix Models on the Ruby Lattice
We theoretically study an exactly solvable Gamma matrix generalization of the
Kitaev spin model on the ruby lattice, which is a honeycomb lattice with
"expanded" vertices and links. We find this model displays an exceptionally
rich phase diagram that includes: (i) gapless phases with stable spin fermi
surfaces, (ii) gapless phases with low-energy Dirac cones and quadratic band
touching points, and (iii) gapped phases with finite Chern numbers possessing
the values {\pm}4,{\pm}3,{\pm}2 and {\pm}1. The model is then generalized to
include Ising-like interactions that break the exact solvability of the model
in a controlled manner. When these terms are dominant, they lead to a trivial
Ising ordered phase which is shown to be adiabatically connected to a large
coupling limit of the exactly solvable phase. In the limit when these
interactions are weak, we treat them within mean-field theory and present the
resulting phase diagrams. We discuss the nature of the transitions between
various phases. Our results highlight the richness of possible ground states in
closely related magnetic systems.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure
Quark Masses: An Environmental Impact Statement
We investigate worlds that lie on a slice through the parameter space of the
Standard Model over which quark masses vary. We allow as many as three quarks
to participate in nuclei, while fixing the mass of the electron and the average
mass of the lightest baryon flavor multiplet. We classify as "congenial" worlds
that satisfy the environmental constraint that the quark masses allow for
stable nuclei with charges one, six, and eight, making organic chemistry
possible. Whether a congenial world actually produces observers depends on a
multitude of historical contingencies, beginning with primordial
nucleosynthesis, which we do not explore. Such constraints may be independently
superimposed on our results. Environmental constraints such as the ones we
study may be combined with information about the a priori distribution of quark
masses over the landscape of possible universes to determine whether the
measured values of the quark masses are determined environmentally, but our
analysis is independent of such an anthropic approach.
We estimate baryon masses as functions of quark masses and nuclear masses as
functions of baryon masses. We check for the stability of nuclei against
fission, strong particle emission, and weak nucleon emission. For two light
quarks with charges 2/3 and -1/3, we find a band of congeniality roughly 29 MeV
wide in their mass difference. We also find another, less robust region of
congeniality with one light, charge -1/3 quark, and two heavier, approximately
degenerate charge -1/3 and 2/3 quarks. No other assignment of light quark
charges yields congenial worlds with two baryons participating in nuclei. We
identify and discuss the region in quark-mass space where nuclei would be made
from three or more baryon species.Comment: 40 pages, 16 figures (in color), 4 tables. See paper for a more
detailed abstract. v4: Cleaning up minor typo
Z topology and superconductivity from symmetry lowering of a 3D Dirac Metal AuPb
3D Dirac semi-metals (DSMs) are materials that have massless Dirac electrons
and exhibit exotic physical properties It has been suggested that structurally
distorting a DSM can create a Topological Insulator (TI), but this has not yet
been experimentally verified. Furthermore, quasiparticle excitations known as
Majorana Fermions have been theoretically proposed to exist in materials that
exhibit superconductivity and topological surface states. Here we show that the
cubic Laves phase AuPb has a bulk Dirac cone above 100 K that gaps out upon
cooling at a structural phase transition to create a topologically non trivial
phase that superconducts below 1.2 K. The nontrivial Z = -1 invariant in
the low temperature phase indicates that AuPb in its superconducting state
must have topological surface states. These characteristics make AuPb a
unique platform for studying the transition between bulk Dirac electrons and
topological surface states as well as studying the interaction of
superconductivity with topological surface states
The Shift from Local to Global Visual Processing in 6-Year-Old Children Is Associated with Grey Matter Loss
International audienceBackground: A real-world visual scene consists of local elements (e.g. trees) that are arranged coherently into a global configuration (e.g. a forest). Children show psychological evolution from a preference for local visual information to an adult-like preference for global visual information, with the transition in visual preference occurring around 6 years of age. The brain regions involved in this shift in visual preference have not been described. Methods and Results: We used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to study children during this developmental window to investigate changes in gray matter that underlie the shift from a bias for local to global visual information. Six-year-old children were assigned to groups according to their judgment on a global/local task. The first group included children who still presented with local visual processing biases, and the second group included children who showed global visual processing biases. VBM results indicated that compared to children with local visual processing biases, children with global visual processing biases had a loss of gray matter in the right occipital and parietal visuospatial areas. Conclusions: These anatomical findings are in agreement with previous findings in children with neurodevelopmental disorders and represent the first structural identification of brain regions that allow healthy children to develop a global perception of the visual world
Inhibition of Multidrug Resistance by SV40 Pseudovirion Delivery of an Antigene Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) in Cultured Cells
Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is known to bind with extraordinarily high affinity and sequence-specificity to complementary nucleic acid sequences and can be used to suppress gene expression. However, effective delivery into cells is a major obstacle to the development of PNA for gene therapy applications. Here, we present a novel method for the in vitro delivery of antigene PNA to cells. By using a nucleocapsid protein derived from Simian virus 40, we have been able to package PNA into pseudovirions, facilitating the delivery of the packaged PNA into cells. We demonstrate that this system can be used effectively to suppress gene expression associated with multidrug resistance in cancer cells, as shown by RT-PCR, flow cytometry, Western blotting, and cell viability under chemotherapy. The combination of PNA with the SV40-based delivery system is a method for suppressing a gene of interest that could be broadly applied to numerous targets
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