20,202 research outputs found
Ising pyrochlore magnets: Low temperature properties, ice rules and beyond
Pyrochlore magnets are candidates for spin-ice behavior. We present
theoretical simulations of relevance for the pyrochlore family R2Ti2O7 (R= rare
earth) supported by magnetothermal measurements on selected systems. By
considering long ranged dipole-dipole as well as short-ranged superexchange
interactions we get three distinct behaviours: (i) an ordered doubly degenerate
state, (ii) a highly disordered state with a broad transition to paramagnetism,
(iii) a partially ordered state with a sharp transition to paramagnetism. Thus
these competing interactions can induce behaviour very different from
conventional ``spin ice''. Closely corresponding behaviour is seen in the real
compounds---in particular Ho2Ti2O7 corresponds to case (iii) which has not been
discussed before, rather than (ii) as suggested earlier.Comment: 5 pages revtex, 4 figures; some revisions, additional data,
additional co-authors and a changed title. Basic ideas of paper remain the
same but those who downloaded the original version are requested to get this
more complete versio
GRB990123: Evidence that the Gamma Rays Come from a Central Engine
GRB990123 was a long complex gamma-ray burst with an optical transient that
started early within the gamma-ray phase. The peak and power law decay of the
early optical emission strongly indicates the presence of a decelerating
relativistic shell during that phase. Prior to this burst, it was not known if
the shell decelerated during the burst, so an external shock origin for the
gamma rays was still possible. If the gamma-rays are produced in the external
shock, then the pulse widths should reflect the observed deceleration of the
shell and increase by about 2.3. We analyze the fine time structure observed in
the gamma-ray data from BATSE and determine that the width of the peaks do not
increase as expected for a decelerating shell; the later pulses are, at most, a
factor of 1.15 longer than the earlier pulses. We also analyze the variability
to determine what fraction of the shell's surface could be involved in the
production of the gamma rays, the so-called surface filling factor. For
GRB990123 we find a filling factor of 0.008. The lack of pulse width evolution
eliminates the only remaining kinematically acceptable external shock
explanation for the gamma-ray phase and, thus, the gamma rays must originate at
a central engine.Comment: 14 pages, 3 embedded figues, Latex, Submitted to ApJ
Spin phonon coupling in frustrated magnet CdCrO
The infrared phonon spectrum of the spinel CdCr2O4 is measured as a function
temperature from 6 K to 300K. The triply degenerate Cr phonons soften in the
paramagnetic phase as temperature is lowered below 100 K and then split into a
singlet and doublet in the low T antiferromagnetic phase which is tetragonally
distorted to relieve the geometric frustration in the pyrochlore lattice of
Cr ions. The phonon splitting is inconsistent with the simple increase
(decrease) in the force constants due to deceasing (increasing) bond lengths in
the tetragonal phase. Rather they correspond to changes in the force constants
due to the magnetic order in the antiferromagnetic state. The phonon splitting
in this system is opposite of that observed earlier in ZnCr2O4 as predicted by
theory. The magnitude of the splitting gives a measure of the spin phonon
coupling strength which is smaller than in the case of ZnCr2O4.Comment: 4.2 pages, 4 figures, 1 reference added, submmite
spl(2,1) dynamical supersymmetry and suppression of ferromagnetism in flat band double-exchange models
The low energy spectrum of the ferromagnetic Kondo lattice model on a N-site
complete graph extended with on-site repulsion is obtained from the underlying
spl(2,1) algebra properties in the strong coupling limit. The ferromagnetic
ground state is realized for 1 and N+1 electrons only. We identify the large
density of states to be responsible for the suppression of the ferromagnetic
state and argue that a similar situation is encountered in the Kagome,
pyrochlore, and other lattices with flat bands in their one-particle density of
states.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur
Magnetic soft modes in the locally distorted triangular antiferromagnet alpha-CaCr2O4
In this paper we explore the phase diagram and excitations of a distorted
triangular lattice antiferromagnet. The unique two-dimensional distortion
considered here is very different from the 'isosceles'-type distortion that has
been extensively investigated. We show that it is able to stabilize a 120{\deg}
spin structure for a large range of exchange interaction values, while new
structures are found for extreme distortions. A physical realization of this
model is \alpha-CaCr2O4 which has 120{\deg} structure but lies very close to
the phase boundary. This is verified by inelastic neutron scattering which
reveals unusual roton-like minima at reciprocal space points different from
those corresponding to the magnetic order.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures and lots of spin-wave
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