Vortices on Hyperbolic Surfaces

It is shown that abelian Higgs vortices on a hyperbolic surface $M$ can be constructed geometrically from holomorphic maps $f:M \to N$, where $N$ is also a hyperbolic surface. The fields depend on $f$ and on the metrics of $M$ and $N$. The vortex centres are the ramification points, where the derivative of $f$ vanishes. The magnitude of the Higgs field measures the extent to which $f$ is locally an isometry. Witten's construction of vortices on the hyperbolic plane is rederived, and new examples of vortices on compact surfaces and on hyperbolic surfaces of revolution are obtained. The interpretation of these solutions as SO(3)-invariant, self-dual SU(2) Yang--Mills fields on $\R^4$ is also given.Comment: Revised version: new section on four-dimensional interpretation of hyperbolic vortices added

Theory of Thermal Conductivity in YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta}

We calculate the electronic thermal conductivity in a d-wave superconductor, including both the effect of impurity scattering and inelastic scattering by antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations. We analyze existing experiments, particularly with regard to the question of the relative importance of electronic and phononic contributions to the heat current, and to the influence of disorder on low-temperature properties. We find that phonons dominate heat transport near T_c, but that electrons are responsible for most of the peak observed in clean samples, in agreement with a recent analysis of Krishana et al. In agreement with recent data on YBa_2(Cu_1-xZn_x)_3O_7-\delta the peak position is found to vary nonmonotonically with disorder.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. Let

Quasiparticle photoemission intensity in doped two-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets

Using the self-consistent Born approximation, and the corresponding wave function of the magnetic polaron, we calculate the quasiparticle weight corresponding to destruction of a real electron (in contrast to creation of a spinless holon), as a funtion of wave vector for one hole in a generalized $t-J$ model and the strong coupling limit of a generalized Hubbard model. The results are in excellent agreement with those obtained by exact diagonalization of a sufficiently large cluster. Only the Hubbard weigth compares very well with photoemission measurements in Sr_2CuO_2Cl_2.Comment: 11 pages, latex, 3 figure

Theory of exciton-exciton correlation in nonlinear optical response

We present a systematic theory of Coulomb interaction effects in the nonlinear optical processes in semiconductors using a perturbation series in the exciting laser field. The third-order dynamical response consists of phase-space filling correction, mean-field exciton-exciton interaction, and two-exciton correlation effects expressed as a force-force correlation function. The theory provides a unified description of effects of bound and unbound biexcitons, including memory-effects beyond the Markovian approximation. Approximations for the correlation function are presented.Comment: RevTex, 35 pages, 10 PostScript figs, shorter version submitted to Physical Review

Neutron-induced background in the CONUS experiment

CONUS is a novel experiment aiming at detecting elastic neutrino nucleus scattering in the fully coherent regime using high-purity Germanium (Ge) detectors and a reactor as antineutrino ($\bar\nu$) source. The detector setup is installed at the commercial nuclear power plant in Brokdorf, Germany, at a very small distance to the reactor core in order to guarantee a high flux of more than 10$^{13}\bar\nu$/(s$\cdot$cm$^2$). For the experiment, a good understanding of neutron-induced background events is required, as the neutron recoil signals can mimic the predicted neutrino interactions. Especially neutron-induced events correlated with the thermal power generation are troublesome for CONUS. On-site measurements revealed the presence of a thermal power correlated, highly thermalized neutron field with a fluence rate of (745$\pm$30)cm$^{-2}$d$^{-1}$. These neutrons that are produced by nuclear fission inside the reactor core, are reduced by a factor of $\sim$10$^{20}$ on their way to the CONUS shield. With a high-purity Ge detector without shield the $\gamma$-ray background was examined including highly thermal power correlated $^{16}$N decay products as well as $\gamma$-lines from neutron capture. Using the measured neutron spectrum as input, it was shown, with the help of Monte Carlo simulations, that the thermal power correlated field is successfully mitigated by the installed CONUS shield. The reactor-induced background contribution in the region of interest is exceeded by the expected signal by at least one order of magnitude assuming a realistic ionization quenching factor of 0.2.Comment: 28 pages, 28 figure

Spin bags in the doped t-J model

We present a nonperturbative method for deriving a quasiparticle description of the low-energy excitations in the t-J model for strongly correlated electrons. Using the exact diagonalization technique we evaluated exactly the spectral functions of composite operators which describe an electron or hole dressed by antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations as expected in the string or spin bag picture. For hole doping up to $1/8$, use of the composite operators leads to a drastic simplification of the single particle spectral function: at half-filling it takes free-particle form, for the doped case it resembles a system of weakly interacting Fermions corresponding to the doped holes. We conclude that for all doping levels under study, the elementary electronic excitations next to the Fermi level are adequately described by the antiferromagnetic spin fluctuation picture and show that the dressing of the holes leads to formation of a bound state with d(x^2-y^2) symmetry.Comment: Remarks: Revtex file + 4 figures attached as compressed postscript files Figures can also be obtained by ordinary mail on reques

Acoustically driven storage of light in a quantum well

The strong piezoelectric fields accompanying a surface acoustic wave on a semiconductor quantum well structure are employed to dissociate optically generated excitons and efficiently trap the created electron hole pairs in the moving lateral potential superlattice of the sound wave. The resulting spatial separation of the photogenerated ambipolar charges leads to an increase of the radiative lifetime by orders of magnitude as compared to the unperturbed excitons. External and deliberate screening of the lateral piezoelectric fields triggers radiative recombination after very long storage times at a remote location on the sample.Comment: 4 PostScript figures included, Physical Review Letters, in pres

Multiple team membership and job performance:The role of employees' information-sharing networks

Individuals in contemporary work organizations are often involved in multiple teams at the same time. This study uses a social capital perspective to propose that employees' multiple team memberships (MTM) offer the potential for individual performance benefitsanddetriments, depending on the characteristics of an employee's information-sharing network. To test our predictions, we gathered both archival and survey data at an organization for applied research in the Netherlands. We found that individual MTM was indirectly associated with an employee's overall job performance by increasing the size of his or her information-sharing network. As expected, however, this indirect relationship was contingent on the average strength of an employee's network ties (i.e., the frequency of the respective interactions), such that MTM only improved overall performance when network ties were relatively weak. The indirect relationship between MTM and individual job performance was negative, by contrast, when an employee's network ties were relatively strong. Together, these findings advance our understanding of the mechanisms and contingency factors that shape the performance consequences associated with individuals' concurrent membership in multiple teams. Practitioner points An employee's membership in multiple teams at the same time increases the size of his or her information-sharing network within the organization. The performance consequences associated with this increased information-sharing network hinge on the characteristics of an employee's information-sharing network. If the respective information-sharing linkages are based on relatively infrequent interactions with colleagues, an employee's multiple team membership indirectly benefits his or her overall job performance. If the respective information-sharing linkages are based on relatively frequent and intense interactions with colleagues, however, an employee's multiple team membership indirectly diminishes his or her overall job performance

Universal Heat Conduction in YBa_2Cu_3O_6.9

The thermal conductivity of YBa_2Cu_3O_6.9 was measured at low temperatures in untwinned single crystals with concentrations of Zn impurities from 0 to 3% of Cu. A linear term kappa_0/T = 0.19 mW/K^2.cm is clearly resolved as T -> 0, and found to be virtually independent of Zn concentration. The existence of this residual normal fluid strongly validates the basic theory of transport in unconventional superconductors. Moreover, the observed universal behavior is in quantitative agreement with calculations for a gap function of d-wave symmetry.Comment: Latex file, 4 pages, 3 EPS figures, to appear in Physical Review Letter

Transport Properties of d-Wave Superconductors in the Vortex State

We calculate the magnetic field dependence of quasiparticle transport properties in the vortex state of a d-wave superconductor arising solely from the quasiparticle's Doppler shift in the superflow field surrounding the vortex. Qualitative features agree well with experiments on cuprate and heavy fermion superconductors at low fields and temperatures. We derive scaling relations in the variable $T/H^{1/2}$ valid at sufficiently low temperatures $T$ and fields $H$, but show that these relations depend on the scattering phase shift, and are in general fulfilled only approximately even in the clean limit, due to the energy dependence of the quasiparticle relaxation time.Comment: 5 pages, 2 Postscript figure