Shape of the inflaton potential and the efficiency of the universe heating

It is shown that the efficiency of the universe heating by an inflaton field depends not only on the possible presence of parametric resonance in the production of scalar particles but also strongly depends on the character of the inflaton approach to its mechanical equilibrium point. In particular, when the inflaton oscillations deviate from pure harmonic ones toward a succession of step functions, the production probability rises by several orders of magnitude. This in turn leads to a much higher temperature of the universe after the inflaton decay, in comparison to the harmonic case. An example of the inflaton potential is presented which creates a proper modification of the evolution of the inflaton toward equilibrium and does not destroy the nice features of inflation.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures; final version published in EPJ

Exchange interactions in transition metal oxides: The role of oxygen spin polarization

Magnetism of transition metal (TM) oxides is usually described in terms of the Heisenberg model, with orientation-independent interactions between the spins. However, the applicability of such a model is not fully justified for TM oxides because spin polarization of oxygen is usually ignored. In the conventional model based on the Anderson principle, oxygen effects are considered as a property of the TM ion and only TM interactions are relevant. Here, we perform a systematic comparison between two approaches for spin polarization on oxygen in typical TM oxides. To this end, we calculate the exchange interactions in NiO, MnO, and hematite (Fe2O3) for different magnetic configurations using the magnetic force theorem. We consider the full spin Hamiltonian including oxygen sites, and also derive an effective model where the spin polarization on oxygen renormalizes the exchange interactions between TM sites. Surprisingly, the exchange interactions in NiO depend on the magnetic state if spin polarization on oxygen is neglected, resulting in non-Heisenberg behavior. In contrast, the inclusion of spin polarization in NiO makes the Heisenberg model more applicable. Just the opposite, MnO behaves as a Heisenberg magnet when oxygen spin polarization is neglected, but shows strong non-Heisenberg effects when spin polarization on oxygen is included. In hematite, both models result in non-Heisenberg behavior. General applicability of the magnetic force theorem as well as the Heisenberg model to TM oxides is discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figure

An ab-initio study of the electron-phonon coupling within a Cr(001)-surface

It is experimentally well established that the Cr(001)-surface exhibits a sharp resonance around the Fermi level. However, there is no consensus about its physical origin. It is proposed to be either due to a single particle dz2 surface state renormalised by electron-phonon coupling or the orbital Kondo effect involving the degenerate dxz/dyz states. In this work we examine the electron-phonon coupling of the Cr(001)-surface by means of ab-initio calculations in the form of density functional perturbation theory. More precisely, the electron-phonon mass-enhancement factor of the surface layer is investigated for the 3d states. For the majority and minority spin dz2 surface states we find values of 0.19 and 0.16. We show that these calculated electron-phonon mass-enhancement factors are not in agreement with the experimental data even if we use realistic values for the temperature range and surface Debye frequency for the fit of the experimental data. More precisely, then experimentally an electron-phonon mass-enhancement factor of 0.70~0.10 is obtained, which is not in agreement with our calculated values of 0.19 and 0.16. Therefore, we conclude that the experimentally observed resonance at the Cr(001)-surface is not due to polaronic effects, but due to electron-electron correlation effects