Description of hard sphere crystals and crystal-fluid interfaces: a critical comparison between density functional approaches and a phase field crystal model

In materials science the phase field crystal approach has become popular to model crystallization processes. Phase field crystal models are in essence Landau-Ginzburg-type models, which should be derivable from the underlying microscopic description of the system in question. We present a study on classical density functional theory in three stages of approximation leading to a specific phase field crystal model, and we discuss the limits of applicability of the models that result from these approximations. As a test system we have chosen the three--dimensional suspension of monodisperse hard spheres. The levels of density functional theory that we discuss are fundamental measure theory, a second-order Taylor expansion thereof, and a minimal phase-field crystal model. We have computed coexistence densities, vacancy concentrations in the crystalline phase, interfacial tensions and interfacial order parameter profiles, and we compare these quantities to simulation results. We also suggest a procedure to fit the free parameters of the phase field crystal model.Comment: 21 page

Off-diagonal helicity density matrix elements for heavy vector mesons inclusively produced in N-N, gamma-N, l-N interactions

Final state interactions in quark fragmentation may give origin to non zero values of the off-diagonal element rho_(1,-1) of the helicity density matrix of vector mesons V produced in current jets, with a large energy fraction x_E; the value of rho_(1,-1)(V) is related to the hard constituent dynamics and tests unusual properties of it. Some recent data on phi, K^* and D^* produced in e^+ e^- annihilations at LEP show such effects. Predictions are given here for rho_(1,-1) of heavy mesons produced in nucleon-nucleon, gamma-nucleon and lepton-nucleon interactions.Comment: LaTeX, 10 pages, 1 postscript figure, uses epsfig.sty. Revised version, to be published on Phys. Lett. B. Some statements added to clarify tex

Bailey flows and Bose-Fermi identities for the conformal coset models (A1(1))N×(A1(1))N′/(A1(1))N+N′(A^{(1)}_1)_N\times (A^{(1)}_1)_{N'}/(A^{(1)}_1)_{N+N'}

We use the recently established higher-level Bailey lemma and Bose-Fermi polynomial identities for the minimal models $M(p,p')$ to demonstrate the existence of a Bailey flow from $M(p,p')$ to the coset models $(A^{(1)}_1)_N\times (A^{(1)}_1)_{N'}/(A^{(1)}_1)_{N+N'}$ where $N$ is a positive integer and $N'$ is fractional, and to obtain Bose-Fermi identities for these models. The fermionic side of these identities is expressed in terms of the fractional-level Cartan matrix introduced in the study of $M(p,p')$. Relations between Bailey and renormalization group flow are discussed.Comment: 28 pages, AMS-Latex, two references adde

Linear-in-frequency optical conductivity in GdPtBi due to transitions near the triple points

The complex optical conductivity of the half-Heusler compound GdPtBi is measured in a frequency range from 20 to 22 000 cm$^{-1}$ (2.5 meV - 2.73 eV) at temperatures down to 10 K in zero magnetic field. We find the real part of the conductivity, $\sigma_{1}(\omega)$, to be almost perfectly linear in frequency over a broad range from 50 to 800 cm$^{-1}$ ($\sim$ 6 - 100 meV) for $T \leq 50$ K. This linearity strongly suggests the presence of three-dimensional linear electronic bands with band crossings (nodes) near the chemical potential. Band-structure calculations show the presence of triple points, where one doubly degenerate and one nondegenerate band cross each other in close vicinity of the chemical potential. From a comparison of our data with the optical conductivity computed from the band structure, we conclude that the observed nearly linear $\sigma_{1}(\omega)$ originates as a cumulative effect from all the transitions near the triple points.Comment: 5+ pages, 5 figures, band-structure and optical-conductivity calculations adde

Two-channel conduction in YbPtBi

We investigated transport, magnetotransport, and broadband optical properties of the half-Heusler compound YbPtBi. Hall measurements evidence two types of charge carriers: highly mobile electrons with a temperature-dependent concentration and low-mobile holes; their concentration stays almost constant within the investigated temperature range from 2.5 to 300 K. The optical spectra (10 meV - 2.7 eV) can be naturally decomposed into contributions from intra- and interband absorption processes, the former manifesting themselves as two Drude bands with very different scattering rates, corresponding to the charges with different mobilities. These results of the optical measurements allow us to separate the contributions from electrons and holes to the total conductivity and to implement a two-channel-conduction model for description of the magnetotransport data. In this approach, the electron and hole mobilities are found to be around 50000 and 10 cm$^{2}$/Vs at the lowest temperatures (2.5 K), respectively.Comment: 6 page

Anomalous He-Gas High-Pressure Studies on Superconducting LaO1-xFxFeAs

AC susceptibility measurements have been carried out on superconducting LaO1-xFxFeAs for x=0.07 and 0.14 under He-gas pressures to about 0.8 GPa. Not only do the measured values of dTc/dP differ substantially from those obtained in previous studies using other pressure media, but the Tc(P) dependences observed depend on the detailed pressure/temperature history of the sample. A sizeable sensitivity of Tc(P) to shear stresses provides a possible explanation

Exploring the Oxygen Order in Hg-1223 and Hg-1201 by 199Hg MAS NMR

We demonstrate the use of a high-resolution solid-state fast (45 kHz) magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR for mapping the oxygen distribution in Hg-based cuprate superconductors. We identify observed three peaks in 199Hg spectrum as belonging to the different chemical environments in the HgO? layer with no oxygen neighbors, single oxygen neighbor, and two oxygen neighbors. We discuss observed differences between Hg-1201 and Hg-1223 materials.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures included. Submitted to NATO Advanced Research Workshop Proceedings (Miami January 2004

High-pressure spin shifts in the pseudogap regime of superconducting YBa2Cu4O8 as revealed by 17O NMR

A new NMR anvil cell design is used for measuring the influence of high pressure on the electronic properties of the high-temperature superconductor YBa$_2$Cu$_4$O$_8$ above the superconducting transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$. It is found that pressure increases the spin shift at all temperatures in such a way that the pseudo-gap feature has almost disappeared at 63 kbar. This change of the temperature dependent spin susceptibility can be explained by a pressure induced proportional decrease (factor of two) of a temperature dependent component, and an increase (factor of 9) of a temperature independent component, contrary to the effects of increasing doping. The results demonstrate that one can use anvil cell NMR to investigate the tuning of the electronic properties of correlated electronic materials with pressure.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.