GAIA: AGB stars as tracers of star formation histories in the Galaxy and beyond

We discuss the tracing of star formation histories with ESA's space astrometry mission GAIA, emphasizing the advantages of AGB stars for this purpose. GAIA's microarcsecond-level astrometry, multi-band photometry and spectroscopy will provide individual distances, motions, effective temperatures, gravities and metallicities for vast numbers of AGB stars in the Galaxy and beyond. Reliable ages of AGB stars can be determined to distances of \~200 kpc in a wide range of ages and metallicities, allowing star formation histories to be studied in a diversity of astrophysical environments.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to be appear in 'Mass-Losing Pulsating Stars and their Circumstellar Matter', eds. Y. Nakada, M. Honma & M. Seki, Kluwer ASSL series, vol. 28

A BCS-BEC crossover in the extended Falicov-Kimball model: Variational cluster approach

We study the spontaneous symmetry breaking of the excitonic insulator state induced by the Coulomb interaction $U$ in the two-dimensional extended Falicov-Kimball model. Using the variational cluster approximation (VCA) and Hartree-Fock approximation (HFA), we evaluate the order parameter, single-particle excitation gap, momentum distribution functions, coherence length of excitons, and single-particle and anomalous excitation spectra, as a function of $U$ at zero temperature. We find that in the weak-to-intermediate coupling regime, the Fermi surface plays an essential role and calculated results can be understood in close correspondence with the BCS theory, whereas in the strong-coupling regime, the Fermi surface plays no role and results are consistent with the picture of BEC. Moreover, we find that HFA works well both in the weak- and strong-coupling regime, and that the difference between the results of VCA and HFA mostly appears in the intermediate-coupling regime. The reason for this is discussed from a viewpoint of the self-energy. We thereby clarify the excitonic insulator state that typifies either a BCS condensate of electron-hole pairs (weak-coupling regime) or a Bose-Einstein condensate of preformed excitons (strong-coupling regime).Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

Magnetic digital flop of ferroelectric domain with fixed spin chirality in a triangular lattice helimagnet

Ferroelectric properties in magnetic fields of varying magnitude and direction have been investigated for a triangular-lattice helimagnet CuFe1-xGaxO2 (x=0.035). The magnetoelectric phase diagrams were deduced for magnetic fields along [001], [110], and [1-10] direction, and the in-plane magnetic field was found to induce the rearrangement of six possible multiferroic domains. Upon every 60-degree rotation of in-plane magnetic field around the c-axis, unique 120-degree flop of electric polarization occurs as a result of the switch of helical magnetic q-vector. The chirality of spin helix is always conserved upon the q-flop. The possible origin is discussed in the light of the stable structure of multiferroic domain wall.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted in Phys. Rev. Let

Impurity-doping induced ferroelectricity in frustrated antiferromagnet CuFeO2

Dielectric responses have been investigated on the triangular-lattice antiferromagnet CuFeO2 and its site-diluted analogs CuFe1-xAlxO2 (x=0.01 and 0.02) with and without application of magnetic field. We have found a ferroelectric behavior at zero magnetic field for x=0.02. At any doping level, the onset field of the ferroelectricity always coincides with that of the noncollinear magnetic structure while the transition field dramatically decreases to zero field with Al doping. The results imply the further possibility of producing the ferroelectricity by modifying the frustrated spin structure in terms of site-doping and external magnetic field.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Theory of the waterfall phenomenon in cuprate superconductors

Based on exact diagonalization and variational cluster approximation calculations we study the relationship between charge transfer models and the corresponding single band Hubbard models. We present an explanation for the waterfall phenomenon observed in angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) on cuprate superconductors. The phenomenon is due to the destructive interference between the phases of the O2p orbitals belonging to a given Zhang-Rice singlet and the Bloch phases of the photohole which occurs in certain regions of k-space. It therefore may be viewed as a direct experimental visualisation of the Zhang-Rice construction of an effective single band model for the CuO2 plane.Comment: 11 pages, 9 Postscript figure