Radio Frequency Tunable Oscillator Device Based on SmB6 Microcrystal

Radio frequency tunable oscillators are vital electronic components for signal generation, characterization, and processing. They are often constructed with a resonant circuit and a 'negative' resistor, such as a Gunn-diode, involving complex structure and large footprints. Here we report that a piece of SmB6, 100 micron in size, works as a current-controlled oscillator in the 30 MHz frequency range. SmB6 is a strongly correlated Kondo insulator that was recently found to have a robust surface state likely to be protected by the topology of its electronics structure. We exploit its non-linear dynamics, and demonstrate large AC voltage outputs with frequencies from 20 Hz to 30 MHz by adjusting a small DC bias current. The behaviors of these oscillators agree well with a theoretical model describing the thermal and electronic dynamics of coupled surface and bulk states. With reduced crystal size we anticipate the device to work at higher frequencies, even in the THz regime. This type of oscillator might be realized in other materials with a metallic surface and a semiconducting bulk.Comment: v3 to appear in Physical Review Letter

Rainfall Modelling with a Transect View in Ghana

Rainfall variability is an inherent part of African climate. This variability has important implications for food production and general livelihoods in countries such as Ghana. 53 years of rainfall data for 15 stations were obtained from the Ghana Meteorological Agency and used to describe the variability in the pattern of rainfall in Ghana. The direct method was used to analyse the annual rainfall totals and the total number of rainy days. A Markov chain modelling approach, which involves the fitting of harmonic regression curves to model the probability of rain within the year was also used. The effects of the previous rainy day was obtained throughout the year. The first order Markov model for each station was significant with the probability of rain given dry being higher than the probability of rain given rain in the north, while the probability of rain given rain was higher than the probability of rain given dry in the south

Dual Instantons

We show how to map the Belavin-Polyakov instantons of the O(3)-nonlinear $\sigma-$model to a dual theory where they then appear as nontopological solitons. They are stationary points of the Euclidean action in the dual theory, and moreover, the dual action and the O(3)-nonlinear $\sigma-$model action agree on shell.Comment: 13 page

Shot Noise in Anyonic Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

We show how shot noise in an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer in the fractional quantum Hall regime probes the charge and statistics of quantum Hall quasiparticles. The dependence of the noise on the magnetic flux through the interferometer allows for a simple way to distinguish Abelian from non-Abelian quasiparticle statistics. In the Abelian case, the Fano factor (in units of the electron charge) is always lower than unity. In the non-Abelian case, the maximal Fano factor as a function of the magnetic flux exceeds one.Comment: references adde

Demonstration of a state-insensitive, compensated nanofiber trap

We report the experimental realization of an optical trap that localizes single Cs atoms ≃ 215 nm from surface of a dielectric nanober. By operating at magic wavelengths for pairs of counterpropagating red- and blue-detuned trapping beams, dierential scalar light shifts are eliminated, and vector shifts are suppressed by ≈ 250. We thereby measure an absorption linewidth Γ/2π = 5.7 ± 0.1 MHz for the Cs 6S_(1/2), F = 4 → 6P_(3/2), F' = 5 transition, where Γ_0/2π = 5.2 MHz in free space. Optical depth d ≃ 66 is observed, corresponding to an optical depth per atom d_1 ≃ 0.08. These advances provide an important capability for the implementation of functional quantum optical networks and precision atomic spectroscopy near dielectric surfaces

Jahn-Teller orbital glass state in the expanded fcc Cs3C60 fulleride

The most expanded fcc-structured alkali fulleride, Cs3C60, is a Mott insulator at ambient pressure because of the weak overlap between the frontier t1u molecular orbitals of the C603− anions. It has a severely disordered antiferromagnetic ground state that becomes a superconductor with a high critical temperature, Tc of 35 K upon compression. The effect of the localised t1u3 electronic configuration on the properties of the material is not well-understood. Here we study the relationship between the intrinsic crystallographic C603− orientational disorder and the molecular Jahn–Teller (JT) effect dynamics in the Mott insulating state. The high-resolution 13C magic-angle-spinning (MAS) NMR spectrum at room temperature comprises three peaks in the intensity ratio 1:2:2 consistent with the presence of three crystallographically-inequivalent carbon sites in the fcc unit cell and revealing that the JT-effect dynamics are fast on the NMR time-scale of 10−5 s despite the presence of the frozen-in C603− merohedral disorder disclosed by the 133Cs MAS NMR fine splitting of the tetrahedral and octahedral 133Cs resonances. Cooling to sub-liquid-nitrogen temperatures leads to severe broadening of both the 13C and 133Cs MAS NMR multiplets, which provides the signature of an increased number of inequivalent 13C and 133Cs sites. This is attributed to the freezing out of the C603− JT dynamics and the development of a t1u electronic orbital glass state guided by the merohedral disorder of the fcc structure. The observation of the dynamic and static JT effect in the Mott insulating state of the metrically cubic but merohedrally disordered Cs3C60 fulleride in different temperature ranges reveals the intimate relation between charge localization, magnetic ground state, lifting of electronic degeneracy, and orientational disorder in these strongly-correlated systems

Growing supermassive black holes in the late stages of galaxy mergers are heavily obscured

Mergers of galaxies are thought to cause significant gas inflows to the inner parsecs, which can activate rapid accretion onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs), giving rise to Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). During a significant fraction of this process, SMBHs are predicted to be enshrouded by gas and dust. Studying 52 galactic nuclei in infrared-selected local Luminous and Ultra-luminous infrared galaxies in different merger stages in the hard X-ray band, where radiation is less affected by absorption, we find that the amount of material around SMBHs increases during the last phases of the merger. We find that the fraction of Compton-thick (CT, $N_{\rm\,H}\geq 10^{24}\rm\,cm^{-2}$) AGN in late merger galaxies is higher ($f_{\rm\,CT}=65^{+12}_{-13}\%$) than in local hard X-ray selected AGN ($f_{\rm\,CT}=27\pm 4\%$), and that obscuration reaches its maximum when the nuclei of the two merging galaxies are at a projected distance of $D_{12}\simeq0.4-10.8$ kiloparsecs ($f_{\rm\,CT}=77_{-17}^{+13}\%$). We also find that all AGN of our sample in late merger galaxies have $N_{\rm\,H}> 10^{23}\rm\,cm^{-2}$, which implies that the obscuring material covers $95^{+4}_{-8}\%$ of the X-ray source. These observations show that the material is most effectively funnelled from the galactic scale to the inner tens of parsecs during the late stages of galaxy mergers, and that the close environment of SMBHs in advanced mergers is richer in gas and dust with respect to that of SMBHs in isolated galaxies, and cannot be explained by the classical AGN unification model in which the torus is responsible for the obscuration.Comment: Final version matching the article published in MNRAS - 30 pages, 16 figure