703 research outputs found
Diversity of fungal endophytic community in Quercus suber L. under different climate scenarios
Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) is an evergreen oak tree species, typically found throughout the Mediterranean Basin that presents a great ecological and economic importance in Portugal. The ecological importance is due to the role in the protection of the soil, biodiversity control, water quality and oxygen production. The cork production and processing confer cork oak a great economic relevance in Portugal. An increase of cork oak decline due to biotic and abiotic stresses has been reported, which could damage the ecosystem and lower cork production. Fungal species as D;plod;a corticola and Biscogniauxia mediterranea are cork oak pathogens that cause tree decline and affect cork productivity. The incidence of both diseases seems to increase when trees are under several environmental stresses, such as increased temperatures or drought. In this work, fungal endophytic species of cork oak were collected in different sites of Portugal (Bragança, Gerês, Alcobaça, Grândola e Gavião). The collection sites displayed differences in water availability and cork oak trees in different phytosanitary conditions. The community of fungal endophytes of young twigs and one/two-years old branches were studied by detecting fungal outgrowing from aseptic plant pieces and grouping them into morphotypes. A differentiation between live and death (xylem) branch tissue was considered by culturing the most superficial branch wood or the most inner wood. Collection sites with higher precipitation seem to display a more diverse community. Branches displayed a more diverse fungal community than young twigs, being the endophytic community, present in inner wood, more similar between sites, than young twigs or outer branch tissues. This study allowed the comparison of fungal endophytic communities living in cork oak trees with different water availability levels and disease symptoms. The results provide a good starting point towards the comprehension of the fungal community influence in disease occurrence.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Susceptibility Inhomogeneity and Non-Fermi-Liquid Behavior in Ce(Ru_{0.5}Rh_{0.5})_2Si_2
Magnetic susceptibility and muon spin rotation (\muSR) experiments have been
carried out to study the effect of structural disorder on the non-Fermi-liquid
(NFL) behavior of the heavy-fermion alloy Ce(Ru_{0.5}Rh_{0.5})_2Si_2. Analysis
of the bulk susceptibility in the framework of disorder-driven Griffiths-phase
and Kondo-disorder models for NFL behavior yields relatively narrow
distributions of characteristic spin fluctuation energies, in agreement with
\muSR linewidths that give the inhomogeneous spread in susceptibility. \muSR
and NMR data both indicate that disorder explains the "nearly NFL" behavior
observed above \sim2 K, but does not dominate the NFL physics found at low
temperatures and low magnetic fields.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, REVTeX, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Quantum Griffiths effects and smeared phase transitions in metals: theory and experiment
In this paper, we review theoretical and experimental research on rare region
effects at quantum phase transitions in disordered itinerant electron systems.
After summarizing a few basic concepts about phase transitions in the presence
of quenched randomness, we introduce the idea of rare regions and discuss their
importance. We then analyze in detail the different phenomena that can arise at
magnetic quantum phase transitions in disordered metals, including quantum
Griffiths singularities, smeared phase transitions, and cluster-glass
formation. For each scenario, we discuss the resulting phase diagram and
summarize the behavior of various observables. We then review several recent
experiments that provide examples of these rare region phenomena. We conclude
by discussing limitations of current approaches and open questions.Comment: 31 pages, 7 eps figures included, v2: discussion of the dissipative
Ising chain fixed, references added, v3: final version as publishe
Non-Fermi-Liquid Scaling in Ce(Ru_{0.5}Rh_{0.5})_2Si_2
We study the temperature and field dependence of the magnetic and transport
properties of the non-Fermi-liquid compound Ce(Ru_{1-x}Rh_x)_2Si_2 at x=0.5.
For fields 0.1T the experimental results show signatures of the
presence of Kondo-disorder, expected to be large at this concentration. For
larger fields, however, magnetic and transport properties are controlled by the
coupling of the conduction electrons to critical spin-fluctuations. The
temperature dependence of the susceptibility as well as the scaling properties
of the magnetoresistance are in very good agreement with the predictions of
recent dynamical mean-field theories of Kondo alloys close to a spin-glass
quantum critical point.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Improved discussion. To appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Evidence for a common physical description of non-Fermi-liquid behavior in f-electron systems
The non-Fermi-liquid (NFL) behavior observed in the low temperature specific
heat and magnetic susceptibility of f-electron systems is
analyzed within the context of a recently developed theory based on Griffiths
singularities. Measurements of and in the systems
, , and (M = Pd,
Pt) are found to be consistent with predicted by this model with in the NFL regime.
These results suggest that the NFL properties observed in a wide variety of
f-electron systems can be described within the context of a common physical
picture.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Role of Disorder on the Quantum Critical Point of a Model for Heavy Fermions
A zero temperature real space renormalization group (RG) approach is used to
investigate the role of disorder near the quantum critical point (QCP) of a
Kondo necklace (XY-KN) model. In the pure case this approach yields
implying that any coupling between the local moments and the
conduction electrons leads to a non-magnetic phase. We also consider an
anisotropic version of the model (), for which there is a quantum phase
transition at a finite value of the ratio between the coupling and the
bandwidth, . Disorder is introduced either in the on-site interactions
or in the hopping terms. We find that in both cases randomness is irrelevant in
the model, i.e., the disorder induced magnetic-non-magnetic quantum
phase transition is controlled by the same exponents of the pure case. Finally,
we show the fixed point distributions at the atractors of the
disordered, non-magnetic phases.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Anomalous heavy-fermion and ordered states in the filled skutterudite PrFe4P12
Specific heat and magnetization measurements have been performed on
high-quality single crystals of filled-skutterudite PrFe_4P_{12} in order to
study the high-field heavy-fermion state (HFS) and low-field ordered state
(ODS). From a broad hump observed in C/T vs T in HFS for magnetic fields
applied along the direction, the Kondo temperature of ~ 9 K and the
existence of ferromagnetic Pr-Pr interactions are deduced. The {141}-Pr nuclear
Schottky contribution, which works as a highly-sensitive on-site probe for the
Pr magnetic moment, sets an upper bound for the ordered moment as ~ 0.03
\mu_B/Pr-ion. This fact strongly indicates that the primary order parameter in
the ODS is nonmagnetic and most probably of quadrupolar origin, combined with
other experimental facts. Significantly suppressed heavy-fermion behavior in
the ODS suggests a possibility that the quadrupolar degrees of freedom is
essential for the heavy quasiparticle band formation in the HFS. Possible
crystalline-electric-field level schemes estimated from the anisotropy in the
magnetization are consistent with this conjecture.Comment: 7 pages and 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
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