765 research outputs found
Tunable Emergent Heterostructures in a Prototypical Correlated Metal
At the interface between two distinct materials desirable properties, such as
superconductivity, can be greatly enhanced, or entirely new functionalities may
emerge. Similar to in artificially engineered heterostructures, clean
functional interfaces alternatively exist in electronically textured bulk
materials. Electronic textures emerge spontaneously due to competing
atomic-scale interactions, the control of which, would enable a top-down
approach for designing tunable intrinsic heterostructures. This is particularly
attractive for correlated electron materials, where spontaneous
heterostructures strongly affect the interplay between charge and spin degrees
of freedom. Here we report high-resolution neutron spectroscopy on the
prototypical strongly-correlated metal CeRhIn5, revealing competition between
magnetic frustration and easy-axis anisotropy -- a well-established mechanism
for generating spontaneous superstructures. Because the observed easy-axis
anisotropy is field-induced and anomalously large, it can be controlled
efficiently with small magnetic fields. The resulting field-controlled magnetic
superstructure is closely tied to the formation of superconducting and
electronic nematic textures in CeRhIn5, suggesting that in-situ tunable
heterostructures can be realized in correlated electron materials
Synchronous bursts on scale-free neuronal networks with attractive and repulsive coupling
This paper investigates the dependence of synchronization transitions of
bursting oscillations on the information transmission delay over scale-free
neuronal networks with attractive and repulsive coupling. It is shown that for
both types of coupling, the delay always plays a subtle role in either
promoting or impairing synchronization. In particular, depending on the
inherent oscillation period of individual neurons, regions of irregular and
regular propagating excitatory fronts appear intermittently as the delay
increases. These delay-induced synchronization transitions are manifested as
well-expressed minima in the measure for spatiotemporal synchrony. For
attractive coupling, the minima appear at every integer multiple of the average
oscillation period, while for the repulsive coupling, they appear at every odd
multiple of the half of the average oscillation period. The obtained results
are robust to the variations of the dynamics of individual neurons, the system
size, and the neuronal firing type. Hence, they can be used to characterize
attractively or repulsively coupled scale-free neuronal networks with delays.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures; accepted for publication in PLoS ONE [related
work available at http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.4961 and
http://www.matjazperc.com/
Dimensional reduction at a quantum critical point
Competition between electronic ground states near a quantum critical point
(QCP) - the location of a zero-temperature phase transition driven solely by
quantum-mechanical fluctuations - is expected to lead to unconventional
behaviour in low-dimensional systems. New electronic phases of matter have been
predicted to occur in the vicinity of a QCP by two-dimensional theories, and
explanations based on these ideas have been proposed for significant unsolved
problems in condensed-matter physics, such as non-Fermi-liquid behaviour and
high-temperature superconductivity. But the real materials to which these ideas
have been applied are usually rendered three-dimensional by a finite electronic
coupling between their component layers; a two-dimensional QCP has not been
experimentally observed in any bulk three-dimensional system, and mechanisms
for dimensional reduction have remained the subject of theoretical conjecture.
Here we show evidence that the Bose-Einstein condensate of spin triplets in the
three-dimensional Mott insulator BaCuSi2O6 provides an experimentally
verifiable example of dimensional reduction at a QCP. The interplay of
correlations on a geometrically frustrated lattice causes the individual
two-dimensional layers of spin-1/2 Cu2+ pairs (spin dimers) to become decoupled
at the QCP, giving rise to a two-dimensional QCP characterized by power law
scaling distinctly different from that of its three-dimensional counterpart.
Thus the very notion of dimensionality can be said to acquire an 'emergent'
nature: although the individual particles move on a three-dimensional lattice,
their collective behaviour occurs in lower-dimensional space.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure
A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL
Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbital parameters of a planet to the nature of its parent star. We have little idea whether the chemistry of a planet is linked to its formation environment, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planetâs birth, and evolution. ARIEL was conceived to observe a large number (~1000) of transiting planets for statistical understanding, including gas giants, Neptunes, super-Earths and Earth-size planets around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the 1.25â7.8 ÎŒm spectral range and multiple narrow-band photometry in the optical. ARIEL will focus on warm and hot planets to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres which should show minimal condensation and sequestration of high-Z materials compared to their colder Solar System siblings. Said warm and hot atmospheres are expected to be more representative of the planetary bulk composition. Observations of these warm/hot exoplanets, and in particular of their elemental composition (especially C, O, N, S, Si), will allow the understanding of the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation during the nebular phase and the following few million years. ARIEL will thus provide a representative picture of the chemical nature of the exoplanets and relate this directly to the type and chemical environment of the host star. ARIEL is designed as a dedicated survey mission for combined-light spectroscopy, capable of observing a large and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. Transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy methods, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allow us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of 10â100 part per million (ppm) relative to the star and, given the bright nature of targets, also allows more sophisticated techniques, such as eclipse mapping, to give a deeper insight into the nature of the atmosphere. These types of observations require a stable payload and satellite platform with broad, instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect many molecular species, probe the thermal structure, identify clouds and monitor the stellar activity. The wavelength range proposed covers all the expected major atmospheric gases from e.g. H2O, CO2, CH4 NH3, HCN, H2S through to the more exotic metallic compounds, such as TiO, VO, and condensed species. Simulations of ARIEL performance in conducting exoplanet surveys have been performed â using conservative estimates of mission performance and a full model of all significant noise sources in the measurement â using a list of potential ARIEL targets that incorporates the latest available exoplanet statistics. The conclusion at the end of the Phase A study, is that ARIEL â in line with the stated mission objectives â will be able to observe about 1000 exoplanets depending on the details of the adopted survey strategy, thus confirming the feasibility of the main science objectives.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio
A cluster randomised feasibility study of an adolescent incentive intervention to increase uptake of HPV vaccination.
BACKGROUND: Uptake of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is suboptimal among some groups. We aimed to determine the feasibility of undertaking a cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) of incentives to improve HPV vaccination uptake by increasing consent form return. METHODS: An equal-allocation, two-arm cluster RCT design was used. We invited 60 London schools to participate. Those agreeing were randomised to either a standard invitation or incentive intervention arm, in which Year 8 girls had the chance to win a ÂŁ50 shopping voucher if they returned a vaccination consent form, regardless of whether consent was provided. We collected data on school and parent participation rates and questionnaire response rates. Analyses were descriptive. RESULTS: Six schools completed the trial and only 3% of parents opted out. The response rate was 70% for the girls' questionnaire and 17% for the parents'. In the intervention arm, 87% of girls returned a consent form compared with 67% in the standard invitation arm. The proportion of girls whose parents gave consent for vaccination was higher in the intervention arm (76%) than the standard invitation arm (61%). CONCLUSIONS: An RCT of an incentive intervention is feasible. The intervention may improve vaccination uptake but a fully powered RCT is needed.British Journal of Cancer advance online publication: 22 August 2017; doi:10.1038/bjc.2017.284 www.bjcancer.com
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