338 research outputs found
Metamagnetic Quantum Criticality Revealed by 17O-NMR in the Itinerant Metamagnet Sr3Ru2O7
We have investigated the spin dynamics in the bilayered perovskite Sr3Ru2O7
as a function of magnetic field and temperature using 17O-NMR. This system sits
close to a metamagnetic quantum critical point (MMQCP) for the field
perpendicular to the ruthenium oxide planes. We confirm Fermi-liquid behavior
at low temperatures except for a narrow field region close to the MMQCP. The
nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate divided by temperature 1/T1T is enhanced
on approaching the metamagnetic critical field of 7.9 T and at the critical
field 1/T1T continues to increase and does not show Fermi- liquid behavior down
to 0.3 K. The temperature dependence of T1T in this region suggests the
critical temperature Theta to be 0 K, which is a strong evidence that the spin
dynamics possesses a quantum critical character. Comparison between uniform
susceptibility and 1/T1T reveals that antiferromagnetic fluctuations instead of
two-dimensional ferromagnetic fluctuations dominate the spin fluctuation
spectrum at the critical field, which is unexpected for itinerant
metamagnetism.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Accepted by Phys. Rev. Let
Microperforated leaf blotting on polyvinylidene difluoride and nylon membranes to analyze spatial distribution of endogenous and viral gene expression in plant leaves
Leaf blotting to detect proteins and investigate their spatial distribution in leaves has so far mainly been used to detect viral coat proteins that accumulate abundantly in infected leaves, but rarely to detect endogenous plant proteins. We improved the method for detecting endogenous proteins. We found that microperforating leaves with bundled pins before blotting, then pressing leaves with a rolling pin onto polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes enabled even blotting of sap. This microperforated leaf blotting (mPLB) was also suitable for use with nylon membranes to detect leaf RNA. The mPLB revealed that accumulation of two endogenous proteins, calmodulin-like rgs-CaM and actin, was respectively positively and negatively associated with that of viral coat protein in tobacco leaves infected with cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). When a tobacco plant primed with benzothiadiazole was inoculated with CMV, mPLB showed that the infection was restricted to some areas of the leaf, and that in these areas the mRNA encoding tobacco pathogenesis-related protein 1, an indicator of salicylic acid-mediated immune responses, was induced. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of mPLB for investigating the spatial distribution of endogenous and viral gene expression in leaves
Eastward traverse of equatorial plasma plumes observed with the Equatorial Atmosphere Radar in Indonesia
The zonal structure of radar backscatter plumes associated with Equatorial Spread F (ESF), probably modulated by atmospheric gravity waves, has been investigated with the Equatorial Atmosphere Radar (EAR) in West Sumatra, Indonesia (0.20° S, 100.32° E; dip latitude 10.1° S) and the FM-CW ionospheric sounders on the same magnetic meridian as the EAR. The occurrence locations and zonal distances of the ESF plumes were determined with multi-beam observations with the EAR. The ESF plumes drifted eastward while keeping distances of several hundred to a thousand kilometers. Comparing the occurrence of the plumes and the F-layer uplift measured by the FM-CW sounders, plumes were initiated within the scanned area around sunset only, when the F-layer altitude rapidly increased. Therefore, the PreReversal Enhancement (PRE) is considered as having a zonal variation with the scales mentioned above, and this variation causes day-to-day variability, which has been studied for a long time. Modulation of the underlying E-region conductivity by gravity waves, which causes inhomogeneous sporadic-E layers, for example, is a likely mechanism to determine the scale of the PRE
Microscopic Mechanism for Staggered Scalar Order in PrFe4P12
A microscopic model is proposed for the scalar order in PrFe4P12 where f2
crystalline electric field (CEF) singlet and triplet states interact with two
conduction bands. By combining the dynamical mean-field theory and the
continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo, we obtain an electronic order with
staggered Kondo and CEF singlets with the total conduction number being unity
per site. The ground state becomes semimetallic provided that the two
conduction bands have different occupation numbers. This model naturally
explains experimentally observed properties in the ordered phase of PrFe4P12
such as the scalar order parameter, temperature dependence of the resistivity,
field-induced staggered moment, and inelastic features in neutron scattering.
The Kondo effect plays an essential role for ordering, in strong contrast with
ordinary magnetic orders by the RKKY interaction.Comment: 4 pages, 4figure
Anisotropic low field behavior and the observation of flux jumps in CeCoIn5
The magnetic behavior of the heavy fermion superconductor CeCoIn5 has been
investigated. The low field magnetization data show flux jumps in the mixed
state of the superconducting phase in a restricted range of temperature. These
flux jumps begin to disappear below 1.7 K, and are completely absent at 1.5 K.
The magnetization loops are asymmetric, suggesting that surface and geometrical
factors dominate the pinning in this system. The lower critical field (Hc1),
obtained from the magnetization data, shows a linear temperature dependence and
is anisotropic. The calculated penetration depth is also anisotropic, which is
consistent with the observation of an anisotropic superconducting gap in
CeCoIn5. The critical currents, determined from the high field isothermal
magnetization loops, are comparatively low (around 4000 A/cm2 at 1.6 K and 5
kOe).Comment: 4 pages 3 figure
High magnetic field phase diagram of PrOs4Sb12
The magnetic phase diagram of PrOsSb has been investigated by
specific heat measurements between 8 and 32 T. A new Schottky anomaly due to
excitations between two lowest crystalline-electric-field (CEF) singlets, has
been found for both and above the field
where the field-induced ordered phase (FIOP) is suppressed. The constructed
phase diagram shows weak magnetic anisotropy and implies a crossing of
the two CEF levels at about 8 - 9 T for both field directions. These results
provide an unambiguous evidence for the singlet being the CEF ground
state and suggest the level crossing (involving lowest CEF levels) as the
driving mechanism of FIOP.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Evidence for Octupole Order in CeLaB from Resonant X-ray Scattering
The azimuthal angle dependence observed in the resonant X-ray scattering in
phase IV of CeLaB is analyzed theoretically. It is shown
that the peculiar angle dependence observed in the E2 channel is consistent
with the Gamma_{5u}-type octupole order with principal axis along (111) and
equivalent directions. Under the assumption that the four equivalent octupole
domains are nearly equally populated in the sample, the observed angle
dependences are reproduced by calculation for both sigma-sigma' and sigma-pi'
polarizations. The calculation for various symmetries of order parameters
excludes unambiguously other order parameters than the Gamma_{5u}-type
octupole.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables, in JPSJ forma
Theoretical Description of Nearly Discontinuous Transition in Superconductors with Paramagnetic Depairing
Based on a theoretical argument and Monte Carlo simulations of a
Ginzburg-Landau model derived microscopically, it is argued that, in type-II
superconductors where {\it both} the paramagnetic {\it and} orbital depairings
are important, a strong first-order transition (FOT) at expected in
the mean field (MF) approximation never occurs in real systems and changes due
to the fluctuation into a crossover. The present result explains why a {\it
nearly} discontinuous crossover at with {\it no} intrinsic hysteresis
is observed only in a clean superconducting material with a singlet pairing and
a high condensation energy such as CeCoIn.Comment: Publication version. See cond-mat/0306060 regarding a corresponding
long pape
Realization of Heavy Local Fermi Liquid and Non-Fermi Liquid in f Crystalline-Electric-Field Singlet-Triplet Configuration
Using the numerical renormalization group method, we investigate an extended
Anderson model, in which correlated electrons with the
(singlet)-(triplet) f crystalline-electric-field (CEF)
configuration hybridize with conduction electrons of (doublet) and
(quartet) under cubic symmetry, from a strong spin-orbit
interaction limit. For the case of the parameters relevant to PrFe4P12, the
system is under competition between the CEF singlet fixed point and the
multichannel
Kondo non-Fermi liquid fixed point arising from the quadrupolar coupling
between the impurity with pseudospin 1 and the conduction electron with
pseudospin 3/2 . We consider that this result reveals the origin of the
heaviness of the effective mass and non-Fermi liquid behavior of the Pr- based
filled skutterudite compounds.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
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