Orbital-Peierls State in NaTiSi2O6

Does the quasi one-dimensional titanium pyroxene NaTiSi2O6 exhibit the novel {\it orbital-Peierls} state? We calculate its groundstate properties by three methods: Monte Carlo simulations, a spin-orbital decoupling scheme and a mapping onto a classical model. The results show univocally that for the spin and orbital ordering to occur at the same temperature --an experimental observation-- the crystal field needs to be small and the orbitals are active. We also find that quantum fluctuations in the spin-orbital sector drive the transition, explaining why canonical bandstructure methods fail to find it. The conclusion that NaTiSi2O6 shows an orbital-Peierls transition is therefore inevitable.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Optical conductivity in A3C60 (A=K, Rb)

We study the optical conductivity in A3C60 (A =K, Rb). The effects of the electron-phonon interaction is included to lowest order in the coupling strength lambda. It is shown that this leads to a narrowing of the Drude peak by a factor 1+lambda and a transfer of weight to a mid-infrared peak at somewhat larger energies than the phonon energy. Although this goes in the right direction, it is not sufficient to describe experiment.Comment: 5 pages, revtex, 2 figures more information at http://librix.mpi-stuttgart.mpg.de/docs/ANDERSEN/fullerene

Formal Solution of the Fourth Order Killing equations for Stationary Axisymmetric Vacuum Spacetimes

An analytic understanding of the geodesic structure around non-Kerr spacetimes will result in a powerful tool that could make the mapping of spacetime around massive quiescent compact objects possible. To this end, I present an analytic closed form expression for the components of a the fourth order Killing tensor for Stationary Axisymmetric Vacuum (SAV) Spacetimes. It is as yet unclear what subset of SAV spacetimes admit this solution. The solution is written in terms of an integral expression involving the metric functions and two specific Greens functions. A second integral expression has to vanish in order for the solution to be exact. In the event that the second integral does not vanish it is likely that the best fourth order approximation to the invariant has been found. This solution can be viewed as a generalized Carter constant providing an explicit expression for the fourth invariant, in addition to the energy, azimuthal angular momentum and rest mass, associated with geodesic motion in SAV spacetimes, be it exact or approximate. I further comment on the application of this result for the founding of a general algorithm for mapping the spacetime around compact objects using gravitational wave observatories.Comment: 5 Page

Non conventional screening of the Coulomb interaction in low dimensional and finite size system

We study the screening of the Coulomb interaction in non polar systems by polarizable atoms. We show that in low dimensions and small finite size systems this screening deviates strongly from that conventionally assumed. In fact in one dimension the short range interaction is strongly screened and the long range interaction is anti-screened thereby strongly reducing the gradient of the Coulomb interaction and therefore the correlation effects. We argue that this effect explains the success of mean field single particle theories for large molecules.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Majorana spin-flip transitions in a magnetic trap

Atoms confined in a magnetic trap can escape by making spin-flip Majorana transitions due to a breakdown of the adiabatic approximation. Several papers have studied this process for atoms with spin $F = 1/2$ or $F= 1$. The present paper calculates the escape rate for atoms with spin $F > 1$. This problem has new features because the perturbation $\Delta T$ which allows atoms to escape satisfies a selection rule $\Delta F_z = 0, \pm 1, \pm 2$ and multi-step processes contribute in leading order. When the adiabatic approximation is satisfied the leading order terms can be summed to yield a simple expression for the escape rate.Comment: 16page