Superspace formulation and correlation functions of 3d superconformal field theories

We study $3d$ SCFTs in the superspace formalism and discuss superfields and on-shell higher spin current multiplets in free $3d$ SCFTs with $\mathcal{N}= 1,2,3,4$ and $6$ superconformal symmetry. For $\mathcal{N}=1$ 3d SCFTs we determine the superconformal invariants in superspace needed for constructing 3-point functions of higher spin operators, find the non-linear relations between the invariants and consequently write down all the independent invariant structures, both parity even and odd, for various 3-point functions of higher spin operators.Comment: typos corrected, references added. Accepted for publication in JHE

A first principles study of wurtzite-structure MnO

We present results of a density functional theory study of MnO in the wurtzite structure. Our motivation is provided by recent experiments reporting ferromagnetism in Mn-doped wurtzite structure ZnO. We find that wurtzite MnO a) is not strongly energetically disfavored as compared with the ground state rocksalt MnO, b) shows strong magnetostructural coupling and c) has a piezoelectric response that is larger than that of ZnO. These predictions augur well for the creation of ferromagnetic piezoelectric semiconductor based on Mn-doped ZnO

All tree level scattering amplitudes in Chern-Simons theories with fundamental matter

We show that Britto-Cachazo-Feng-Witten (BCFW) recursion relations can be used to compute all tree level scattering amplitudes in terms of $2\rightarrow2$ scattering amplitude in $U(N)$ ${\mathcal N}=2$ Chern-Simons (CS) theory coupled to matter in fundamental representation. As a byproduct, we also obtain a recursion relation for the CS theory coupled to regular fermions, even though in this case standard BCFW deformations do not have a good asymptotic behaviour. Moreover at large $N$, $2\rightarrow 2$ scattering can be computed exactly to all orders in 't Hooft coupling as was done in earlier works by some of the authors. In particular, for ${\mathcal N}=2$ theory, it was shown that $2\rightarrow 2$ scattering is tree level exact to all orders except in the anyonic channel arXiv:1505.06571, where it gets renormalized by a simple function of 't Hooft coupling. This suggests that it may be possible to compute the all loop exact result for arbitrary higher point scattering amplitudes at large $N$.Comment: RevTEX 4.1, 5 pages+6 Appendices, 7 figures; V2 Published versio

Anisotropy of the Stone-Wales Defect and Warping of Graphene Nano-ribbons: A First-principles Analysis

Stone-Wales (SW) defects, analogous to dislocations in crystals, play an important role in mechanical behavior of $sp^2$-bonded carbon based materials. Here, we show using first-principles calculations that a marked anisotropy in the interaction among the SW defects has interesting consequences when such defects are present near the edges of a graphene nano-ribbon: depending on their orientation with respect to edge, they result in compressive or tensile stress, and the former is responsible to depression or warping of the graphene nano-ribbon. Such warping results in delocalization of electrons in the defect states.Comment: 8 page