431 research outputs found
Superconductivity and Quantum Spin Disorder in Cuprates
A fundamental connection between superconductivity and quantum spin
fluctuations in underdoped cuprates, is revealed. A variational calculation
shows that {\em Cooper pair hopping} strongly reduces the local magnetization
. This effect pertains to recent neutron scattering and muon spin rotation
measurements in which varies weakly with hole doping in the poorly
conducting regime, but drops precipitously above the onset of
superconductivity
Theory of d-density wave viewed from a vertex model and its implications
The thermal disordering of the -density wave, proposed to be the origin of
the pseudogap state of high temperature superconductors, is suggested to be the
same as that of the statistical mechanical model known as the 6-vertex model.
The low temperature phase consists of a staggered order parameter of
circulating currents, while the disordered high temperature phase is a
power-law phase with no order. A special feature of this transition is the
complete lack of an observable specific heat anomaly at the transition. There
is also a transition at a even higher temperature at which the magnitude of the
order parameter collapses. These results are due to classical thermal
fluctuations and are entirely unrelated to a quantum critical point in the
ground state. The quantum mechanical ground state can be explored by
incorporating processes that causes transitions between the vertices, allowing
us to discuss quantum phase transition in the ground state as well as the
effect of quantum criticality at a finite temperature as distinct from the
power-law fluctuations in the classical regime. A generalization of the model
on a triangular lattice that leads to a 20-vertex model may shed light on the
Wigner glass picture of the metal-insulator transition in two-dimensional
electron gas. The power-law ordered high temperature phase may be generic to a
class of constrained systems and its relation to recent advances in the quantum
dimer models is noted.Comment: RevTex4, 10 pages, 11 figure
The Kondo effect in ferromagnetic atomic contacts
Iron, cobalt and nickel are archetypal ferromagnetic metals. In bulk,
electronic conduction in these materials takes place mainly through the and
electrons, whereas the magnetic moments are mostly in the narrow
-electron bands, where they tend to align. This general picture may change
at the nanoscale because electrons at the surfaces of materials experience
interactions that differ from those in the bulk. Here we show direct evidence
for such changes: electronic transport in atomic-scale contacts of pure
ferromagnets (iron, cobalt and nickel), despite their strong bulk
ferromagnetism, unexpectedly reveal Kondo physics, that is, the screening of
local magnetic moments by the conduction electrons below a characteristic
temperature. The Kondo effect creates a sharp resonance at the Fermi energy,
affecting the electrical properties of the system;this appears as a Fano-Kondo
resonance in the conductance characteristics as observed in other artificial
nanostructures. The study of hundreds of contacts shows material-dependent
lognormal distributions of the resonance width that arise naturally from Kondo
theory. These resonances broaden and disappear with increasing temperature,
also as in standard Kondo systems. Our observations, supported by calculations,
imply that coordination changes can significantly modify magnetism at the
nanoscale. Therefore, in addition to standard micromagnetic physics, strong
electronic correlations along with atomic-scale geometry need to be considered
when investigating the magnetic properties of magnetic nanostructures.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Calculations of the Knight Shift Anomalies in Heavy Electron Materials
We have studied the Knight shift and magnetic susceptibility
of heavy electron materials, modeled by the infinite U Anderson model
with the NCA method. A systematic study of and for
different Kondo temperatures (which depends on the hybridization width
) shows a low temperature anomaly (nonlinear relation between and
) which increases as the Kondo temperature and distance
increase. We carried out an incoherent lattice sum by adding the of
a few hundred shells of rare earth atoms around a nucleus and compare the
numerically calculated results with the experimental results. For CeSn_3, which
is a concentrated heavy electron material, both the ^{119}Sn NMR Knight shift
and positive muon Knight shift are studied. Also, lattice coherence effects by
conduction electron scattering at every rare earth site are included using the
average-T matrix approximation. Also NMR Knight shifts for YbCuAl and the
proposed quadrupolar Kondo alloy Y_{0.8}U_{0.2}Pd_{3} are studied.Comment: 31 pages of RevTex, 22 Postscript figures, submmitted to PRB, some
figures are delete
Plasma Metabolomics Identifies Markers of Impaired Renal Function: A Meta-analysis of 3089 Persons with Type 2 Diabetes
CONTEXT: There is a need for novel biomarkers and better understanding of the pathophysiology of diabetic kidney disease. OBJECTIVE: To investigate associations between plasma metabolites and kidney function in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D). DESIGN: 3089 samples from individuals with T2D, collected between 1999 and 2015, from 5 independent Dutch cohort studies were included. Up to 7 years follow-up was available in 1100 individuals from 2 of the cohorts. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Plasma metabolites (n = 149) were measured by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Associations between metabolites and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR), and eGFR slopes were investigated in each study followed by random effect meta-analysis. Adjustments included traditional cardiovascular risk factors and correction for multiple testing. RESULTS: In total, 125 metabolites were significantly associated (PFDR = 1.5Ă10-32 - 0.046; β = -11.98-2.17) with eGFR. Inverse associations with eGFR were demonstrated for branched-chain and aromatic amino acids (AAAs), glycoprotein acetyls, triglycerides (TGs), lipids in very low-density lipoproteins (VLDL) subclasses, and fatty acids (PFDR < 0.03). We observed positive associations with cholesterol and phospholipids in high-density lipoproteins (HDL) and apolipoprotein A1 (PFDR < 0.05). Albeit some metabolites were associated with UACR levels (P < 0.05), significance was lost after correction for multiple testing. Tyrosine and HDL-related metabolites were positively associated with eGFR slopes before adjustment for multiple testing (PTyr = 0.003; PHDLrelated < 0.05), but not after. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified metabolites associated with impaired kidney function in T2D, implying involvement of lipid and amino acid metabolism in the pathogenesis. Whether these processes precede or are consequences of renal impairment needs further investigation
Preoperative image-guided identification of response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in esophageal cancer (PRIDE):a multicenter observational study
BACKGROUND: Nearly one third of patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) for locally advanced esophageal cancer have a pathologic complete response (pCR) of the primary tumor upon histopathological evaluation of the resection specimen. The primary aim of this study is to develop a model that predicts the probability of pCR to nCRT in esophageal cancer, based on diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI), dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) and (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography with computed tomography ((18)F-FDG PET-CT). Accurate response prediction could lead to a patient-tailored approach with omission of surgery in the future in case of predicted pCR or additional neoadjuvant treatment in case of non-pCR. METHODS: The PRIDE study is a prospective, single arm, observational multicenter study designed to develop a multimodal prediction model for histopathological response to nCRT for esophageal cancer. A total of 200 patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer - of which at least 130 patients with adenocarcinoma and at least 61 patients with squamous cell carcinoma - scheduled to receive nCRT followed by esophagectomy will be included. The primary modalities to be incorporated in the prediction model are quantitative parameters derived from MRI and (18)F-FDG PET-CT scans, which will be acquired at fixed intervals before, during and after nCRT. Secondary modalities include blood samples for analysis of the presence of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) at 3 time-points (before, during and after nCRT), and an endoscopy with (random) bite-on-bite biopsies of the primary tumor site and other suspected lesions in the esophagus as well as an endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) with fine needle aspiration of suspected lymph nodes after finishing nCRT. The main study endpoint is the performance of the model for pCR prediction. Secondary endpoints include progression-free and overall survival. DISCUSSION: If the multimodal PRIDE concept provides high predictive performance for pCR, the results of this study will play an important role in accurate identification of esophageal cancer patients with a pCR to nCRT. These patients might benefit from a patient-tailored approach with omission of surgery in the future. Vice versa, patients with non-pCR might benefit from additional neoadjuvant treatment, or ineffective therapy could be stopped. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The article reports on a health care intervention on human participants and was prospectively registered on March 22, 2018 under ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03474341
Spin Susceptibility in Underdoped
We report a comprehensive polarized and unpolarized neutron scattering study
of the evolution of the dynamical spin susceptibility with temperature and
doping in three underdoped single crystals of the \YBCO{6+x} high temperature
superconductor: \YBCO{6.5} (Tc = 52 K), \YBCO{6.7} (Tc = 67 K), and \YBCO{6.85}
(T_c = 87 K). Theoretical implications of these data are discussed, and a
critique of recent attempts to relate the spin excitations to the
thermodynamics of high temperature superconductors is given.Comment: minor revisions, to appear in PR
Glassy nature of stripe ordering in La(1.6-x)Nd(0.4)Sr(x)CuO(4)
We present the results of neutron-scattering studies on various aspects of
crystalline and magnetic structure in single crystals of
La(1.6-x)Nd(0.4)Sr(x)CuO(4) with x=0.12 and 0.15. In particular, we have
reexamined the degree of stripe order in an x=0.12 sample. Measurements of the
width for an elastic magnetic peak show that it saturates at a finite value
below 30 K, corresponding to a spin-spin correlation length of 200 A. A model
calculation indicates that the differing widths of magnetic and (previously
reported) charge-order peaks, together with the lack of commensurability, can
be consistently explained by disorder in the stripe spacing. Above 30 K, the
width of the nominally elastic signal begins to increase. Interpreting the
signal as critical scattering from slowly fluctuating spins, the temperature
dependence of the width is consistent with renormalized classical behavior of a
2-dimensional anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Inelastic scattering
measurements show that incommensurate spin excitations survive at and above 50
K, where the elastic signal is neglible. We also report several results related
to the LTO-to-LTT transition.Comment: 13 pp, 2-col. REVTeX, 11 figures embedded with psfig; expanded
discussion of T-dep. of magnetic peak width; version to appear in Phys. Rev.
B (01Jun99
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