Thermodynamics of Fuzzy Spheres in PP-wave Matrix Model

We discuss thermodynamics of fuzzy spheres in a matrix model on a pp-wave background. The exact free energy in the fuzzy sphere vacuum is computed in the \mu -> \infty limit for an arbitrary matrix size N. The trivial vacuum dominates the fuzzy sphere vacuum at low temperature while the fuzzy sphere vacuum is more stable than the trivial vacuum at sufficiently high temperature. Our result supports that the fluctuations around the trivial vacuum would condense to form an irreducible fuzzy sphere above a certain temperature.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX2

On the search for the chiral anomaly in Weyl semimetals: The negative longitudinal magnetoresistance

Recently, the existence of massless chiral (Weyl) fermions has been postulated in a class of semi-metals with a non-trivial energy dispersion.These materials are now commonly dubbed Weyl semi-metals (WSM).One predicted property of Weyl fermions is the chiral or Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly, a chirality imbalance in the presence of parallel magnetic and electric fields. In WSM, it is expected to induce a negative longitudinal magnetoresistance (NMR), the chiral magnetic effect.Here, we present experimental evidence that the observation of the chiral magnetic effect can be hindered by an effect called "current jetting". This effect also leads to a strong apparent NMR, but it is characterized by a highly non-uniform current distribution inside the sample. It appears in materials possessing a large field-induced anisotropy of the resistivity tensor, such as almost compensated high-mobility semimetals due to the orbital effect.In case of a non-homogeneous current injection, the potential distribution is strongly distorted in the sample.As a consequence, an experimentally measured potential difference is not proportional to the intrinsic resistance.Our results on the MR of the WSM candidate materials NbP, NbAs, TaAs, TaP exhibit distinct signatures of an inhomogeneous current distribution, such as a field-induced "zero resistance' and a strong dependence of the `measured resistance" on the position, shape, and type of the voltage and current contacts on the sample. A misalignment between the current and the magnetic-field directions can even induce a "negative resistance". Finite-element simulations of the potential distribution inside the sample, using typical resistance anisotropies, are in good agreement with the experimental findings. Our study demonstrates that great care must be taken before interpreting measurements of a NMR as evidence for the chiral anomaly in putative Weyl semimetals.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

dd-wave bond-order charge excitations in electron-doped cuprates

We study charge excitation spectra in the two-dimensional $t$-$J$ model on a square lattice to explore a charge-order tendency recently found in electron-doped cuprates around the carrier density 0.15. The static susceptibility of $d$-wave charge density, which corresponds to the nematic susceptibility at the momentum transfer ${\bf q}=(0,0)$, shows two characteristic peaks at momenta of the form ${\bf q}_{1}=(q',q')$ and ${\bf q}_{2}=(q,0)$. These two peaks originate from the so-called $2k_{F}$ scattering processes enhanced by the $d$-wave character of the bond-charge density. The peak at ${\bf q}_{1}$ is much broader, but develop to be very sharp in the vicinity of its instability, whereas the peak at ${\bf q}_{2}$ becomes sharper with decreasing temperature, but does not diverge. The equal-time correlation function, which is measured by resonant x-ray scattering, exhibits a momentum dependence similar to the static susceptibility. We also present energy-resolved charge excitation spectra. The spectra show a V-shaped structure around ${\bf q}=(0,0)$ and bend back toward close to zero energy due to the charge-order tendency at ${\bf q}_{1}$ and ${\bf q}_{2}$. The resulting spectra form gap-like features with a maximal gap at ${\bf q} \approx {\bf q}_{1}/2$ and ${\bf q}_{2}/2$. We discuss implications for the recent experiments in electron-doped cuprates.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, panel b of figure 1 corrected, added references, corrected typos, added a paragraph before summar