Searching for Effects of Spatial Noncommutativity via Chern-Simons' Processes

The possibility of testing spatial noncommutativity in the case of both position-position and momentum-momentum noncommuting via a Chern-Simons' process is explored. A Chern-Simons process can be realized by an interaction of a charged particle in special crossed electric and magnetic fields, in which the Chern-Simons term leads to non-trivial dynamics in the limit of vanishing kinetic energy. Spatial noncommutativity leads to the spectrum of the orbital angular momentum possessing fractional values. Furthermore, in both limits of vanishing kinetic energy and subsequent vanishing magnetic field, the Chern-Simons term leads to this system having non-trivial dynamics again, and the dominant value of the lowest orbital angular momentum being $\hbar/4$, which is a clear signal of spatial noncommutativity. An experimental verification of this prediction by a Stern-Gerlach-type experiment is suggested.Comment: 18 page

Supersymmetry in Quantum Mechanics of Colored Particles

The role of supercharge operators is studied in the case of a Dirac particle moving in a constant chromomagnetic field. The Hamiltonian is factorised and the ground state wave function in the case of unbroken supersymmetry is determined.Comment: 8 pages, no figure

Testing Spatial Noncommutativity via Rydberg Atoms

The possibility of testing spatial noncommutativity via Rydberg atoms is explored. An atomic dipole of a cold Rydberg atom is arranged in appropriate electric and magnetic field, so that the motion of the dipole is constrained to be planar and rotationally symmetric. Spatial noncommutativity leads to that the canonical angular momentum possesses fractional values. In the limit of vanishing kinetic energy, the dominate value of the lowest canonical angular momentum takes $\hbar/2$. Furthermore, in the limit of eliminating magnetic field, the dominate value of the lowest canonical angular momentum changes from $\hbar/2$ to $\hbar/4$. This result is a clear signal of spatial noncommutativity. An experimental verification of this prediction is suggested.Comment: 10 pages. Physical Review Letters (in press

Light scattering from an amplifying medium bounded by a randomly rough surface: A numerical study

We study by numerical simulations the scattering of $s$-polarized light from a rough dielectric film deposited on the planar surface of a semi-infinite perfect conductor. The dielectric film is allowed to be either active or passive, situations that we model by assigning negative and positive values, respectively, to the imaginary part $\epsilon_2$ of the dielectric constant of the film. We study the reflectance ${\cal R}$ and the total scattered energy ${\cal U}$ for the system as functions of both $\epsilon_2$ and the angle of incidence of the light. Furthermore, the positions and widths of the enhanced backscattering and satellite peaks are discussed. It is found that these peaks become narrower and higher when the amplification of the system is increased, and that their widths scale linearly with $\epsilon_2$. The positions of the backscattering peaks are found to be independent of $\epsilon_2$, while we find a weak dependence on this quantity in the positions of the satellite peaks.Comment: Revtex, 9 pages, 9 figure

Mechanism and Timescales of Reversible p‐Doping of Methylammonium Lead Triiodide by Oxygen

Understanding and controlling the energy level alignment at interfaces with metal halide perovskites (MHPs) is essential for realizing the full potential of these materials for use in optoelectronic devices. To date, however, the basic electronic properties of MHPs are still under debate. Particularly, reported Fermi level positions in the energy gap vary from indicating strong n- to strong p-type character for nominally identical materials, raising serious questions about intrinsic and extrinsic defects as dopants. ​In this work, photoemission experiments demonstrate that thin films of the prototypical methylammonium lead triiodide (MAPbI3) behave like an intrinsic semiconductor in the absence of oxygen. Oxygen is then shown to be able to reversibly diffuse into and out of the MAPbI3 bulk, requiring rather long saturation timescales of ≈1 h (in: ambient air) and over 10 h (out: ultrahigh vacuum), for few 100 nm thick films. Oxygen in the bulk leads to pronounced p-doping, positioning the Fermi level universally ≈0.55 eV above the valence band maximum. The key doping mechanism is suggested to be molecular oxygen substitution of iodine vacancies, supported by density functional theory calculations. This insight rationalizes previous and future electronic property studies of MHPs and calls for meticulous oxygen exposure protocols.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659DFG http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659German Research Foundation http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659Peer Reviewe

Test of CPT and Lorentz invariance from muonium spectroscopy

Following a suggestion of Kostelecky et al. we have evaluated a test of CPT and Lorentz invariance from the microwave spectroscopy of muonium. Hamiltonian terms beyond the standard model violating CPT and Lorentz invariance would contribute frequency shifts $\delta\nu_{12}$ and $\delta\nu_{34}$ to $\nu_{12}$ and $\nu_{34}$, the two transitions involving muon spin flip, which were precisely measured in ground state muonium in a strong magnetic field of 1.7 T. The shifts would be indicated by anti-correlated oscillations in $\nu_{12}$ and $\nu_{34}$ at the earth's sidereal frequency. No time dependence was found in $\nu_{12}$ or $\nu_{34}$ at the level of 20 Hz, limiting the size of some CPT and Lorentz violating parameters at the level of $2\times10^{-23}$ GeV, representing Planck scale sensitivity and an order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity over previous limits for the muon.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, uses REVTeX and epsf, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Increased Sensitivity to Possible Muonium to Antimuonium Conversion

A new experimental search for muonium-antimuonium conversion was conducted at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland. The preliminary analysis yielded one event fulfilling all required criteria at an expected background of 1.7(2) events due to accidental coincidences. An upper limit for the conversion probability in 0.1 T magnetic field is extracted as $8 \cdot 10^{-11}$ (90% CL).Comment: 2 figure