Superfluid 3^3He in globally isotropic random media

Recent theoretical and experimental studies of superfluid $^3$He in aerogels with a global anisotropy, e.g., due to an external stress, have definitely shown that the A-like phase with an equal spin pairing (ESP) in such aerogel samples is in the ABM (or, axial) pairing state. In this paper, the A-like phase of superfluid $^3$He in globally {\it isotropic} aerogel is studied in details by assuming a weakly disordered system in which singular topological defects are absent. Through calculation of the free energy, a disordered ABM state is found to be the best candidate of the pairing state of the globally isotropic A-like phase. Further, it is found through a one-loop renormalization group calculation that the coreless continuous vortices (or, vortex-skyrmions) are irrelevant to the long-distance behavior of the disorder-induced textures, and that the superfluidity is maintained in spite of lack of the conventional off-diagonal long range order. Therefore, the globally isotropic A-like phase at weak disorder is, like in the case with a global stretched anisotropy, a superfluid glass with the ABM pairing.Comment: Revised version accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.

NMR in Superfluid A-like Phase of 3^3He Confined in Globally Deformed Aerogel in Tilted Magnetic Field

NMR spectra in superfluid A-like phases confined in axially deformed aerogel in presence of a magnetic field inclined with respect to deformation axis is considered. The characteristic features of dipole frequency shift in axially compressed and axially stretched cases are compared. In particular, it is shown that in axially stretched aerogel environment the stability region of coherently spin precessing mode is rather narrow due to the U(1)LIM effect.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Soliton-like Spin State in the A-like Phase of 3He in Anisotropic Aerogel

We have found a new stable spin state in the A-like phase of superfluid 3He confined to intrinsically anisotropic aerogel. The state can be formed by radiofrequency excitation applied while cooling through the superfluid transition temperature and its NMR properties are different from the standard A-like phase obtained in the limit of very small excitation. It is possible that this new state is formed by textural domain walls pinned by aerogel.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to J. of Low Tem. Phys. (QFS2007 Proceedings

Orbital glass and spin glass states of 3He-A in aerogel

Glass states of superfluid A-like phase of 3He in aerogel induced by random orientations of aerogel strands are investigated theoretically and experimentally. In anisotropic aerogel with stretching deformation two glass phases are observed. Both phases represent the anisotropic glass of the orbital ferromagnetic vector l -- the orbital glass (OG). The phases differ by the spin structure: the spin nematic vector d can be either in the ordered spin nematic (SN) state or in the disordered spin-glass (SG) state. The first phase (OG-SN) is formed under conventional cooling from normal 3He. The second phase (OG-SG) is metastable, being obtained by cooling through the superfluid transition temperature, when large enough resonant continuous radio-frequency excitation are applied. NMR signature of different phases allows us to measure the parameter of the global anisotropy of the orbital glass induced by deformation.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to Pis'ma v ZhETF (JETP Letters

Phase diagram of superfluid 3He in "nematically ordered" aerogel

Results of experiments with liquid 3He immersed in a new type of aerogel are described. This aerogel consists of Al2O3 strands which are nearly parallel to each other, so we call it as a "nematically ordered" aerogel. At all used pressures a superfluid transition was observed and a superfluid phase diagram was measured. Possible structures of the observed superfluid phases are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to Pis'ma v ZhETF (JETP Letters

Clinical and neural effects of six-week administration of oxytocin on core symptoms of autism

Autism spectrum disorder is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder with no established pharmacological treatment for its core symptoms. Although previous literature has shown that single-dose administration of oxytocin temporally mitigates autistic social behaviours in experimental settings, it remains in dispute whether such potentially beneficial responses in laboratories can result in clinically positive effects in daily life situations, which are measurable only in long-term observations of individuals with the developmental disorder undergoing continual oxytocin administration. Here, to address this issue, we performed an exploratory, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial including 20 high-functional adult males with autism spectrum disorder. Data obtained from 18 participants who completed the trial showed that 6-week intranasal administration of oxytocin significantly reduced autism core symptoms specific to social reciprocity, which was clinically evaluated by Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale (P = 0.034, PFDR < 0.05, Cohen's d = 0.78). Critically, the improvement of this clinical score was accompanied by oxytocin-induced enhancement of task-independent resting-state functional connectivity between anterior cingulate cortex and dorso-medial prefrontal cortex (rho = -0.60, P = 0.011), which was measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Moreover, using the same social-judgement task as used in our previous single-dose oxytocin trial, we confirmed that the current continual administration also significantly mitigated behavioural and neural responses during the task, both of which were originally impaired in autistic individuals (judgement tendency: P = 0.019, d = 0.62; eye-gaze effect: P = 0.03, d = 0.56; anterior cingulate activity: P = 0.00069, d = 0.97; dorso-medial prefrontal activity: P = 0.0014, d = 0.92; all, PFDR < 0.05). Furthermore, despite its longer administration, these effect sizes of the 6-week intervention were not larger than those seen in our previous single-dose intervention. These findings not only provide the evidence for clinically beneficial effects of continual oxytocin administration on the core social symptoms of autism spectrum disorder with suggesting its underlying biological mechanisms, but also highlight the necessity to seek optimal regimens of continual oxytocin treatment in future studies

Observation of Coherent Precession of Magnetization in Superfluid 3He A-phase

We report the first observation of coherent quantum precession of magnetization (CQP) in superfluid 3He-A in aerogel. The coherent precession in bulk 3He A-phase is unstable due to the positive feedback of spin supercurrent to the gradient of phase of precession. It was predicted that the homogeneous precession will be stable if the orbital momentum of 3He-A could be oriented along the magnetic field. We have succeeded to prepare this configuration by emerging 3He in uniaxially-deformed anisotropic aerogel. The dissipation rate of coherent precession states in aerogel is much larger then one in bulk 3He-B. We propose a mechanism of this dissipation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Effects of rTMS of pre-supplementary motor area on fronto basal ganglia network activity during stop-signal task

Stop-signal task (SST) has been a key paradigm for probing human brain mechanisms underlying response inhibition, and the inhibition observed in SST is now considered to largely depend on a fronto basal ganglia network consisting mainly of right inferior frontal cortex, pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), and basal ganglia, including subthalamic nucleus, striatum (STR), and globus pallidus pars interna (GPi). However, causal relationships between these frontal regions and basal ganglia are not fully understood in humans. Here, we partly examined these causal links by measuring human fMRI activity during SST before and after excitatory/inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of pre-SMA. We first confirmed that the behavioral performance of SST was improved by excitatory rTMS and impaired by inhibitory rTMS. Afterward, we found that these behavioral changes were well predicted by rTMS-induced modulation of brain activity in pre-SMA, STR, and GPi during SST. Moreover, by examining the effects of the rTMS on resting-state functional connectivity between these three regions, we showed that the magnetic stimulation of pre-SMA significantly affected intrinsic connectivity between pre-SMA and STR, and between STR and GPi. Furthermore, the magnitudes of changes in resting-state connectivity were also correlated with the behavioral changes seen in SST. These results suggest a causal relationship between pre-SMA and GPi via STR during response inhibition, and add direct evidence that the fronto basal ganglia network for response inhibition consists of multiple top-down regulation pathways in humans

Magnetic tunnel junctions with metastable bcc Co3Mn electrodes

We studied magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with a MgO(001) barrier and metastable bcc Co3Mn(001) disordered alloy electrodes. A tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio was approximately 200{250% observed at room temperature.We successfully observed the TMR ratio greater than 600% at 10 K which was higher than the past reported value of MgO-based MTJs with ultrathin bcc Co(001) electrodes. However our experimental value was still much lower than the past theoretical prediction in bcc Co/MgO/Co(001) MTJs. We discuss some differences in the bulk band structure affecting the TMR effect for bcc Co and bcc Co3Mn