Degenerate states of narrow semiconductor rings in the presence of spin orbit coupling: Role of time-reversal and large gauge transformations

The electron Hamiltonian of narrow semiconductor rings with the Rashba and Dresselhaus spin orbit terms is invariant under time-reversal operation followed by a large gauge transformation. We find that all the eigenstates are doubly degenerate when integer or half-integer quantum fluxes thread the quantum ring. The wavefunctions of a degenerate pair are related to each other by the symmetry operation. These results are valid even in the presence of a disorder potential. When the Zeeman term is present only some of these degenerate levels anticross

Comment on ``Effective Mass and g-Factor of Four Flux Quanta Composite Fermions"

In a recent Letter, Yeh et al.[Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 592 (1999)] have shown beautiful experimental results which indicate that the composite fermions with four flux quanta ($^4$CF) behave as fermions with mass and spin just like those with two flux quanta. They observed the collapse of the fractional quantum Hall gaps when the following condition is satisfied with some integer $j$, $g^*\mu_{\rm B}B_{\rm tot} = j \hbar \omega_{\rm c}^*$, where $g^*$ and $\omega_{\rm c}^*$ are the g-factor and the cyclotron frequency of the $^4$CF, respectively. However, in their picture the gap at the Fermi energy remains always finite even if the above condition is satisfied, thus the reason of the collapse was left as a mystery. In this comment it is shown that part of the mystery is resolved by considering the electron-hole symmetry properly.Comment: 2 pages, RevTeX. Minor chang

Comment on ``Evidence for Anisotropic State of Two-Dimensional Electrons in High Landau Levels''

In a recent letter M. Lilly et al [PRL 82, 394 (1999)] have shown that a highly anisotropic state can arise in certain two dimensional electron systems. In the large square samples studied, resistances measured in the two perpendicular directions are found to have a ratio that may be 60 or larger at low temperature and at certain magnetic fields. In Hall bar measurements, the anisotropy ratio is found to be much smaller (roughly 5). In this comment we resolve this discrepancy by noting that the anisotropy of the underlying sheet resistivities is correctly represented by Hall bar resistance measurements but shows up exponentially enhanced in resistance measurements on square samples due to simple geometric effects. We note, however, that the origin of this underlying resistivity anisotropy remains unknown, and is not addressed here.Comment: 1 page, minor calculational error repaire

Finite Conductivity in Mesoscopic Hall Bars of Inverted InAs/GaSb Quantum Wells

We have studied experimentally the low temperature conductivity of mesoscopic size InAs/GaSb quantum well Hall bar devices in the inverted regime. Using a pair of electrostatic gates we were able to move the Fermi level into the electron-hole hybridization state, and observe a mini gap. Temperature dependence of the conductivity in the gap shows residual conductivity, which can be consistently explained by the contributions from the free as well as the hybridized carriers in the presence of impurity scattering, as proposed by Naveh and Laikhtman [Euro. Phys. Lett., 55, 545-551 (2001)]. Experimental implications for the stability of proposed helical edge states will be discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Counting Labelled Trees with Given Indegree Sequence

For a labelled tree on the vertex set $[n]:=\{1,2,..., n\}$, define the direction of each edge $ij$ to be $i\to j$ if $i<j$. The indegree sequence of $T$ can be considered as a partition $\lambda \vdash n-1$. The enumeration of trees with a given indegree sequence arises in counting secant planes of curves in projective spaces. Recently Ethan Cotterill conjectured a formula for the number of trees on $[n]$ with indegree sequence corresponding to a partition $\lambda$. In this paper we give two proofs of Cotterill's conjecture: one is `semi-combinatorial" based on induction, the other is a bijective proof.Comment: 10 page

Microwave photoresistance of a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas in a triangular antidot lattice

The microwave (MW) photoresistance has been measured on a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas patterned with a shallow triangular antidot lattice, where both the MW-induced resistance oscillations (MIRO) and magnetoplasmon (MP) resonance are observed superposing on sharp commensurate geometrical resonance (GR). Analysis shows that the MIRO, MP, and GR are decoupled from each other in these experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, paper accepted by PR

Counting Humps in Motzkin paths

In this paper we study the number of humps (peaks) in Dyck, Motzkin and Schr\"{o}der paths. Recently A. Regev noticed that the number of peaks in all Dyck paths of order $n$ is one half of the number of super Dyck paths of order $n$. He also computed the number of humps in Motzkin paths and found a similar relation, and asked for bijective proofs. We give a bijection and prove these results. Using this bijection we also give a new proof that the number of Dyck paths of order $n$ with $k$ peaks is the Narayana number. By double counting super Schr\"{o}der paths, we also get an identity involving products of binomial coefficients.Comment: 8 pages, 2 Figure

Measurement of brood patch temperature of British passerines using an infrared thermometer

Capsule An infrared ear thermometer can be easily used to measure brood patch temperature in passerines caught on the nest or in mist-nets