Probing topological quantum matter with scanning tunnelling microscopy

The search for topological phases of matter is evolving towards strongly interacting systems, including magnets and superconductors, where exotic effects emerge from the quantum-level interplay between geometry, correlation and topology. Over the past decade or so, scanning tunnelling microscopy has become a powerful tool to probe and discover emergent topological matter, because of its unprecedented spatial resolution, high-precision electronic detection and magnetic tunability. Scanning tunnelling microscopy can be used to probe various topological phenomena, as well as complement results from other techniques. We discuss some of these proof-of-principle methodologies applied to probe topology, with particular attention to studies performed under a tunable vector magnetic field, which is a relatively new direction of recent focus. We then project the future possibilities for atomic-resolution tunnelling methods in providing new insights into topological matter

Small-Sample Inferred Adaptive Recoding for Batched Network Coding

Batched network coding is a low-complexity network coding solution to feedbackless multi-hop wireless packet network transmission with packet loss. The data to be transmitted is encoded into batches where each of which consists of a few coded packets. Unlike the traditional forwarding strategy, the intermediate network nodes have to perform recoding, which generates recoded packets by network coding operations restricted within the same batch. Adaptive recoding is a technique to adapt the fluctuation of packet loss by optimizing the number of recoded packets per batch to enhance the throughput. The input rank distribution, which is a piece of information regarding the batches arriving at the node, is required to apply adaptive recoding. However, this distribution is not known in advance in practice as the incoming link's channel condition may change from time to time. On the other hand, to fully utilize the potential of adaptive recoding, we need to have a good estimation of this distribution. In other words, we need to guess this distribution from a few samples so that we can apply adaptive recoding as soon as possible. In this paper, we propose a distributionally robust optimization for adaptive recoding with a small-sample inferred prediction of the input rank distribution. We develop an algorithm to efficiently solve this optimization with the support of theoretical guarantees that our optimization's performance would constitute as a confidence lower bound of the optimal throughput with high probability.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, accepted in ISIT-21, appendix adde

Performance assessment of coupled green-grey-blue systems for Sponge City construction

This is the final version. Available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record. In recent years, Sponge City has gained significant interests as a way of urban water management. The kernel of Sponge City is to develop a coupled green-grey-blue system which consists of green infrastructure at the source, grey infrastructure (i.e. drainage system) at the midway and receiving water bodies as the blue part at the terminal. However, the current approaches for assessing the performance of Sponge City construction are confined to green-grey systems and do not adequately reflect the effectiveness in runoff reduction and the impacts on receiving water bodies. This paper proposes an integrated assessment framework of coupled green-grey-blue systems on compliance of water quantity and quality control targets in Sponge City construction. Rainfall runoff and river system models are coupled to provide quantitative simulation evaluations of a number of indicators of land-based and river quality. A multi-criteria decision-making method, i.e., Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is adopted to rank design alternatives and identify the optimal alternative for Sponge City construction. The effectiveness of this framework is demonstrated in a typical plain river network area of Suzhou, China. The results demonstrate that the performance of Sponge City strategies increases with large scale deployment under smaller rainfall events. In addition, though surface runoff has a dilution effect on the river water quality, the control of surface pollutants can play a significant role in the river water quality improvement. This framework can be applied to Sponge City projects to achieve the enhancement of urban water management.Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE)National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaBeijing Nature Science FoundationMajor Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatmen

Tree amplitudes of noncommutative U(N) Yang-Mills Theory

Following the spirit of S-matrix program, we proposed a modified Britto-Cachazo-Feng-Witten recursion relation for tree amplitudes of noncommutative U(N) Yang-Mills theory. Starting from three-point amplitudes, one can use this modified BCFW recursion relation to compute or analyze color-ordered tree amplitudes without relying on any detail information of noncommutative Yang-Mills theory. After clarifying the color structure of noncommutative tree amplitudes, we wrote down the noncommutative analogies of U(1)-decoupling, Kleiss-Kuijf and Bern-Carrasco-Johansson relations for color-ordered tree amplitudes, and proved them using the modified BCFW recursion relation.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figures. v2 References added. v3 some typos correcte

Coupling and stacking order of ReS2 atomic layers revealed by ultralow-frequency Raman spectroscopy

We investigate the ultralow-frequency Raman response of atomically thin ReS2, a special type of two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors with unique distorted 1T structure. Bilayer and few-layer ReS2 exhibit rich Raman spectra at frequencies below 50 cm-1, where a panoply of interlayer shear and breathing modes are observed. The emergence of these interlayer phonon modes indicate that the ReS2 layers are coupled and stacked orderly, in contrast to the general belief that the ReS2 layers are decoupled from one another. While the interlayer breathing modes can be described by a linear chain model as in other 2D layered crystals, the shear modes exhibit distinctive behavior due to the in-plane lattice distortion. In particular, the two shear modes in bilayer ReS2 are non-degenerate and well separated in the Raman spectrum, in contrast to the doubly degenerate shear modes in other 2D materials. By carrying out comprehensive first-principles calculations, we can account for the frequency and Raman intensity of the interlayer modes, and determine the stacking order in bilayer ReS2

Engineering Colloidal Metal-Semiconductor Nanorods Hybrid Nanostructures for Photocatalysis

Comprehensive Summary Emerging engineering strategies of colloidal metal-semiconductor nanorod hybrid nanostructures spanning from type, size, dimension, and location of both metal nanoparticles and semiconductors, co-catalyst, band gap structure, surface ligand to hole scavenger are elaborated symmetrically to rationalize the design of this type of intriguing materials for efficient photocatalytic applications. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Properties and Applications of the Electrohydraulic Servosystem of the Hydraulic Excavator

The service of a hydraulic excavator is complicated by poor environment. The safety and stability of the control system are influenced by external factors. The object of the study is the electrohydraulic servosystem of the hydraulic excavator. The mathematical and simulation models using AMESIM for the servosystem are constructed. Then the pressure and flow characteristics are analyzed. The design and optimization of the electrohydraulic servosystem and its application in excavator engineering are described. The operation process is graphically presented by a curve, which steeply slopes up (rising period) and then flattens out (stabilization period), those periods are shortened by 38.0 and 40.5%, respectively, the delay tracking period decreased by 52.6%, and anti-interference is reliable.Эксплуатация гидравлического экскаватора осложняется наличием неблагоприятной рабочей среды. Показано воздействие внешних факторов на надежность и стабильность системы контроля. Исследована электрогидравлическая сервосистема гидравлического экскаватора. Построены математическая и имитационная модели для сервосистемы с использованием программы AMESIM. Выполнен анализ характеристик давления и текучести. Описаны конструкция и оптимизация электрогидравлической сервосистемы, а также ее применение в экскаваторной технике. Процесс функционирования электрогидравлической сервосистемы представлен кривой, которая круто идет вверх (период подъема), а затем выходит на плато (период стабилизации), эти периоды сокращаются на 38,0 и 40,5% соответственно, период слежения за задержкой на 52,6% при эффективной помехоустойчивости

Effects of Corruption on Efficiency of the European Airports

The effect of corruption on airport productive efficiency is analyzed using an unbalanced panel data of major European airports from 2003 to 2009. We first compute the residual (or net) variable factor productivity using the multilateral index number method and then apply robust cluster random effects model in order to evaluate the importance of corruption. We find strong evidence that corruption has negative impacts on airport operating efficiency; and the effects depend on the ownership form of the airport. The results suggest that airports under mixed public-private ownership with private majority achieve lower levels of efficiency when located in more corrupt countries. They even operate less efficiently than fully and/or majority government owned airports in high corruption environment. We control for economic regulation, competition level and other airports’ characteristics. Our empirical results survive several robustness checks including different control variables, three alternative corruption measures: International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) corruption index, Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and Control of Corruption Index (CCI). The empirical findings have important policy implications for management and ownership structuring of airports operating in countries that suffer from higher levels of corruption