Topological Hall Effect in Inhomogeneous Superconductors

We propose a possible mechanism of topological Hall effect in inhomogeneous superconducting states. In our scenario, the Berry phase effect associated with spatially modulated superconducting order parameter gives rise to a fictitious Lorentz force acting on quasiparticles. In the case of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state, the topological Hall effect is detected by applying an electromagnetic wave with a tuned wave number on a surface of the system.Comment: 4 page

Repetition, difference and liturgical participation in Coleridge's 'The ancient mariner'

Theological interpretations of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ have sometimes been judged to do little more than to compound the problem of interpretation. This essay reflects on a contrasting response from the Welsh poet David Jones which challenges the ‘Rime’ for a theological incoherence in itself constituting a failure of imagination, and then considers the relation of language to liturgy in recent postmodern theology. What emerges from Coleridge’s poem is a divergence between the identical repetition of the tale itself and a ‘repetition with difference’ implied in the Mariner’s vision of a procession to the kirk. Coleridge’s ‘Gothic’ imagination can do little more than stage this difference of repetition on the margins of his poem, but there are implications for his later writing career, as he moves away from the predominance of imagination towards the counter-horizons of speculative theological prose

Book review: the creative destruction of medicine: how the digital revolution will create better health care

In The Creative Destruction of Medicine, geneticist and cardiologist Eric Topol introduces a radical new approach to medicine. By bringing the era of big data and personal technology to the clinic, laboratory, and hospital, doctors can see a full, continuously updated picture of each patient and treat each individually. Edward Larkin believes that although Topol’s vision may be somewhat premature, the book is a must-read for anyone interested in the relationship between technology of medicine

Angular Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state in cold fermion gases in a toroidal trap

We study the possibility of angular Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state, in which the rotation symmetry is spontaneously broken, in population imbalanced fermion gases near the BCS-BEC crossover. We investigate the superfluid gases at low temperatures on the basis of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation, and examine the stability against thermal fluctuations using the T-matrix approach beyond the local-density approximation (LDA). We find that the angular FFLO state is stabilized in the gases confined in the toroidal trap but not in the harmonic trap. The angular FFLO state is stable near the BCS-BEC crossover owing to the formation of pseudogap. Spatial dependences of number density and local population imbalance are shown for an experimental test.Comment: final version for publication in Phys. Rev. B Rapid Communicatio

Theory of the striped superconductor

We define a distinct phase of matter, a "pair density wave" (PDW), in which the superconducting order parameter $\phi$ varies periodically as a function of position such that when averaged over the center of mass position, all components of $\phi$ vanish identically. Specifically, we study the simplest, unidirectional PDW, the "striped superconductor," which we argue may be at the heart of a number of spectacular experimental anomalies that have been observed in the failed high temperature superconductor, La$_{2-x}$ Ba$_x$CuO$_4$. We present a solvable microscopic model with strong electron-electron interactions which supports a PDW groundstate. We also discuss, at the level of Landau theory, the nature of the coupling between the PDW and other order parameters, and the origins and some consequences of the unusual sensitivity of this state to quenched disorder.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; Journal ref. adde

Crystalline chiral condensates off the tricritical point in a generalized Ginzburg-Landau approach

We present an extensive study on inhomogeneous chiral condensates in QCD at finite density in the chiral limit using a generalized Ginzburg-Landau (GL) approach. Performing analyses on higher harmonics of one-dimensionally (1D) modulated condensates, we numerically confirm the previous claim that the solitonic chiral condensate characterized by Jacobi's elliptic function is the most favorable structure in 1D modulations. We then investigate the possibility of realization of several multidimensional modulations within the same framework. We also study the phase structure far away from the tricritical point by extending the GL functional expanded up to the eighth order in the order parameter and its spatial derivative. On the same basis, we explore a new regime in the extended GL parameter space and find that the Lifshitz point is the point where five critical lines meet at once. In particular, the existence of an intriguing triple point is demonstrated, and its trajectory consists of one of those critical lines.Comment: 17 pages, 20 eps figures; (v2) corrected an error in computation of eighth order coefficients; (v3) typos corrected, version to appear in Phys. Rev.