707 research outputs found
Giant nonlinear conduction and thyristor-like negative derivative resistance in BaIrO3 single crystals
We synthesized single-crystalline samples of monoclinic BaIrO3 using a molten
flux method, and measured their magnetization, resistivity, Seebeck coefficient
and nonlinear voltage-current characteristics. The magnetization rapidly
increases below a ferromagnetic transition temperature TC of 180 K, where the
resistivity concomitantly shows a hump-type anomaly, followed by a sharp
increase below 30 K. The Seebeck coefficient suddenly increases below TC, and
shows linear temperature dependence below 50 K. A most striking feature of this
compound is that the anomalously giant nonlinear conduction is observed below
30 K, where a small current density of 20 A/cm2 dramatically suppresses the
sharp increase in resistivity to induce a metallic conduction down to 4 K.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures Submitted to Physical Review Letter
Geometrical frustration induced (semi-)metal to insulator transition
We study the low-energy properties of the geometrically frustrated Hubbard
model on a three-dimensional pyrochlore lattice and a two-dimensional
checkerboard lattice on the basis of the renormalization group method and mean
field analysis. It is found that in the half-filling case, a (semi-)metal to
insulator transition (MIT) occurs. Also, in the insulating phase, which has a
spin gap, the spin rotational symmetry is not broken, while charge ordering
exists. The results are applied to the description of the MIT observed in the
pyrochlore system .Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Hole-doping effects on a frustrated spin ladder
Hole-doping effects are investigated on the {\it t-J} ladder model with the
linked-tetrahedra structure. We discuss how a metal-insulator transition occurs
upon hole doping with particular emphasis on the effects of geometrical
frustration. By computing the electron density and the spin correlation
function by the density matrix renormalization group, we show that strong
frustration triggers a first-order transition to a metallic phase, when holes
are doped into the plaquette-singlet phase. By examining spin excitations in a
metallic case in detail, we discuss whether the spin-gap phase persists upon
hole doping according to the strength of frustration. It is further shown that
the lowest excited state in a spin-gap metallic phase can be described in two
independent quasiparticles.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure
Overcoming status quo bias in the human brain
Humans often accept the status quo when faced with conflicting choice alternatives. However, it is unknown how neural pathways connecting cognition with action modulate this status quo acceptance. Here we developed a visual detection task in which subjects tended to favor the default when making difficult, but not easy, decisions. This bias was suboptimal in that more errors were made when the default was accepted. A selective increase in subthalamic nucleus (STN) activity was found when the status quo was rejected in the face of heightened decision difficulty. Analysis of effective connectivity showed that inferior frontal cortex, a region more active for difficult decisions, exerted an enhanced modulatory influence on the STN during switches away from the status quo. These data suggest that the neural circuits required to initiate controlled, nondefault actions are similar to those previously shown to mediate outright response suppression. We conclude that specific prefrontal-basal ganglia dynamics are involved in rejecting the default, a mechanism that may be important in a range of difficult choice scenarios
Charge ordering in the spinels AlVO and LiVO
We develop a microscopic theory for the charge ordering (CO) transitions in
the spinels AlVO and LiVO (under pressure). The high degeneracy
of CO states is lifted by a coupling to the rhombohedral lattice deformations
which favors transition to a CO state with inequivalent V(1) and V(2) sites
forming Kagom\'e and trigonal planes respectively. We construct an extended
Hubbard type model including a deformation potential which is treated in
unrestricted Hartree Fock approximation and describes correctly the observed
first-order CO transition. We also discuss the influence of associated orbital
order. Furthermore we suggest that due to different band fillings AlVO
should remain metallic while LiVO under pressure should become a
semiconductor when charge disproportionation sets in
Critical Dynamics of Singlet Excitations in a Frustrated Spin System
We construct and analyze a two-dimensional frustrated quantum spin model with
plaquette order, in which the low-energy dynamics is controlled by spin
singlets. At a critical value of frustration the singlet spectrum becomes
gapless, indicating a quantum transition to a phase with dimer order. This T=0
transition belongs to the 3D Ising universality class, while at finite
temperature a 2D Ising critical line separates the plaquette and dimerized
phases.
The magnetic susceptibility has an activated form throughout the phase
diagram, whereas the specific heat exhibits a rich structure and a power law
dependence on temperature at the quantum critical point.
We argue that the novel quantum critical behavior associated with singlet
criticality discussed in this work can be relevant to a wide class of quantum
spin systems, such as antiferromagnets on Kagome and pyrochlore lattices, where
the low-energy excitations are known to be spin singlets, as well as to the
CAVO lattice and several recently discovered strongly frustrated square-lattice
antiferromagnets.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, additional discussion and figure added, to appear
in Phys. Rev.
Spectral functions in itinerant electron systems with geometrical frustration
The Hubbard model with geometrical frustration is investigated in a metallic
phase close to half-filling. We calculate the single particle spectral function
for the triangular lattice within dynamical cluster approximation, which is
further combined with non-crossing approximation and fluctuation exchange
approximation to treat the resulting cluster Anderson model. It is shown that
frustration due to non-local correlations suppresses short-range
antiferromagnetic fluctuations and thereby assists the formation of heavy
quasi-particles near half-filling.Comment: 4 pages, 5 eps figure
Classical generalized constant coupling model for geometrically frustrated antiferromagnets
A generalized constant coupling approximation for classical geometrically
frustrated antiferromagnets is presented. Starting from a frustrated unit we
introduce the interactions with the surrounding units in terms of an internal
effective field which is fixed by a self consistency condition. Results for the
magnetic susceptibility and specific heat are compared with Monte Carlo data
for the classical Heisenberg model for the pyrochlore and kagome lattices. The
predictions for the susceptibility are found to be essentially exact, and the
corresponding predictions for the specific heat are found to be in very good
agreement with the Monte Carlo results.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 2 columns. Discussion about the zero T value of
the pyrochlore specific heat correcte
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