Charge ordering of magnetic monopoles in triangular spin ice patterns

Artificial spin ice offers the possibility to investigate a variety of dipolar orderings, spin frustrations and ground states. However, the most fascinating aspect is the realization that magnetic charge order can be established without spin order. We have investigated magnetic dipoles arranged on a honeycomb lattice as a function of applied field, using magnetic force microscopy. For the easy direction with the field parallel to one of the three dipole sublattices we observe at coercivity a maximum of spin frustration and simultaneously a maximum of charge order of magnetic monopoles with alternating charges $\pm$ 3.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Atypical miRNA expression in temporal cortex associated with dysregulation of immune, cell cycle, and other pathways in autism spectrum disorders.

BackgroundAutism spectrum disorders (ASDs) likely involve dysregulation of multiple genes related to brain function and development. Abnormalities in individual regulatory small non-coding RNA (sncRNA), including microRNA (miRNA), could have profound effects upon multiple functional pathways. We assessed whether a brain region associated with core social impairments in ASD, the superior temporal sulcus (STS), would evidence greater transcriptional dysregulation of sncRNA than adjacent, yet functionally distinct, primary auditory cortex (PAC).MethodsWe measured sncRNA expression levels in 34 samples of postmortem brain from STS and PAC to find differentially expressed sncRNA in ASD compared with control cases. For differentially expressed miRNA, we further analyzed their predicted mRNA targets and carried out functional over-representation analysis of KEGG pathways to examine their functional significance and to compare our findings to reported alterations in ASD gene expression.ResultsTwo mature miRNAs (miR-4753-5p and miR-1) were differentially expressed in ASD relative to control in STS and four (miR-664-3p, miR-4709-3p, miR-4742-3p, and miR-297) in PAC. In both regions, miRNA were functionally related to various nervous system, cell cycle, and canonical signaling pathways, including PI3K-Akt signaling, previously implicated in ASD. Immune pathways were only disrupted in STS. snoRNA and pre-miRNA were also differentially expressed in ASD brain.ConclusionsAlterations in sncRNA may underlie dysregulation of molecular pathways implicated in autism. sncRNA transcriptional abnormalities in ASD were apparent in STS and in PAC, a brain region not directly associated with core behavioral impairments. Disruption of miRNA in immune pathways, frequently implicated in ASD, was unique to STS

Evidence for charge orbital and spin stripe order in an overdoped manganite

We present diffraction data on a single-layered manganite La(0.42)Sr(1.58)MnO4 with hole doping (x>0.5). Overdoped La(0.42)Sr(1.58)MnO4 exhibits a complex ordering of charges, orbitals and spins. Single crystal neutron diffraction experiments reveal three incommensurate and one commensurate order parameters to be tightly coupled. The position and the shape of the distinct superstructure scattering points to a stripe arrangement in which ferromagnetic zigzag chains are disrupted by additional Mn4+ stripes

Chaotic Quantum Decay in Driven Biased Optical Lattices

Quantum decay in an ac driven biased periodic potential modeling cold atoms in optical lattices is studied for a symmetry broken driving. For the case of fully chaotic classical dynamics the classical exponential decay is quantum mechanically suppressed for a driving frequency \omega in resonance with the Bloch frequency \omega_B, q\omega=r\omega_B with integers q and r. Asymptotically an algebraic decay ~t^{-\gamma} is observed. For r=1 the exponent \gamma agrees with $q$ as predicted by non-Hermitian random matrix theory for q decay channels. The time dependence of the survival probability can be well described by random matrix theory. The frequency dependence of the survival probability shows pronounced resonance peaks with sub-Fourier character.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Bounds on Lorentz and CPT Violation from the Earth-Ionosphere Cavity

Electromagnetic resonant cavities form the basis of many tests of Lorentz invariance involving photons. The effects of some forms of Lorentz violation scale with cavity size. We investigate possible signals of violations in the naturally occurring resonances formed in the Earth-ionosphere cavity. Comparison with observed resonances places the first terrestrial constraints on coefficients associated with dimension-three Lorentz-violating operators at the level of 10^{-20} GeV.Comment: 8 pages REVTe

A Large Effective Phonon Magnetic Moment in a Dirac Semimetal

We investigated the magnetoterahertz response of the Dirac semimetal Cd$_3$As$_2$ and observed a particularly low frequency optical phonon, as well as a very prominent and field sensitive cyclotron resonance. As the cyclotron frequency is tuned with field to pass through the phonon, the phonon become circularly polarized as shown by a notable splitting in their response to right- and left-hand polarized light. This splitting can be expressed as an effective phonon magnetic moment that is approximately 2.7 times the Bohr magneton, which is almost four orders of magnitude larger than ab initio calculations predict for phonon magnetic moments in nonmagnetic insulators. This exceedingly large value is due to the coupling of the phonons to the cyclotron motion and is controlled directly by the electron-phonon coupling constant. This field tunable circular-polarization selective coupling provides new functionality for nonlinear optics to create light-induced topological phases in Dirac semimetals.Comment: 15 pages for main text and SI; To appear in Nano Letters (2020

Assessing the relationship between terrorist attacks against ingroup or outgroup members and public support for terrorism

Terrorist groups rely on constituency support for their long-term survival. Here, we examined the extent to which terrorists’ own activities are related with public opinion on terrorism. Specifically, we assessed whether more frequent and more costly terrorist attacks against the ingroup are associated with war weariness or retaliatory sentiments, thus, either weaker or stronger approval of terrorism. We further investigated if more frequent and costly attacks that target an outgroup predict higher levels of justification of terrorism. Lastly, we identified the timeframe during which domestic and outgroup terrorist attacks correlate with (lower or higher) public support. The analyses focused on Jordan (ingroup) and Israel (outgroup), over an 8-year period (2004–2011), drawing on data from the Pew Global Attitudes Survey and the Global Terrorism Database. Results showed that support for terrorism in Jordan decreased in 2005 and, again, in 2008. The frequency of terrorist attacks and fatality/injury rates in Jordan did not vary significantly during the study period. The number of attacks and fatalities/people injured in Israel, however, changed between 2004 and 2011. Cross-correlations of the time-series further demonstrated that the number of attacks and fatalities/people injured in Jordan was not related with the level of public approval of terrorism in the country. Importantly, and in line with the literature, the casualty rate in Israel was positively associated with support for terrorism in Jordan, in the next year. That is, there is evidence that more/less costly terrorist attacks on an outgroup can predict stronger/weaker public support for the tactic relatively quickly. Those findings provide insights for counter-terrorism measures