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SubscribeNotes on Properties of Holographic Strange Metals
We investigate properties of holographic strange metals in p+2-dimensions, generalizing the analysis performed in arXiv:0912.1061. The bulk spacetime is p+2-dimensional Lifshitz black hole, while the role of charge carriers is played by probe D-branes. We mainly focus on massless charge carriers, where most of the results can be obtained analytically. We obtain exact results for the free energy and calculate the entropy density, the heat capacity as well as the speed of sound at low temperature. We obtain the DC conductivity and DC Hall conductivity and find that the DC conductivity takes a universal form in the large density limit, while the Hall conductivity is also universal in all dimensions. We also study the resistivity in different limits and clarify the condition for the linear dependence on the temperature, which is a key feature of strange metals. We show that our results for the DC conductivity are consistent with those obtained via Kubo formula and we obtain the charge diffusion constant analytically. The corresponding properties of massive charge carriers are also discussed in brief.
Towards strange metallic holography
We initiate a holographic model building approach to `strange metallic' phenomenology. Our model couples a neutral Lifshitz-invariant quantum critical theory, dual to a bulk gravitational background, to a finite density of gapped probe charge carriers, dually described by D-branes. In the physical regime of temperature much lower than the charge density and gap, we exhibit anomalous scalings of the temperature and frequency dependent conductivity. Choosing the dynamical critical exponent z appropriately we can match the non-Fermi liquid scalings, such as linear resistivity, observed in strange metal regimes. As part of our investigation we outline three distinct string theory realizations of Lifshitz geometries: from F theory, from polarised branes, and from a gravitating charged Fermi gas. We also identify general features of renormalisation group flow in Lifshitz theories, such as the appearance of relevant charge-charge interactions when z geq 2. We outline a program to extend this model building approach to other anomalous observables of interest such as the Hall conductivity.
Doping the chiral spin liquid -- topological superconductor or chiral metal?
We point out that there are two different chiral spin liquid states on the triangular lattice and discuss the conducting states that are expected on doping them. These states labeled CS1 and CS2 are associated with two distinct topological orders with different edge states, although they both spontaneously break time reversal symmetry and exhibit the same quantized spin Hall conductance. While CSL1 is related to the Kalmeyer-Laughlin state, CSL2 is the ν=4 member of Kitaev's 16 fold way classification. Both states are described within the Abrikosov fermion representation of spins, and the effect of doping can be accessed by introducing charged holons. On doping CSL2, condensation of charged holons leads to a topological d+id superconductor. However on doping CSL1 , in sharp contrast , two different scenarios can arise: first, if holons condense, a chiral metal with doubled unit cell and finite Hall conductivity is obtained. However, in a second novel scenario, the internal magnetic flux adjusts with doping and holons form a bosonic integer quantum Hall (BIQH) state. Remarkably, the latter phase is identical to a d+id superconductor. In this case the Mott insulator to superconductor transition is associated with a bosonic variant of the integer quantum Hall plateau transition for the holon. We connect the above two scenarios to two recent numerical studies of doped chiral spin liquids on triangular lattice. Our work clarifies the complex relation between topological superconductors, chiral spin liquids and quantum criticality .
AdS/QHE: Towards a Holographic Description of Quantum Hall Experiments
Transitions among quantum Hall plateaux share a suite of remarkable experimental features, such as semi-circle laws and duality relations, whose accuracy and robustness are difficult to explain directly in terms of the detailed dynamics of the microscopic electrons. They would naturally follow if the low-energy transport properties were governed by an emergent discrete duality group relating the different plateaux, but no explicit examples of interacting systems having such a group are known. Recent progress using the AdS/CFT correspondence has identified examples with similar duality groups, but without the DC ohmic conductivity characteristic of quantum Hall experiments. We use this to propose a simple holographic model for low-energy quantum Hall systems, with a nonzero DC conductivity that automatically exhibits all of the observed consequences of duality, including the existence of the plateaux and the semi-circle transitions between them. The model can be regarded as a strongly coupled analog of the old `composite boson' picture of quantum Hall systems. Non-universal features of the model can be used to test whether it describes actual materials, and we comment on some of these in our proposed model.
Holography of Dyonic Dilaton Black Branes
We study black branes carrying both electric and magnetic charges in Einstein-Maxwell theory coupled to a dilaton-axion in asymptotically anti de Sitter space. After reviewing and extending earlier results for the case of electrically charged branes, we characterise the thermodynamics of magnetically charged branes. We then focus on dyonic branes in theories which enjoy an SL(2,R) electric-magnetic duality. Using SL(2,R), we are able to generate solutions with arbitrary charges starting with the electrically charged solution, and also calculate transport coefficients. These solutions all exhibit a Lifshitz-like near-horizon geometry. The system behaves as expected for a charged fluid in a magnetic field, with non-vanishing Hall conductance and vanishing DC longitudinal conductivity at low temperatures. Its response is characterised by a cyclotron resonance at a frequency proportional to the magnetic field, for small magnetic fields. Interestingly, the DC Hall conductance is related to the attractor value of the axion. We also study the attractor flows of the dilaton-axion, both in cases with and without an additional modular-invariant scalar potential. The flows exhibit intricate behaviour related to the duality symmetry. Finally, we briefly discuss attractor flows in more general dilaton-axion theories which do not enjoy SL(2,R) symmetry.
Zero Sound in Strange Metallic Holography
One way to model the strange metal phase of certain materials is via a holographic description in terms of probe D-branes in a Lifshitz spacetime, characterised by a dynamical exponent z. The background geometry is dual to a strongly-interacting quantum critical theory while the probe D-branes are dual to a finite density of charge carriers that can exhibit the characteristic properties of strange metals. We compute holographically the low-frequency and low-momentum form of the charge density and current retarded Green's functions in these systems for massless charge carriers. The results reveal a quasi-particle excitation when z<2, which in analogy with Landau Fermi liquids we call zero sound. The real part of the dispersion relation depends on momentum k linearly, while the imaginary part goes as k^2/z. When z is greater than or equal to 2 the zero sound is not a well-defined quasi-particle. We also compute the frequency-dependent conductivity in arbitrary spacetime dimensions. Using that as a measure of the charge current spectral function, we find that the zero sound appears only when the spectral function consists of a single delta function at zero frequency.
Metallic AdS/CFT
We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to compute the conductivity of massive N=2 hypermultiplet fields at finite baryon number density in an N=4 SU(N_c) super-Yang-Mills theory plasma in the large N_c, large 't Hooft coupling limit. The finite baryon density provides charge carriers analogous to electrons in a metal. An external electric field then induces a finite current which we determine directly. Our result for the conductivity is good for all values of the mass, external field and density, modulo statements about the yet-incomplete phase diagram. In the appropriate limits it agrees with known results obtained from analyzing small fluctuations around equilibrium. For large mass, where we expect a good quasi-particle description, we compute the drag force on the charge carriers and find that the answer is unchanged from the zero density case. Our method easily generalizes to a wide class of systems of probe branes in various backgrounds.
Strange Metallic Behavior in Anisotropic Background
We continue our analysis on conductivity in the anisotropic background by employing the D-brane probe technique, where the D-branes play the role of charge carriers. The DC and AC conductivity for massless charge carriers are obtained analytically, while interesting curves for the AC conductivity are also plotted. For massive charge carriers, we calculate the DC and AC conductivities in the dilute limit and we fix the parameters in the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory so that the background exhibits the same scaling behaviors as those for real-world strange metals. The DC conductivity at finite density is also computed.
Shubnikov-de Haas Oscillations in 2D PtSe_2: A fermiological Charge Carrier Investigation
High magnetic field and low temperature transport is carried out in order to characterize the charge carriers of PtSe_2. In particular, the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations arising at applied magnetic field strengths gtrsim 4.5,T are found to occur exclusively in plane and emerge at a layer thickness of approx 18,nm, increasing in amplitude and decreasing in frequency for thinner PtSe_2 flakes. Moreover, the quantum transport time, Berry phase, Dingle temperature and cyclotron mass of the charge carriers are ascertained. The emergence of weak antilocalization (WAL) lies in contrast to the presence of magnetic moments from Pt vacancies. An explanation is provided on how WAL and the Kondo effect can be observed within the same material. Detailed information about the charge carriers and transport phenomena in PtSe_2 is obtained, which is relevant for the design of prospective spintronic and orbitronic devices and for the realization of orbital Hall effect-based architectures.
Hall effect thruster design via deep neural network for additive manufacturing
Hall effect thrusters are one of the most versatile and popular electric propulsion systems for space use. Industry trends towards interplanetary missions arise advances in design development of such propulsion systems. It is understood that correct sizing of discharge channel in Hall effect thruster impact performance greatly. Since the complete physics model of such propulsion system is not yet optimized for fast computations and design iterations, most thrusters are being designed using so-called scaling laws. But this work focuses on rather novel approach, which is outlined less frequently than ordinary scaling design approach in literature. Using deep machine learning it is possible to create predictive performance model, which can be used to effortlessly get design of required hall thruster with required characteristics using way less computational power than design from scratch and way more flexible than usual scaling approach.
Non-linear Hall Effects: Mechanisms and Materials
This review presents recent breakthroughs in the realm of nonlinear Hall effects, emphasizing central theoretical foundations and recent experimental progress. We elucidate the quantum origin of the second-order Hall response, focusing on the Berry curvature dipole, which may arise in inversion symmetry broken systems. The theoretical framework also reveals the impact of disorder scattering effects on the nonlinear response. We further discuss the possibility of obtaining nonlinear Hall responses beyond the second order. We examine symmetry-based indicators essential for the manifestation of nonlinear Hall effects in time-reversal symmetric crystals, setting the stage for a detailed exploration of theoretical models and candidate materials predicted to exhibit sizable and tunable Berry curvature dipole. We summarize groundbreaking experimental reports on measuring both intrinsic and extrinsic nonlinear Hall effects across diverse material classes. Finally, we highlight some of the other intriguing nonlinear effects, including nonlinear planar Hall, nonlinear anomalous Hall, and nonlinear spin and valley Hall effects. We conclude with an outlook on pivotal open questions and challenges, marking the trajectory of this rapidly evolving field.
Transport in two-dimensional topological materials: recent developments in experiment and theory
We review theoretical and experimental highlights in transport in two-dimensional materials focussing on key developments over the last five years. Topological insulators are finding applications in magnetic devices, while Hall transport in doped samples and the general issue of topological protection remain controversial. In transition metal dichalcogenides valley-dependent electrical and optical phenomena continue to stimulate state-of-the-art experiments. In Weyl semimetals the properties of Fermi arcs are being actively investigated. A new field, expected to grow in the near future, focuses on the non-linear electrical and optical responses of topological materials, where fundamental questions are once more being asked about the intertwining roles of the Berry curvature and disorder scattering. In topological superconductors the quest for chiral superconductivity, Majorana fermions and topological quantum computing is continuing apace.
Particle-Hole Symmetry in the Fermion-Chern-Simons and Dirac Descriptions of a Half-Filled Landau Level
It is well known that there is a particle-hole symmetry for spin-polarized electrons with two-body interactions in a partially filled Landau level, which becomes exact in the limit where the cyclotron energy is large compared to the interaction strength, so one can ignore mixing between Landau levels. This symmetry is explicit in the description of a half-filled Landau level recently introduced by D. T. Son, using Dirac fermions, but it was thought to be absent in the older fermion-Chern- Simons approach, developed by Halperin, Lee, and Read and subsequent authors. We show here, however, that when properly evaluated, the Halperin, Lee, Read (HLR) theory gives results for long-wavelength low-energy physical properties, including the Hall conductance in the presence of impurities and the positions of minima in the magnetoroton spectra for fractional quantized Hall states close to half-filling, that are identical to predictions of the Dirac formulation. In fact, the HLR theory predicts an emergent particle-hole symmetry near half filling, even when the cyclotron energy is finite.
First-principles predictions of Hall and drift mobilities in semiconductors
Significant progress on parameter-free calculations of carrier mobilities in real materials has been made during the past decade; however, the role of various approximations remains unclear and a unified methodology is lacking. Here, we present and analyse a comprehensive and efficient approach to compute the intrinsic, phonon-limited drift and Hall carrier mobilities of semiconductors, within the framework of the first-principles Boltzmann transport equation. The methodology exploits a novel approach for estimating quadrupole tensors and including them in the electron-phonon interactions, and capitalises on a rigorous and efficient procedure for numerical convergence. The accuracy reached in this work allows to assess common approximations, including the role of exchange and correlation functionals, spin-orbit coupling, pseudopotentials, Wannier interpolation, Brillouin-zone sampling, dipole and quadrupole corrections, and the relaxation-time approximation. A detailed analysis is showcased on ten prototypical semiconductors, namely diamond, silicon, GaAs, 3C-SiC, AlP, GaP, c-BN, AlAs, AlSb, and SrO. By comparing this extensive dataset with available experimental data, we explore the intrinsic nature of phonon-limited carrier transport and magnetotransport phenomena in these compounds. We find that the most accurate calculations predict Hall mobilities up to a factor of two larger than experimental data; this could point to promising experimental improvements in the samples quality, or to the limitations of density-function theory in predicting the carrier effective masses and overscreening the electron-phonon matrix elements. By setting tight standards for reliability and reproducibility, the present work aims to facilitate validation and verification of data and software towards predictive calculations of transport phenomena in semiconductors.
Dissipation Enhanced Unidirectional Transport in Topological Systems
Dissipation is a common occurrence in real-world systems and is generally considered to be detrimental to transport. In this study, we examine the transport properties of a narrow quantum anomalous Hall system with dissipation applied on one edge. When the Fermi level resides within the hybridization gap, we find that while transport is suppressed on one edge, it is significantly enhanced on the other. We reveal that this enhancement arises from dissipation-induced gap closure, which is deeply rooted in the point gap topology of the system, resulting in a reduction of the decaying coefficient. When the dissipation is very large, we find that the low-energy physics is nearly indistinguishable from a narrower system, whose dissipation amplitude is inversely proportional to that of the original one. To get more physical intuition, we demonstrate that the low-energy physics can be well captured by a pair of coupled counter-propagating chiral edge states, one of which has a modified group velocity and an effective dissipation. We also briefly discuss the possible experimental realizations of this enhanced unidirectional transport.
Conductivity at finite 't Hooft coupling from AdS/CFT
We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to study the DC conductivity of massive N = 2 hypermultiplet fields in an N = 4, SU(N_c) super-Yang-Mills theory plasma in the large N_c and finite 't Hooft coupling. We also discuss general curvature-squared and Gauss-Bonnet corrections on the DC conductivity.
Alternative harmonic detection approach for quantitative determination of spin and orbital torques
In this study, the spin-orbit torque (SOT) in light metal oxide systems is investigated using an experimental approach based on harmonic Hall voltage techniques in out-of-plane (OOP) angular geometry for samples with in-plane magnetic anisotropy. In parallel, an analytical derivation of this alternative OOP harmonic Hall detection geometry has been developed, followed by experimental validation to extract SOT effective fields. In addition, to accurately quantifying SOT, this method allows complete characterization of thermoelectric effects, opening promising avenues for accurate SOT characterization in related systems. In particular, this study corroborates the critical role of naturally oxidized copper interfaced with metallic Cu in the generation of orbital current in Co(2)|Pt(4)|CuOx(3), demonstrating a two-fold increase in damping-like torques compared to a reference sample with an oxidized Al capping layer. These findings offer promising directions for future research on the application aspect of non-equilibrium orbital angular momentum.
Building an AdS/CFT superconductor
We show that a simple gravitational theory can provide a holographically dual description of a superconductor. There is a critical temperature, below which a charged condensate forms via a second order phase transition and the (DC) conductivity becomes infinite. The frequency dependent conductivity develops a gap determined by the condensate. We find evidence that the condensate consists of pairs of quasiparticles.
A simple model for strange metallic behavior
A refined semi-holographic non-Fermi liquid model, in which carrier electrons hybridize with operators of a holographic critical sector, has been proposed recently for strange metallic behavior. The model, consistently with effective theory approach, has two couplings whose ratio is related to the doping. We explain the origin of the linear-in-T resistivity and strange metallic behavior as a consequence of the emergence of a universal form of the spectral function which is independent of the model parameters when the ratio of the two couplings take optimal values determined only by the critical exponent. This universal form fits well with photoemission data of copper oxide samples for under/optimal/over-doping with a fixed exponent over a wide range of temperatures. We further obtain a refined Planckian dissipation scenario in which the scattering time τ= f cdot hbar /(k_B T), with f being O(1) at strong coupling, but O(10) at weak coupling.
Notes on Properties of Holographic Matter
Probe branes with finite worldvolume electric flux in the background created by a stack of Dp branes describe holographically strongly interacting fundamental matter at finite density. We identify two quantities whose leading low temperature behavior is independent of the dimensionality of the probe branes: specific heat and DC conductivity. This behavior can be inferred from the dynamics of the fundamental strings which provide a good description of the probe branes in the regime of low temperatures and finite densities. We also comment on the speed of sound on the branes and the temperature dependence of DC conductivity at vanishing charge density.
On Scaling of Hall-Effect Thrusters Using Neural Nets
Hall-effect thrusters (HETs) are widely used for modern near-earth spacecraft propulsion and are vital for future deep-space missions. Methods of modeling HETs are developing rapidly. However, such methods are not yet precise enough and cannot reliably predict the parameters of a newly designed thruster, mostly due to the enormous computational cost of a HET plasma simulation. Another approach is to use scaling techniques based on available experimental data. This paper proposes an approach for scaling HETs using neural networks and other modern machine learning methods. The new scaling model was built with information from an extensive database of HET parameters collected from published papers. Predictions of the new scaling model are valid for the operating parameters domain covered by the database. During the design, this model can help HET developers estimate the performance of a newly-designed thruster. At the stage of experimental research, the model can be used to compare the achieved characteristics of the studied thruster with the level obtained by other developers. A comparison with the state-of-the-art HET scaling model is also presented.
Unbalanced Stückelberg Holographic Superconductors with Backreaction
We numerically investigate some properties of unbalanced St\"{u}ckelberg holographic superconductors, by considering backreaction effects of fields on the background geometry. More precisely, we study the impacts of the chemical potential mismatch and St\"{u}ckelberg mechanism on the condensation and conductivity types (electrical, spin, mixed, thermo-electric, thermo-spin and thermal conductivity). Our results show that the St\"{u}ckelberg's model parameters C_{alpha} and alpha not only have significant impacts on the phase transition, but also affect the conductivity pseudo-gap and the strength of conductivity fluctuations. Moreover, the effects of these parameters on a system will be gradually reduced as the imbalance grows. We also find that the influence of alpha on the amplitude of conductivity fluctuations depends on the magnitude of the both C_{alpha} and deltamu/mu in the electric and thermal conductivity cases. This results in that increasing alpha can damp the conductivity fluctuations of an unbalanced system in contrast to balanced ones.
Lattice Unitarity: Saturated Collisional Resistivity in Hubbard Metals
We investigate the interaction-induced resistivity of ultracold fermions in a three-dimensional optical lattice. In situ observations of transport dynamics enable the determination of real and imaginary resistivity. In the strongly interacting metallic regime, we observe a striking saturation of the current-dissipation rate towards a value that is independent of the interaction strength. This phenomenon is quantitatively captured by a dissipation model that uses a renormalized two-body scattering matrix. We further measure the temperature dependence of resistivity in the strongly interacting limit and discuss the predicted asymptotic high-temperature behavior. Our results provide a clear microscopic understanding of bounded resistivity of low-density metals, thus providing a useful benchmark for studies of strongly correlated atomic and electronic systems.
Inverse orbital Hall effect and orbitronic terahertz emission observed in the materials with weak spin-orbit coupling
The Orbital Hall effect, which originates from materials with weak spin-orbit coupling, has attracted considerable interest for spin-orbitronic applications. Here, we demonstrate the inverse effect of the orbital Hall effect and observe orbitronic terahertz emission in the Ti and Mn materials. Through spin-orbit transition in the ferromagnetic layer, the generated orbital current can be converted to charge current in the Ti and Mn layers via the inverse orbital Hall effect. Furthermore, the inserted W layer provides an additional conversion of the orbital-charge current in the Ti and Mn layers, significantly enhancing the orbitronic terahertz emission. Moreover, the orbitronic terahertz emission can be manipulated by cooperating with the inverse orbital Hall effect and the inverse spin Hall effect in the different sample configurations. Our results not only discover the physical mechanism of condensed matter physics but also pave the way for designing promising spin-orbitronic devices and terahertz emitters.
Holography of Charged Dilaton Black Holes
We study charged dilaton black branes in AdS_4. Our system involves a dilaton phi coupled to a Maxwell field F_{munu} with dilaton-dependent gauge coupling, {1over g^2} = f^2(phi). First, we find the solutions for extremal and near extremal branes through a combination of analytical and numerical techniques. The near horizon geometries in the simplest cases, where f(phi) = e^{alphaphi}, are Lifshitz-like, with a dynamical exponent z determined by alpha. The black hole thermodynamics varies in an interesting way with alpha, but in all cases the entropy is vanishing and the specific heat is positive for the near extremal solutions. We then compute conductivity in these backgrounds. We find that somewhat surprisingly, the AC conductivity vanishes like omega^2 at T=0 independent of alpha. We also explore the charged black brane physics of several other classes of gauge-coupling functions f(phi). In addition to possible applications in AdS/CMT, the extremal black branes are of interest from the point of view of the attractor mechanism. The near horizon geometries for these branes are universal, independent of the asymptotic values of the moduli, and describe generic classes of endpoints for attractor flows which are different from AdS_2times R^2.
A Chemical Route to Graphene for Electronics and Spintronics Device Applications
The development of selective high precision chemical functionalization strategies for device fabrication, in conjunction with associated techniques for patterning graphene wafers with atomic accuracy would provide the necessary basis for a post-CMOS manufacturing technology. This requires a thorough understanding of the principles governing the reactivity and patterning of graphene at the sub-nanometer length scale. This article reviews our quest to delineate the principles of graphene chemistry - that is, the chemistry at the Dirac point and beyond, and the effect of covalent chemistry on the electronic structure, electrical transport and magnetic properties of this low-dimensional material in order to enable the scalable production of graphene-based devices for low- and high-end technology applications.
Holography of Charged Dilaton Black Holes in General Dimensions
We study several aspects of charged dilaton black holes with planar symmetry in (d+2)-dimensional spacetime, generalizing the four-dimensional results investigated in arXiv:0911.3586 [hep-th]. We revisit the exact solutions with both zero and finite temperature and discuss the thermodynamics of the near-extremal black holes. We calculate the AC conductivity in the zero-temperature background by solving the corresponding Schr\"{o}dinger equation and find that the AC conductivity behaves like omega^{delta}, where the exponent delta is determined by the dilaton coupling alpha and the spacetime dimension parameter d. Moreover, we also study the Gauss-Bonnet corrections to eta/s in a five-dimensional finite-temperature background.
From black holes to strange metals
Since the mid-eighties there has been an accumulation of metallic materials whose thermodynamic and transport properties differ significantly from those predicted by Fermi liquid theory. Examples of these so-called non-Fermi liquids include the strange metal phase of high transition temperature cuprates, and heavy fermion systems near a quantum phase transition. We report on a class of non-Fermi liquids discovered using gauge/gravity duality. The low energy behavior of these non-Fermi liquids is shown to be governed by a nontrivial infrared (IR) fixed point which exhibits nonanalytic scaling behavior only in the temporal direction. Within this class we find examples whose single-particle spectral function and transport behavior resemble those of strange metals. In particular, the contribution from the Fermi surface to the conductivity is inversely proportional to the temperature. In our treatment these properties can be understood as being controlled by the scaling dimension of the fermion operator in the emergent IR fixed point.
Haldane Bundles: A Dataset for Learning to Predict the Chern Number of Line Bundles on the Torus
Characteristic classes, which are abstract topological invariants associated with vector bundles, have become an important notion in modern physics with surprising real-world consequences. As a representative example, the incredible properties of topological insulators, which are insulators in their bulk but conductors on their surface, can be completely characterized by a specific characteristic class associated with their electronic band structure, the first Chern class. Given their importance to next generation computing and the computational challenge of calculating them using first-principles approaches, there is a need to develop machine learning approaches to predict the characteristic classes associated with a material system. To aid in this program we introduce the {Haldane bundle dataset}, which consists of synthetically generated complex line bundles on the 2-torus. We envision this dataset, which is not as challenging as noisy and sparsely measured real-world datasets but (as we show) still difficult for off-the-shelf architectures, to be a testing ground for architectures that incorporate the rich topological and geometric priors underlying characteristic classes.
High-throughput calculations of magnetic topological materials
The discoveries of intrinsically magnetic topological materials, including semimetals with a large anomalous Hall effect and axion insulators, have directed fundamental research in solid-state materials. Topological quantum chemistry has enabled the understanding of and the search for paramagnetic topological materials. Using magnetic topological indices obtained from magnetic topological quantum chemistry (MTQC), here we perform a high-throughput search for magnetic topological materials based on first-principles calculations. We use as our starting point the Magnetic Materials Database on the Bilbao Crystallographic Server, which contains more than 549 magnetic compounds with magnetic structures deduced from neutron-scattering experiments, and identify 130 enforced semimetals (for which the band crossings are implied by symmetry eigenvalues), and topological insulators. For each compound, we perform complete electronic structure calculations, which include complete topological phase diagrams using different values of the Hubbard potential. Using a custom code to find the magnetic co-representations of all bands in all magnetic space groups, we generate data to be fed into the algorithm of MTQC to determine the topology of each magnetic material. Several of these materials display previously unknown topological phases, including symmetry-indicated magnetic semimetals, three-dimensional anomalous Hall insulators and higher-order magnetic semimetals. We analyse topological trends in the materials under varying interactions: 60 per cent of the 130 topological materials have topologies sensitive to interactions, and the others have stable topologies under varying interactions. We provide a materials database for future experimental studies and open-source code for diagnosing topologies of magnetic materials.
Holographic Superconductors from Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton Gravity
We construct holographic superconductors from Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton gravity in 3+1 dimensions with two adjustable couplings alpha and the charge q carried by the scalar field. For the values of alpha and q we consider, there is always a critical temperature at which a second order phase transition occurs between a hairy black hole and the AdS RN black hole in the canonical ensemble, which can be identified with the superconducting phase transition of the dual field theory. We calculate the electric conductivity of the dual superconductor and find that for the values of alpha and q where alpha/q is small the dual superconductor has similar properties to the minimal model, while for the values of alpha and q where alpha/q is large enough, the electric conductivity of the dual superconductor exhibits novel properties at low frequencies where it shows a "Drude Peak" in the real part of the conductivity.
General-relativistic resistive-magnetohydrodynamics simulations of self-consistent magnetized rotating neutron stars
We present the first general-relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamics simulations of self-consistent, rotating neutron stars with mixed poloidal and toroidal magnetic fields. Specifically, we investigate the role of resistivity in the dynamical evolution of neutron stars over a period of up to 100 ms and its effects on their quasi-equilibrium configurations. Our results demonstrate that resistivity can significantly influence the development of magnetohydrodynamic instabilities, resulting in markedly different magnetic field geometries. Additionally, resistivity suppresses the growth of these instabilities, leading to a reduction in the amplitude of emitted gravitational waves. Despite the variations in magnetic field geometries, the ratio of poloidal to toroidal field energies remains consistently 9:1 throughout the simulations, for the models we investigated.
Low Temperature Two Fluid State in SmB6
Comprehensive study using DC transport, specific heat, magnetization, and two-coil mutual inductance measurements unveils an understanding of three temperature regimes in SmB_6: (i) T geq T^{*} (sim66K), (ii) T_g (sim40 K) leq T < T^{*}, and (iii) T < T_g. Onset of Kondo breakdown below T^{*} releases disorder-driven magnetic fluctuations, which splits the bulk (sim116K) and surface Kondo temperature (T_k^{s} approx 7 K). Below T_g, as magnetic fluctuations subside, surface Kondo screening revives, stabilizing the topological surface state and generating an in-gap feature (sim2.2 meV) across which Dirac-like carriers are excited. Nyquist impedance analysis reveals a crossover from purely capacitive to capacitive-inductive behavior, signalling a disorder-driven two-fluid phase of heavy quasiparticles and light, high-mobility carriers below T_g. We identify a characteristic length scale, L_{ν_0}(T), associated with the high-mobility phase, exhibiting an almost divergent trend below T_k^{s}. These findings underscore the complex nature of the surface conducting state in SmB_6.
Taming Landau level mixing in fractional quantum Hall states with deep learning
Strong correlation brings a rich array of emergent phenomena, as well as a daunting challenge to theoretical physics study. In condensed matter physics, the fractional quantum Hall effect is a prominent example of strong correlation, with Landau level mixing being one of the most challenging aspects to address using traditional computational methods. Deep learning real-space neural network wavefunction methods have emerged as promising architectures to describe electron correlations in molecules and materials, but their power has not been fully tested for exotic quantum states. In this work, we employ real-space neural network wavefunction techniques to investigate fractional quantum Hall systems. On both 1/3 and 2/5 filling systems, we achieve energies consistently lower than exact diagonalization results which only consider the lowest Landau level. We also demonstrate that the real-space neural network wavefunction can naturally capture the extent of Landau level mixing up to a very high level, overcoming the limitations of traditional methods. Our work underscores the potential of neural networks for future studies of strongly correlated systems and opens new avenues for exploring the rich physics of the fractional quantum Hall effect.
Weyl, Dirac and high-fold chiral fermions in topological quantum materials
Quantum materials hosting Weyl fermions have opened a new era of research in condensed matter physics. First proposed in 1929 in particle physics, Weyl fermions have yet to be observed as elementary particles. In 2015, Weyl fermions were detected as collective electronic excitations in the strong spin-orbit coupled material tantalum arsenide, TaAs. This discovery was followed by a flurry of experimental and theoretical explorations of Weyl phenomena in materials. Weyl materials naturally lend themselves to the exploration of the topological index associated with Weyl fermions and their divergent Berry curvature field, as well as the topological bulk-boundary correspondence giving rise to protected conducting surface states. Here, we review the broader class of Weyl topological phenomena in materials, starting with the observation of emergent Weyl fermions in the bulk and of Fermi arc states on the surface of the TaAs family of crystals by photoemission spectroscopy. We then discuss some of the exotic optical and magnetic responses observed in these materials, as well as the progress in developing some of the related chiral materials. We discuss the conceptual development of high-fold chiral fermions, which generalize Weyl fermions, and we review the observation of high-fold chiral fermion phases by taking the rhodium silicide, RhSi, family of crystals as a prime example. Lastly, we discuss recent advances in Weyl-line phases in magnetic topological materials. With this Review, we aim to provide an introduction to the basic concepts underlying Weyl physics in condensed matter, and to representative materials and their electronic structures and topology as revealed by spectroscopic studies. We hope this work serves as a guide for future theoretical and experimental explorations of chiral fermions and related topological quantum systems with potentially enhanced functionalities.
Electric Field Effect in Multilayer Cr2Ge2Te6: a Ferromagnetic Two-Dimensional Material
The emergence of two-dimensional (2D) materials has attracted a great deal of attention due to their fascinating physical properties and potential applications for future nanoelectronic devices. Since the first isolation of graphene, a Dirac material, a large family of new functional 2D materials have been discovered and characterized, including insulating 2D boron nitride, semiconducting 2D transition metal dichalcogenides and black phosphorus, and superconducting 2D bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide, molybdenum disulphide and niobium selenide, etc. Here, we report the identification of ferromagnetic thin flakes of Cr2Ge2Te6 (CGT) with thickness down to a few nanometers, which provides a very important piece to the van der Waals structures consisting of various 2D materials. We further demonstrate the giant modulation of the channel resistance of 2D CGT devices via electric field effect. Our results illustrate the gate voltage tunability of 2D CGT and the potential of CGT, a ferromagnetic 2D material, as a new functional quantum material for applications in future nanoelectronics and spintronics.
A new quantum hydrodynamic description of ferroelectricity in spiral magnets
The strong coupling between magnetism and ferroelectricity was found in rare earth manganites, where the electric polarization could be induced by special magnetic ordering. There is no theoretical model that would allow us to study the static and dynamic properties of electric polarization in strongly correlated magnetic dielectrics. In the presented research, we have taken the main step towards the construction of such a fundamental model, and made a direct connection between the microscopic Katsura-Nagaosa-Balatsky theory and Mostovoy's phenomenological model for magnetically induced polarization. A novel description of the ferroelectricity of spin origin is proposed within the framework of the many-particle quantum hydrodynamics method. It is applied to the study of cells of magnetic ions, where the electric dipole moment is proportional to the vector product of spins. Our approach is based on the many-particle Pauli equation, where the influence of an external magnetic field is considered. We define the electric dipole moment operator of the ion cell and introduce the macroscopic polarization as the quantum mechanical average of that operator. We formulate a model for the description of nonequilibrium polarization and derive a new polarization evolution equation. The polarization switching in ferroelectric magnets with the spiral spin-density-wave state is considered, and we demonstrate that the proposed model yields known results and can predict novel effects. The dynamic magnetoelectric effect can be investigated by employing this novel equation to study the evolution of polarization.
Anisotropic effects in two-dimensional materials
Among a huge variety of known two-dimensional materials, some of them have anisotropic crystal structures; examples include so different systems as a few-layer black phoshphorus (phosphorene), beryllium nitride BeN_4, van der Waals magnet CrSBr, rhenium dichalgogenides ReX_2. As a consequence, their optical and electronic properties turn out to be highly anisotropic as well. In some cases, the anisotropy results not just in a smooth renormalization of observable properties in comparison with the isotropic case but in the appearance of dramatically new physics. The examples are hyperbolic plasmons and excitons, strongly anisotropic ordering of adatoms at the surface of two-dimensional or van der Waals materials, essential change of transport and superconducting properties. Here, we present a systematic review of electronic structure, transport and optical properties of several representative groups of anisotropic two-dimensional materials including semiconductors, anisotropic Dirac and semi-Dirac materials, as well as superconductors.
Electromagnetic Response of a Half-Filled Chern Band near Topological Criticality
We evaluate electromagnetic-response observables in a half-filled Chern band, across a topological phase transition between a composite Fermi liquid (CFL) and a Fermi liquid (FL) phase. While a sharp gapped plasma mode exists deep in the CFL phase, we demonstrate that it is damped near the proposed continuous phase transition between CFL and FL. This plasmon-damping phenomenon originates from emergent gauge fields and a Dirac-fermion-like spectrum. Similar features also occur in other continuous deconfined topological phase transitions, such as the Laughlin to superfluid transition in a bosonic system. In particular, this damping behavior extends over a finite range across the phase boundary, and, hence, we expect it to persist even when the transition is weakly first-order. Furthermore, we analyze the behavior of the Drude weight, the wavevector-dependent conductivity, and the chiral mirror effect across these topological phase transitions.
Time-Fractional Approach to the Electrochemical Impedance: The Displacement Current
We establish, in general terms, the conditions to be satisfied by a time-fractional approach formulation of the Poisson-Nernst-Planck model in order to guarantee that the total current across the sample be solenoidal, as required by the Maxwell equation. Only in this case the electric impedance of a cell can be determined as the ratio between the applied difference of potential and the current across the cell. We show that in the case of anomalous diffusion, the model predicts for the electric impedance of the cell a constant phase element behaviour in the low frequency region. In the parametric curve of the reactance versus the resistance, the slope coincides with the order of the fractional time derivative.
Conductance switching and nonequilibrium phase coexistence in superconductors with intermediate bias
Superconducting systems may display different types of nonequilibrium states depending on the specific constraints imposed for measurement. We probe current-voltage relations of three-dimensional superconducting films by allowing finite voltages to develop across their length. Our experiments reveal sharp features of negative differential conductance which highlight the validity of the principle of minimum entropy production at the critical current transition. We have observed dissipative states with resistances intermediate between those of superconducting and normal phases at zero applied magnetic field, indicating a phenomenon of phase coexistence under nonequilibrium conditions. The features of steady states reported here are not accessible in conventional transport experiments with current-biasing methods.
Correlated Electron Materials and Field Effect Transistors for Logic: A Review
Correlated electron systems are among the centerpieces of modern condensed matter sciences, where many interesting physical phenomena, such as metal-insulator transition and high-Tc superconductivity appear. Recent efforts have been focused on electrostatic doping of such materials to probe the underlying physics without introducing disorder as well as to build field-effect transistors that may complement conventional semiconductor metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) technology. This review focuses on metal-insulator transition mechanisms in correlated electron materials and three-terminal field effect devices utilizing such correlated oxides as the channel layer. We first describe how electron-disorder interaction, electron-phonon interaction and/or electron correlation in solids could modify the electronic properties of materials and lead to metal-insulator transitions. Then we analyze experimental efforts toward utilizing these transitions in field effect transistors and their underlying principles. It is pointed out that correlated electron systems show promise among these various materials displaying phase transitions for logic technologies. Furthermore, novel phenomena emerging from electronic correlation could enable new functionalities in field effect devices. We then briefly review unconventional electrostatic gating techniques, such as ionic liquid gating and ferroelectric gating, which enables ultra large carrier accumulation density in the correlated materials which could in turn lead to phase transitions. The review concludes with a brief discussion on the prospects and suggestions for future research directions in correlated oxide electronics for information processing.
Dirac and Weyl Materials: Fundamental Aspects and Some Spintronics Applications
Dirac and Weyl materials refer to a class of solid materials which host low-energy quasiparticle excitations that can be described by the Dirac and Weyl equations in relativistic quantum mechanics. Starting with the advent of graphene as the first prominent example, these materials have been attracting tremendous interest owing to their novel fundamental properties as well as the great potential for applications. Here we introduce the basic concepts and notions related to Dirac and Weyl materials and briefly review some recent works in this field, particularly on the conceptual development and the possible spintronics/pseudospintronics applications.
Characteristic length of an AdS/CFT superconductor
We investigate in more detail the holographic model of a superconductor recently found by Hartnoll, Herzog, and Horowitz [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 031601], which is constructed from a condensate of a charged scalar field in AdS_4-Schwarzschild background. By analytically studying the perturbation of the gravitational system near the critical temperature T_c, we obtain the superconducting coherence length proportional to 1/1-T/T_c via AdS/CFT correspondence. By adding a small external homogeneous magnetic field to the system, we find that a stationary diamagnetic current proportional to the square of the order parameter is induced by the magnetic field. These results agree with Ginzburg-Landau theory and strongly support the idea that a superconductor can be described by a charged scalar field on a black hole via AdS/CFT duality.
Theory of superconducting proximity effect in hole-based hybrid semiconductor-superconductor devices
Hybrid superconductor-semiconductor systems have received a great deal of attention in the last few years because of their potential for quantum engineering, including novel qubits and topological devices. The proximity effect, the process by which the semiconductor inherits superconducting correlations, is an essential physical mechanism of such hybrids. Recent experiments have demonstrated the proximity effect in hole-based semiconductors, but, in contrast to electrons, the precise mechanism by which the hole bands acquire superconducting correlations remains an open question. In addition, hole spins exhibit a complex strong spin-orbit interaction, with largely anisotropic responses to electric and magnetic fields, further motivating the importance of understanding the interplay between such effects and the proximity effect. In this work, we analyze this physics with focus on germanium-based two-dimensional gases. Specifically, we develop an effective theory supported by full numerics, allowing us to extract various analytical expressions and predict different types of superconducting correlations including non-standard forms of singlet and triplet pairing mechanisms with non-trivial momentum dependence; as well as different Zeeman and Rashba spin-orbit contributions. This, together with their precise dependence on electric and magnetic fields, allows us to make specific experimental predictions, including the emergence of f-type superconductivity, Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces, and gapless regimes caused by large in-plane magnetic fields.
S2SNet: A Pretrained Neural Network for Superconductivity Discovery
Superconductivity allows electrical current to flow without any energy loss, and thus making solids superconducting is a grand goal of physics, material science, and electrical engineering. More than 16 Nobel Laureates have been awarded for their contribution to superconductivity research. Superconductors are valuable for sustainable development goals (SDGs), such as climate change mitigation, affordable and clean energy, industry, innovation and infrastructure, and so on. However, a unified physics theory explaining all superconductivity mechanism is still unknown. It is believed that superconductivity is microscopically due to not only molecular compositions but also the geometric crystal structure. Hence a new dataset, S2S, containing both crystal structures and superconducting critical temperature, is built upon SuperCon and Material Project. Based on this new dataset, we propose a novel model, S2SNet, which utilizes the attention mechanism for superconductivity prediction. To overcome the shortage of data, S2SNet is pre-trained on the whole Material Project dataset with Masked-Language Modeling (MLM). S2SNet makes a new state-of-the-art, with out-of-sample accuracy of 92% and Area Under Curve (AUC) of 0.92. To the best of our knowledge, S2SNet is the first work to predict superconductivity with only information of crystal structures. This work is beneficial to superconductivity discovery and further SDGs. Code and datasets are available in https://github.com/zjuKeLiu/S2SNet
Mechanical On-Chip Microwave Circulator
Nonreciprocal circuit elements form an integral part of modern measurement and communication systems. Mathematically they require breaking of time-reversal symmetry, typically achieved using magnetic materials and more recently using the quantum Hall effect, parametric permittivity modulation or Josephson nonlinearities. Here, we demonstrate an on-chip magnetic-free circulator based on reservoir engineered optomechanical interactions. Directional circulation is achieved with controlled phase-sensitive interference of six distinct electro-mechanical signal conversion paths. The presented circulator is compact, its silicon-on-insulator platform is compatible with both superconducting qubits and silicon photonics, and its noise performance is close to the quantum limit. With a high dynamic range, a tunable bandwidth of up to 30 MHz and an in-situ reconfigurability as beam splitter or wavelength converter, it could pave the way for superconducting qubit processors with integrated and multiplexed on-chip signal processing and readout.
Current-phase relation of a WTe2 Josephson junction
When a topological insulator is incorporated into a Josephson junction, the system is predicted to reveal the fractional Josephson effect with a 4π-periodic current-phase relation. Here, we report the measurement of a 4π-periodic switching current through an asymmetric SQUID, formed by the higher-order topological insulator WTe_2. Contrary to the established opinion, we show that a high asymmetry in critical current and negligible loop inductance are not sufficient by themselves to reliably measure the current-phase relation. Instead, we find that our measurement is heavily influenced by additional inductances originating from the self-formed PdTe_{x} inside the junction. We therefore develop a method to numerically recover the current-phase relation of the system and find the 1.5,μm long junction to be best described in the short ballistic limit. Our results highlight the complexity of subtle inductance effects that can give rise to misleading topological signatures in transport measurements.
Exact non-Hermitian mobility edges and robust flat bands in two-dimensional Lieb lattices with imaginary quasiperiodic potentials
The mobility edge (ME) is a critical energy delineates the boundary between extended and localized states within the energy spectrum, and it plays a crucial role in understanding the metal-insulator transition in disordered or quasiperiodic systems. While there have been extensive studies on MEs in one-dimensional non-Hermitian (NH) quasiperiodic lattices recently, the investigation of exact NH MEs in two-dimensional (2D) cases remains rare. In the present study, we introduce a 2D dissipative Lieb lattice (DLL) model with imaginary quasiperiodic potentials applied solely to the vertices of the Lieb lattice. By mapping this DLL model to the 2D NH Aubry-Andr{é}-Harper (AAH) model, we analytically derive the exact ME and find it associated with the absolute eigenenergies. We find that the eigenvalues of extended states are purely imaginary when the quasiperiodic potential is strong enough. Additionally, we demonstrate that the introduction of imaginary quasiperiodic potentials does not disrupt the flat bands inherent in the system. Finally, we propose a theoretical framework for realizing our model using the Lindblad master equation. Our results pave the way for further investigation of exact NH MEs and flat bands in 2D dissipative quasiperiodic systems.
Zero Temperature Limit of Holographic Superconductors
We consider holographic superconductors whose bulk description consists of gravity minimally coupled to a Maxwell field and charged scalar field with general potential. We give an analytic argument that there is no "hard gap": the real part of the conductivity at low frequency remains nonzero (although typically exponentially small) even at zero temperature. We also numerically construct the gravitational dual of the ground state of some holographic superconductors. Depending on the charge and dimension of the condensate, the infrared theory can have emergent conformal or just Poincare symmetry. In all cases studied, the area of the horizon of the dual black hole goes to zero in the extremal limit, consistent with a nondegenerate ground state.
CuBr2-A New Multiferroic Material with High Critical Temperature
A new multiferroic material, CuBr2, is reported for the first time. CuBr2 has not only a high transition temperature (close to liquid nitrogen temperature) but also low dielectric loss and strong magnetoelectric coupling. These findings reveal the importance of anion effects in the search for the high temperature multiferroics materials among these low-dimensional spin systems.
Spin pumping by a moving domain wall at the interface of an antiferromagnetic insulator and a two-dimensional metal
A domain wall (DW) which moves parallel to a magnetically compensated interface between an antiferromagnetic insulator (AFMI) and a two-dimensional (2D) metal can pump spin polarization into the metal. It is assumed that localized spins of a collinear AFMI interact with itinerant electrons through their exchange interaction on the interface. We employed the formalism of Keldysh Green's functions for electrons which experience potential and spin-orbit scattering on random impurities. This formalism allows a unified analysis of spin pumping, spin diffusion and spin relaxation effects on a 2D electron gas. It is shown that the pumping of a nonstaggered magnetization into the metal film takes place in the second order with respect to the interface exchange interaction. At sufficiently weak spin relaxation this pumping effect can be much stronger than the first-order effect of the Pauli magnetism which is produced by the small nonstaggered exchange field of the DW. It is shown that the pumped polarization is sensitive to the geometry of the electron's Fermi surface and increases when the wave vector of the staggered magnetization approaches the nesting vector of the Fermi surface. In a disordered diffusive electron gas the induced spin polarization follows the motion of the domain wall. It is distributed asymmetrically around the DW over a distance which can be much larger than the DW width.
Database and deep-learning scalability of anharmonic phonon properties by automated brute-force first-principles calculations
Understanding the anharmonic phonon properties of crystal compounds -- such as phonon lifetimes and thermal conductivities -- is essential for investigating and optimizing their thermal transport behaviors. These properties also impact optical, electronic, and magnetic characteristics through interactions between phonons and other quasiparticles and fields. In this study, we develop an automated first-principles workflow to calculate anharmonic phonon properties and build a comprehensive database encompassing more than 6,000 inorganic compounds. Utilizing this dataset, we train a graph neural network model to predict thermal conductivity values and spectra from structural parameters, demonstrating a scaling law in which prediction accuracy improves with increasing training data size. High-throughput screening with the model enables the identification of materials exhibiting extreme thermal conductivities -- both high and low. The resulting database offers valuable insights into the anharmonic behavior of phonons, thereby accelerating the design and development of advanced functional materials.
The 2D Materials Roadmap
Over the past two decades, 2D materials have rapidly evolved into a diverse and expanding family of material platforms. Many members of this materials class have demonstrated their potential to deliver transformative impact on fundamental research and technological applications across different fields. In this roadmap, we provide an overview of the key aspects of 2D material research and development, spanning synthesis, properties and commercial applications. We specifically present roadmaps for high impact 2D materials, including graphene and its derivatives, transition metal dichalcogenides, MXenes as well as their heterostructures and moiré systems. The discussions are organized into thematic sections covering emerging research areas (e.g., twisted electronics, moiré nano-optoelectronics, polaritronics, quantum photonics, and neuromorphic computing), breakthrough applications in key technologies (e.g., 2D transistors, energy storage, electrocatalysis, filtration and separation, thermal management, flexible electronics, sensing, electromagnetic interference shielding, and composites) and other important topics (computational discovery of novel materials, commercialization and standardization). This roadmap focuses on the current research landscape, future challenges and scientific and technological advances required to address, with the intent to provide useful references for promoting the development of 2D materials.
High spin axion insulator
Axion insulators possess a quantized axion field theta=pi protected by combined lattice and time-reversal symmetry, holding great potential for device applications in layertronics and quantum computing. Here, we propose a high-spin axion insulator (HSAI) defined in large spin-s representation, which maintains the same inherent symmetry but possesses a notable axion field theta=(s+1/2)^2pi. Such distinct axion field is confirmed independently by the direct calculation of the axion term using hybrid Wannier functions, layer-resolved Chern numbers, as well as the topological magneto-electric effect. We show that the guaranteed gapless quasi-particle excitation is absent at the boundary of the HSAI despite its integer surface Chern number, hinting an unusual quantum anomaly violating the conventional bulk-boundary correspondence. Furthermore, we ascertain that the axion field theta can be precisely tuned through an external magnetic field, enabling the manipulation of bonded transport properties. The HSAI proposed here can be experimentally verified in ultra-cold atoms by the quantized non-reciprocal conductance or topological magnetoelectric response. Our work enriches the understanding of axion insulators in condensed matter physics, paving the way for future device applications.
Efficiency of dynamos from an autonomous generation of chiral asymmetry
At high energies, the dynamics of a plasma with charged fermions can be described in terms of chiral magnetohydrodynamics. Using direct numerical simulations, we demonstrate that chiral magnetic waves (CMWs) can produce a chiral asymmetry μ_5 = μ_L - μ_R from a spatially fluctuating (inhomogeneous) chemical potential μ= μ_L + μ_R, where μ_L and μ_R are the chemical potentials of left- and right-handed electrically charged fermions, respectively. If the frequency of the CMW is less than or comparable to the characteristic growth rate of the chiral dynamo instability, the magnetic field can be amplified on small spatial scales. The growth rate of this small-scale chiral dynamo instability is determined by the spatial maximum value of μ_5 fluctuations. Therefore, the magnetic field amplification occurs during periods when μ_5 reaches temporal maxima during the CMW. If the small-scale chiral dynamo instability leads to a magnetic field strength that exceeds a critical value, which depends on the resistivity and the initial value of μ, magnetically dominated turbulence is produced. Turbulence gives rise to a large-scale dynamo instability, which we find to be caused by the magnetic alpha effect. Our results have consequences for the dynamics of certain high-energy plasmas, such as the early Universe.
CrFe2Ge2: Investigation of novel ferromagnetic material of Fe13Ge8-type crystal
We successfully synthesized a novel intermetallic compound rm CrFe_2Ge_2 with the rm Fe_{13}Ge_{8}-type crystal structure. A structural study is presented combining single-crystal X-ray diffraction and Mössbauer spectroscopy analysis, confirming the presence of two distinct Fe sublattices. rm CrFe_2Ge_2 exhibits a metallic ferromagnetic state with T_C approx rm 200~K. This material does not follow the usual M^2 propto H/M Arrott law, rather a modified Arrott law is obeyed in this material. The critical exponents determined from detailed analysis of modified Arrott plots were found to be β= 0.392, γ= 1.309 and δ= 4.26 obtained from the critical isotherm at T_{rm C} =rm 200~K. Self-consistency and reliability of the critical exponent analysis were verified by the Widom scaling law and scaling equations. Using the results from renormalization group calculation, the critical behavior of rm CrFe_2Ge_2 is akin to that of a d=3, n=3 ferromagnet in which the magnetic exhange distance is found to decay as J(r) approx r^{-4.86} with long-range magnetic coupling. The evaluated Rhodes-Wohlfarth ratio of sim 3 points to an itinerant ferromagnetic ground state. Low-temperature measurements of resistivity, p(T), and specific heat, C_P(T), reveal a pronounced contribution from electron-magnon scattering.
How Important Is a Neuron?
The problem of attributing a deep network's prediction to its input/base features is well-studied. We introduce the notion of conductance to extend the notion of attribution to the understanding the importance of hidden units. Informally, the conductance of a hidden unit of a deep network is the flow of attribution via this hidden unit. We use conductance to understand the importance of a hidden unit to the prediction for a specific input, or over a set of inputs. We evaluate the effectiveness of conductance in multiple ways, including theoretical properties, ablation studies, and a feature selection task. The empirical evaluations are done using the Inception network over ImageNet data, and a sentiment analysis network over reviews. In both cases, we demonstrate the effectiveness of conductance in identifying interesting insights about the internal workings of these networks.
Matters Arising from S. Vaitiekenas et al., "Zero-bias peaks at zero magnetic field in ferromagnetic hybrid nanowires" Nature Physics 2021
In 2021 Nature Physics published a paper by Vaitiekenas, Liu, Krogstrup and Marcus titled "Zero-bias peaks at zero magnetic field in ferromagnetic hybrid nanowires". The paper reports low temperature transport measurements on semiconductor InAs nanowires with two partly overlapping shells -- a shell of EuS, a magnetic insulator, and a shell of Al, a metal that becomes superconducting at temperatures below 1.2K. The paper claims that (1) the data are consistent with induced topological superconductivity and Majorana zero modes (MZMs), and (2) that this is facilitated by the breaking of the time reversal symmetry through a direct magnetic interaction with the EuS shell. In this Matters Arising, we present an alternative explanation which is based on trivial effects that are likely to appear in the reported geometry. Specifically, first, we find that data the authors present in support of the topological superconductivity claim can originate from unintended quantum dots in their devices, a widely known likely explanation that is not being discussed in the paper. Second, our analysis of the setup, supported by our numerical micromagnetic simulations, shows similar effects could be obtained due to stray magnetic fields from the region of the EuS shell damaged during Al etching. This basic picture should come before the exotic interpretation in terms of magnetic exchange interaction with a ferromagnetic insulator.
Zero Sound from Holography
Quantum liquids are characterized by the distinctive properties such as the low temperature behavior of heat capacity and the spectrum of low-energy quasiparticle excitations. In particular, at low temperature, Fermi liquids exhibit the zero sound, predicted by L. D. Landau in 1957 and subsequently observed in liquid He-3. In this paper, we ask a question whether such a characteristic behavior is present in theories with holographically dual description. We consider a class of gauge theories with fundamental matter fields whose holographic dual in the appropriate limit is given in terms of the Dirac-Born-Infeld action in AdS_{p+1} space. An example of such a system is the N=4 SU(N_c) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with N_f massless N=2 hypermultiplets at strong coupling, finite baryon number density, and low temperature. We find that these systems exhibit a zero sound mode despite having a non-Fermi liquid type behavior of the specific heat. These properties suggest that holography identifies a new type of quantum liquids.
The polynomial growth of effective resistances in one-dimensional critical long-range percolation
We study the critical long-range percolation on Z, where an edge connects i and j independently with probability 1-exp{-βint_i^{i+1}int_j^{j+1}|u-v|^{-2}{rm d} u{rm d} v} for |i-j|>1 for some fixed β>0 and with probability 1 for |i-j|=1. Viewing this as a random electric network where each edge has a unit conductance, we show that the effective resistances from 0 to [-n,n]^c and from the interval [-n,n] to [-2n,2n]^c (conditioned on no edge joining [-n,n] and [-2n,2n]^c) both grow like n^{δ(β)} for some δ(β)in (0,1).
Landau theory description of autferroicity
Autferroics, recently proposed as a sister branch of multiferroics, exhibit strong intrinsic magnetoelectricity, but ferroelectricity and magnetism are mutually exclusive rather than coexisting. Here, a general model is considered based on the Landau theory, to clarify the distinction between multi and autferroics by qualitative change-rotation in Landau free energy landscape and in particular phase mapping. The TiGeSe_3 exemplifies a factual material, whose first-principles computed Landau coefficients predict its autferroicity. Our investigations pave the way for an alternative avenue in the pursuit of intrinsically strong magnetoelectrics.
Proximitized Materials
Advances in scaling down heterostructures and having an improved interface quality together with atomically-thin two-dimensional materials suggest a novel approach to systematically design materials. A given material can be transformed through proximity effects whereby it acquires properties of its neighbors, for example, becoming superconducting, magnetic, topologically nontrivial, or with an enhanced spin-orbit coupling. Such proximity effects not only complement the conventional methods of designing materials by doping or functionalization, but can also overcome their various limitations. In proximitized materials it is possible to realize properties that are not present in any constituent region of the considered heterostructure. While the focus is on magnetic and spin-orbit proximity effects with their applications in spintronics, the outlined principles provide also a broader framework for employing other proximity effects to tailor materials and realize novel phenomena.
Rise and Fall of Anderson Localization by Lattice Vibrations: A Time-Dependent Machine Learning Approach
The intricate relationship between electrons and the crystal lattice is a linchpin in condensed matter, traditionally described by the Fr\"ohlich model encompassing the lowest-order lattice-electron coupling. Recently developed quantum acoustics, emphasizing the wave nature of lattice vibrations, has enabled the exploration of previously uncharted territories of electron-lattice interaction not accessible with conventional tools such as perturbation theory. In this context, our agenda here is two-fold. First, we showcase the application of machine learning methods to categorize various interaction regimes within the subtle interplay of electrons and the dynamical lattice landscape. Second, we shed light on a nebulous region of electron dynamics identified by the machine learning approach and then attribute it to transient localization, where strong lattice vibrations result in a momentary Anderson prison for electronic wavepackets, which are later released by the evolution of the lattice. Overall, our research illuminates the spectrum of dynamics within the Fr\"ohlich model, such as transient localization, which has been suggested as a pivotal factor contributing to the mysteries surrounding strange metals. Furthermore, this paves the way for utilizing time-dependent perspectives in machine learning techniques for designing materials with tailored electron-lattice properties.
Trapping Centers at the Superfluid-Mott-insulator Criticality: Transition between Charge-quantized States
Under the conditions of superfluid-Mott-insulator criticality in two dimensions, the trapping centers--i.e., local potential wells and bumps--are generically characterized by an integer charge corresponding to the number of trapped particles (if positive) or holes (if negative). Varying the strength of the center leads to a transition between two competing ground states with charges differing by pm 1. The hallmark of the transition scenario is a splitting of the number density distortion, δn(r), into a half-integer core and a large halo carrying the complementary charge of pm 1/2. The sign of the halo changes across the transition and the radius of the halo, r_0, diverges on the approach to the critical strength of the center, V = V_c, by the law r_0 propto |V-V_c|^{-tildeν}, with tildeν approx 2.33(5).
Condensed matter and AdS/CFT
I review two classes of strong coupling problems in condensed matter physics, and describe insights gained by application of the AdS/CFT correspondence. The first class concerns non-zero temperature dynamics and transport in the vicinity of quantum critical points described by relativistic field theories. I describe how relativistic structures arise in models of physical interest, present results for their quantum critical crossover functions and magneto-thermoelectric hydrodynamics. The second class concerns symmetry breaking transitions of two-dimensional systems in the presence of gapless electronic excitations at isolated points or along lines (i.e. Fermi surfaces) in the Brillouin zone. I describe the scaling structure of a recent theory of the Ising-nematic transition in metals, and discuss its possible connection to theories of Fermi surfaces obtained from simple AdS duals.
Strain-Balanced Low-Temperature-Grown Beryllium-Doped InGaAs/InAlAs Superlattices for High-Performance Terahertz Photoconductors under 1550 nm Laser Excitation
This study systematically investigates the photoconductive properties of low-temperature-grown Beryllium (Be)-doped InGaAs/InAlAs strain-balanced superlattices (SLs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy under stationary growth conditions on semi-insulating InP:Fe substrates. The stationary growth approach enabled precise control over lateral gradients in layer strain, composition, and thickness across a single wafer, while strain-balancing facilitated pseudomorphic growth to explore a wide range of structural parameters, providing a robust platform to study their influence on photoconductive performance. Structural characterization confirmed high crystalline quality and smooth surface morphology in all samples. Time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy revealed subpicosecond carrier lifetimes, validating the effectiveness of strain balancing and Be doping in tuning ultrafast recombination dynamics. Hall effect measurements supported by 8-band k.p modeling revealed enhanced carrier mobility in strain-balanced SLs compared to lattice-matched structures, primarily due to reduced electron and hole effective masses and stronger quantum confinement. Additionally, optical absorption under 1550 nm excitation showed improved absorption coefficients for the strain-balanced structure, consistent with the reduction in bandgap energy predicted by theoretical modeling, thereby enhancing photon-to-carrier conversion efficiency. Furthermore, transmission electron microscopy provided first-time evidence of significant Be-induced interdiffusion at the strained SL interfaces, an important factor influencing carrier transport and dynamics. These findings position low-temperature-grown Be-doped InGaAs/InAlAs strain-balanced SLs as promising materials for high-performance broadband THz photoconductive detectors operating at telecom-compatible wavelengths.
A Physics-Informed, Global-in-Time Neural Particle Method for the Spatially Homogeneous Landau Equation
We propose a physics-informed neural particle method (PINN--PM) for the spatially homogeneous Landau equation. The method adopts a Lagrangian interacting-particle formulation and jointly parameterizes the time-dependent score and the characteristic flow map with neural networks. Instead of advancing particles through explicit time stepping, the Landau dynamics is enforced via a continuous-time residual defined along particle trajectories. This design removes time-discretization error and yields a mesh-free solver that can be queried at arbitrary times without sequential integration. We establish a rigorous stability analysis in an L^2_v framework. The deviation between learned and exact characteristics is controlled by three interpretable sources: (i) score approximation error, (ii) empirical particle approximation error, and (iii) the physics residual of the neural flow. This trajectory estimate propagates to density reconstruction, where we derive an L^2_v error bound for kernel density estimators combining classical bias--variance terms with a trajectory-induced contribution. Using Hyvarinen's identity, we further relate the oracle score-matching gap to the L^2_v score error and show that the empirical loss concentrates at the Monte Carlo rate, yielding computable a posteriori accuracy certificates. Numerical experiments on analytical benchmarks, including the two- and three-dimensional BKW solutions, as well as reference-free configurations, demonstrate stable transport, preservation of macroscopic invariants, and competitive or improved accuracy compared with time-stepping score-based particle and blob methods while using significantly fewer particles.
Hybridization Gap and Edge States in Strain-layer InAs/In0.5Ga0.5Sb Quantum Spin Hall Insulator
The hybridization gap in strained-layer InAs/InxGa1-xSb quantum spin Hall insulators (QSHIs) is significantly enhanced compared to binary InAs/GaSb QSHI structures, where the typical indium composition, x, ranges between 0.2 and 0.4. This enhancement prompts a critical question: to what extent can quantum wells (QWs) be strained while still preserving the fundamental QSHI phase? In this study, we demonstrate the controlled molecular beam epitaxial (MBE) growth of highly strained-layer QWs with an indium composition of x = 0.5. These structures possess a substantial compressive strain within the In0.5Ga0.5Sb QW. Detailed crystal structure analyses confirm the exceptional quality of the resulting epitaxial films, indicating coherent lattice structures and the absence of visible dislocations. Transport measurements further reveal that the QSHI phase in InAs/In0.5Ga0.5Sb QWs is robust and protected by time-reversal symmetry. Notably, the edge states in these systems exhibit giant magnetoresistance when subjected to a modest perpendicular magnetic field. This behavior is in agreement with the Z2 topological property predicted by the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang (BHZ) model, confirming the preservation of topologically protected edge transport in the presence of enhanced bulk strain.
Simulating 2+1D Lattice Quantum Electrodynamics at Finite Density with Neural Flow Wavefunctions
We present a neural flow wavefunction, Gauge-Fermion FlowNet, and use it to simulate 2+1D lattice compact quantum electrodynamics with finite density dynamical fermions. The gauge field is represented by a neural network which parameterizes a discretized flow-based transformation of the amplitude while the fermionic sign structure is represented by a neural net backflow. This approach directly represents the U(1) degree of freedom without any truncation, obeys Guass's law by construction, samples autoregressively avoiding any equilibration time, and variationally simulates Gauge-Fermion systems with sign problems accurately. In this model, we investigate confinement and string breaking phenomena in different fermion density and hopping regimes. We study the phase transition from the charge crystal phase to the vacuum phase at zero density, and observe the phase seperation and the net charge penetration blocking effect under magnetic interaction at finite density. In addition, we investigate a magnetic phase transition due to the competition effect between the kinetic energy of fermions and the magnetic energy of the gauge field. With our method, we further note potential differences on the order of the phase transitions between a continuous U(1) system and one with finite truncation. Our state-of-the-art neural network approach opens up new possibilities to study different gauge theories coupled to dynamical matter in higher dimensions.
Superconducting Materials for Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors
The superconducting materials that make up an MKID have a significant effect on its performance. The T_c and normal state resistivity ρ_N of the film determine the penetration depth λ and therefore how much kinetic inductance it has. The ratio of kinetic inductance to total inductance (α), the volume of the inductor, and Q_m determines the magnitude of the response to incoming energy. The quasiparticle lifetime τ_qp is the characteristic time during which the MKID's surface impedance is modified by the incoming energy. Many materials have been explored for use in superconducting resonators and MKIDs, but that information is often not published or scattered around the literature. This chapter contains information and references on the work that has been done with thin film lithographed circuits for MKIDs over the last two decades. Note that measured material properties such as the internal loss quality factor Q_i and quasiparticle lifetime τ_qp vary significantly depending on how the MKID superconducting thin film is made and the system they are measured in, so it is best to interpret all stated values as typical but not definitive. Values are omitted in cases when there aren't enough measurements or there is too much disagreement in the literature to estimate a typical value. In order to be as complete as possible some unpublished results from the author's lab are included and can be identified by the lack of a reference. Unless noted all films are polycrystalline or amorphous.
A mono-material Nernst thermopile with hermaphroditic legs
A large transverse thermoelectric response, known as anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) has been recently observed in several topological magnets. Building a thermopile employing this effect has been the subject of several recent propositions. Here, we design and build a thermopile with an array of tilted adjacent crystals of Mn_3Sn. The design employs a single material and replaces pairs of P and N thermocouples of the traditional design with hermaphroditic legs. The design exploits the large lag angle between the applied field and the magnetization, which we attribute to the interruption of magnetic octupoles at the edge of xy-plane. Eliminating extrinsic contacts between legs will boost the efficiency, simplify the process and pave the way for a new generation of thermopiles.
