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Physical Review Letters
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October 14, 2011 A collection of Dirac cones on the interface between two topological insulators. There are six Dirac cones because of the crystallographic symmetry. [Ryuji Takahashi and Shuichi Murakami, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 166805 (2011) ] Read Article | More Covers
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October 14, 2011
Theorists gain insight into mechanisms that enhance the available symmetries of various quantum field theories. [Synopsis on Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 161601 (2011)] Read Article | More Synopses |
October 13, 2011
A subwavelength double groove on a metal acts as a broadband device for funneling light. [Synopsis on Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 163902 (2011)] Read Article | More Synopses |
October 10, 2011
Photoemission performed with circular polarized light can detect the chirality of electronic wave functions in single- and double-layer graphene. [Viewpoint on Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 166803 (2011)] Read Article | More Viewponts |
October 10, 2011
A new electrostatic levitation study clarifies how the strings and clusters of atoms that appear in a cooling molten liquid affect diffusion. [Viewpoint on Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 165902 (2011)] Read Article | More Viewponts |
October 5, 2011 Technion professor Daniel Shechtman’s revolutionary discovery of quasiperiodic crystals (quasicrystals) is the subject of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The research first appeared in the American Physical Society publication Physical Review Letters in 1984.
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July 26, 2011  The Niels Bohr Library and Archives is pleased to announce that it has digitized the complete Samuel A. Goudsmit Papers
(1921–1979, 30 linear feet, approximately 67,000 images). The Goudsmit Papers are a major international collection of correspondence, research notebooks, reports, World War II science documents, and other material of Goudsmit, a Dutch physicist who spent most of his career in the US and was involved at the cutting-edge of physics for more than 50 years. Goudsmit became Editor of Physical Review in 1951 and was responsible for launching Physical Review Letters seven years later. In 1967 he was named APS Editor-in-Chief.
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July 11, 2011 A picture is worth 170 words, not one thousand, according to APS's new length scheme that aims to ease the frustrations typically associated with estimating the length of Letters and other short papers.
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July 8, 2011 Two years have now passed since PRL reinvigorated its standards for publication. By all measures the initiative has been successful, and we thank all authors and referees for their adherence to our more stringent criteria.
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June 6, 2011 The American Physical Society is pleased to announce a refresh of all PDFs contained in the scanned portion of our Physical Review Online Archive (PROLA). APS was one of the first publishers to put our entire backfile online, completing the scanning process in May 2001. In those early days, APS opted to put our content online quickly and in an inexpensive manner that would then allow us to take advantage of any future improvements in technology. We have now completed the next step by partnering with Aquaforest. Using their Autobahn DX conversion software, we have efficiently reprocessed our entire scanned archive of approximately 250,000 articles, further compressing them and adding searchable text. Researchers will find these enhanced PDFs faster to download and much more convenient to navigate and read. APS is committed to ensuring the long-term availability and usability of all of the information that we publish. More News/Announcements
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May 13, 2011  The American Physical Society has announced that it will continue its support for the MathJax project for another year. APS was one of first organizations to become a MathJax Supporter, and is now one of the first to renew. The announcement represents an important milestone for MathJax, since support of organizations like APS over time is key to ensuring the project’s long-term success. Read More | More News/Announcements
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March 7, 2011 NPR's Weekend Edition aired a story on a recent Letter, P. Beiersdorfer, D. Layne, and E. W. Magee, Viscoelastic Suppression of Gravity-Driven Counterflow Instability, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 058301 (2011); see also the Viewpoint in Physics. The Letter shows how adding something as simple as cornstarch can in principle suppress the turbulent flow which caused the oil-well-plugging "top kill" procedure to fail. Significant hurdles would need to be overcome to make this work in practice. More News/Announcements
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February 15, 2011 Authors in most Physical Review journals have a new alternative: to pay an article-processing charge whereby their accepted manuscripts will be available barrier-free and open access on publication. These manuscripts will be published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (CC-BY), the most permissive of the CC licenses, granting authors and others the right to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the work, provided that proper credit is given. This new alternative is in addition to traditional subscription-funded publication; authors may choose one or the other for their accepted papers. Read More | More News/Announcements
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February 15, 2011 As of 15 February 2011, authors in most Physical Review journals will have a new alternative: to pay an article-processing charge whereby their accepted manuscripts will be available barrier-free and open access on publication.
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October 14, 2011
A new model explains how subterranean ice can grow into large sheets that lift the earth and damage roads and buildings.
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More Focus Articles
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To promote reading across fields, the editors of Physical Review Letters offer "Suggestions" each week of papers that they hope will lead readers to explore other areas of physics. Please see our Announcement PRL 98, 010001 (2007).
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Alois Würger
We show that thermal creep is at the origin of the recently discovered Leidenfrost ratchet, where liquid droplets float on a vapor layer along a heated sawtooth surface and accelerate to velocities of up to 40 cm/s. As the active element, the asymmetric temperature profile at each ratchet summit re... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 164502 (2011)] Published Thu Oct 13, 2011
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Olga Kruglova, Fabian Brau, Didier Villers, and Pascal Damman
Flaps can be detached from a thin film glued on a solid substrate by tearing and peeling. For flat substrates, it has been shown that these flaps spontaneously narrow and collapse in pointy triangular shapes. Here we show that various shapes, triangular, elliptic, acuminate, or spatulate, can be obs... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 164303 (2011)] Published Wed Oct 12, 2011
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Y. Liu, G. Bian, T. Miller, and T.-C. Chiang
Electronic chirality near the Dirac point is a key property of graphene systems, which is revealed by the spectral intensity patterns as measured by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy under various polarization conditions. Specifically, the strongly modulated circular patterns for monolayer (... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 166803 (2011)] Published Mon Oct 10, 2011
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Nima Tabatabaei and Andreas Mandelis
Energy transport in diffusion-wave fields is gradient-driven and therefore diffuse, yielding depth-integrated responses with poor axial resolution. Using matched-filter principles, we propose a methodology enabling these parabolic diffusion-wave energy fields to exhibit energy localization akin to p... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 165901 (2011)] Published Mon Oct 10, 2011
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J. Brillo, A. I. Pommrich, and A. Meyer
By using the technique of electrostatic levitation, the Ni self-diffusion, density, and viscosity of liquid Zr64Ni36 have been measured in situ with high precision and accuracy. The inverse of the viscosity, η, measured via the oscillating drop technique, and the self-diffusion coefficient D, obtain... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 165902 (2011)] Published Mon Oct 10, 2011
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A. Sigal, M. I. Rojas, and E. P. M. Leiva
Density functional theory (DFT) calculations are performed for the adsorption energy of hydrogen and oxygen on graphene decorated with a wide set of metals (Li, Na, K, Al, Ti, V, Ni, Cu, Pd, Pt). It is found that oxygen interferes with hydrogen adsorption by either blocking the adsorption site or by... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 158701 (2011)] Published Thu Oct 6, 2011
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H. Sasakura, S. Kuramitsu, Y. Hayashi, K. Tanaka, T. Akazaki, E. Hanamura, R. Inoue, H. Takayanagi, Y. Asano, C. Hermannstädter, H. Kumano, and I. Suemune
We experimentally demonstrate Cooper pairs’ drastic enhancement of the band-to-band radiative recombination rate in a semiconductor. Electron Cooper pairs injected from a superconducting electrode into an active layer by the proximity effect recombine with holes injected from a p-type electrode. The... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 157403 (2011)] Published Thu Oct 6, 2011
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H. Farhat, S. Berciaud, M. Kalbac, R. Saito, T. F. Heinz, M. S. Dresselhaus, and J. Kong
We present experimental measurements of the electronic contribution to the Raman spectra of individual metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes (MSWNTs). Photoexcited carriers are inelastically scattered by a continuum of low-energy electron-hole pairs created across the graphenelike linear electroni... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 157401 (2011)] Published Tue Oct 4, 2011
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Steffen Patrick Rath, Boris Spivak, and Wilhelm Zwerger
We discuss quantum fluctuations of the interface between a superfluid and a Mott-insulating state of ultracold atoms in a trap. The fluctuations of the boundary are due to a new type of surface modes, whose spectrum is similar—but not identical—to classical capillary waves. The corresponding quantum... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 155703 (2011)] Published Mon Oct 3, 2011
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S. Sevinçli, N. Henkel, C. Ates, and T. Pohl
We present an analytical theory for the nonlinear optical response of a strongly interacting Rydberg gas under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency. Simple formulas for the third-order optical susceptibility are derived and shown to be in excellent agreement with recent experiments... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 153001 (2011)] Published Mon Oct 3, 2011
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A. Bermudez, F. Jelezko, M. B. Plenio, and A. Retzker
We propose a scheme enabling controlled quantum coherent interactions between separated nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond in the presence of strong magnetic fluctuations. The proposed scheme couples nuclear qubits employing the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction between the electron spins and, cru... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 150503 (2011)] Published Mon Oct 3, 2011
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A. G. Mal’shukov
A dc electric current can be induced in a hybrid semiconductor-superconductor system under illumination of it by a circularly polarized light with the frequency below the energy of semiconductor interband transitions. In conditions when the light beam is unable to create real electron-hole excitatio... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 146603 (2011)] Published Thu Sep 29, 2011
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C. Beilmann, P. H. Mokler, S. Bernitt, C. H. Keitel, J. Ullrich, J. R. Crespo López-Urrutia, and Z. Harman
Intershell higher-order (HO) electronic recombination is reported for highly charged Ar, Fe, and Kr ions, where simultaneous excitation of one K-shell electron and one or two additional L-shell electrons occurs upon resonant capture of a free electron. For the mid-Z region, HO resonance strengths gr... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 143201 (2011)] Published Thu Sep 29, 2011
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Zihui Wang, Yiyan Sun, Mingzhong Wu, Vasil Tiberkevich, and Andrei Slavin
Control of spin waves in a ferrite thin film via interfacial spin scattering was demonstrated. The experiments used a 4.6 μm-thick yttrium iron garnet (YIG) film strip with a 20-nm thick Pt capping layer. A dc current pulse was applied to the Pt layer and produced a spin current across the Pt thick... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 146602 (2011)] Published Thu Sep 29, 2011
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R. Brunner, Y.-S. Shin, T. Obata, M. Pioro-Ladrière, T. Kubo, K. Yoshida, T. Taniyama, Y. Tokura, and S. Tarucha
A crucial requirement for quantum-information processing is the realization of multiple-qubit quantum gates. Here, we demonstrate an electron spin-based all-electrical two-qubit gate consisting of single-spin rotations and interdot spin exchange in a double quantum dot. A partially entangled output ... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 146801 (2011)] Published Mon Sep 26, 2011
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Shina Tan
Alhassid conjectured that the total energy of a harmonically trapped two-component Fermi gas with a short range interaction is a linear functional of the occupation probabilities of single-particle energy eigenstates. We confirm his conjecture and derive the functional explicitly. We show that the f... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 145302 (2011)] Published Mon Sep 26, 2011
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Matthew R. Jorgensen, Jeremy W. Galusha, and Michael H. Bartl
The spontaneous emission decay dynamics of nanocrystal quantum dots embedded into biotemplated titania photonic crystals with a diamond-based lattice are investigated. Modification of the decay rate of quantum dot emission over wide frequency bandwidths in the visible by the photonic crystals is obs... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 143902 (2011)] Published Mon Sep 26, 2011
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A. Balocchi, Q. H. Duong, P. Renucci, B. L. Liu, C. Fontaine, T. Amand, D. Lagarde, and X. Marie
The electron spin dynamics in (111)-oriented GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells is studied by time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. By applying an external electric field of 50 kV/cm a two-order of magnitude increase of the spin relaxation time can be observed reaching values larger than 30 ns; this... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 136604 (2011)] Published Mon Sep 19, 2011
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Oliver Zimmer, Florian M. Piegsa, and Sergey N. Ivanov
Ultracold neutrons (UCNs) play an important role for precise measurements of the properties of the neutron and its interactions. During the past 25 years, a neutron turbine coupled to a liquid deuterium cold neutron source at a high-flux reactor has defined the state of the art for UCN production, d... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 134801 (2011)] Published Mon Sep 19, 2011
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Sheng-wey Chiow, Tim Kovachy, Hui-Chun Chien, and Mark A. Kasevich
We demonstrate atom interferometers utilizing a novel beam splitter based on sequential multiphoton Bragg diffractions. With this sequential Bragg large momentum transfer (SB-LMT) beam splitter, we achieve high contrast atom interferometers with momentum splittings of up to 102 photon recoil momenta... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 130403 (2011)] Published Mon Sep 19, 2011
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E. Aprile et al. (The XENON100 Collaboration)
We present results from the direct search for dark matter with the XENON100 detector, installed underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN, Italy. XENON100 is a two-phase time-projection chamber with a 62 kg liquid xenon target. Interaction vertex reconstruction in three dimensio... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 131302 (2011)] Published Mon Sep 19, 2011
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G. Hétet, L. Slodička, M. Hennrich, and R. Blatt
By tightly focusing a laser field onto a single cold ion trapped in front of a far-distant dielectric mirror, we could observe a quantum electrodynamic effect whereby the ion behaves as the optical mirror of a Fabry-Pérot cavity. We show that the amplitude of the laser field is significantly altered... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 133002 (2011)] Published Mon Sep 19, 2011
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T. M. Lu, W. Pan, D. C. Tsui, P. C. Liu, Z. Zhang, and Y. H. Xie
We report in this Letter our recent low-temperature transport results in a Si/SiGe quantum well with moderate peak mobility. An apparent metal-insulating transition is observed. Within a small range of densities near the transition, the conductivity σ displays a nonmonotonic temperature dependence. ... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 126403 (2011)] Published Fri Sep 16, 2011
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Martin Frimmer, Yuntian Chen, and A. Femius Koenderink
We report an experimental technique to map and exploit the local density of optical states of arbitrary planar nanophotonic structures. The method relies on positioning a spontaneous emitter attached to a scanning probe deterministically and reversibly with respect to its photonic environment while ... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 123602 (2011)] Published Fri Sep 16, 2011
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L. Li, T. Li, S. M. Wang, C. Zhang, and S. N. Zhu
We report an experimental realization of a plasmonic Airy beam, which is generated thoroughly on a silver surface. With a carefully designed nanoarray structure, such Airy beams come into being from an in-plane propagating surface plasmon polariton wave, exhibiting nonspreading, self-bending, and se... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 126804 (2011)] Published Thu Sep 15, 2011
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General Physics: Statistical and Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Information, etc.
Michael Kastner and Dhagash Mehta
The stationary points of the potential energy function V are studied for the ϕ4 model on a two-dimensional square lattice with nearest-neighbor interactions. On the basis of analytical and numerical results, we explore the relation of stationary points to the occurrence of thermodynamic phase transi... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 160602 (2011)] Published Thu Oct 13, 2011
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Vera Guarrera, Peter Würtz, Arne Ewerbeck, Andreas Vogler, Giovanni Barontini, and Herwig Ott
We measure the temporal pair correlation function g(2)(τ) of a trapped gas of bosons above and below the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation. The measurement is performed in situ by using a local, time-resolved single-atom sensitive probing technique. Third- and fourth-order correlat... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 160403 (2011)] Published Fri Oct 14, 2011
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Richard J. Hill and Gil Paz
Proton structure effects in hydrogenic bound states are analyzed using nonrelativistic QED effective field theory. Implications for the Lamb shift in muonic hydrogen are discussed. Model-dependent assumptions in previous analyses are isolated, and sensitivity to poorly constrained hadronic structure... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 160402 (2011)] Published Thu Oct 13, 2011
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Gravitation and Astrophysics
J. Laiho and D. Coumbe
We calculate the spectral dimension for nonperturbative quantum gravity defined via Euclidean dynamical triangulations. We find that it runs from a value of ∼3/2 at short distance to ∼4 at large distance scales, similar to results from causal dynamical triangulations. We argue that the short-distanc... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 161301 (2011)] Published Fri Oct 14, 2011
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Elementary Particles and Fields
Diego M. Hofman and Andrew Strominger
It is well known that a local, unitary Poincaré-invariant 2D quantum field theory with a global scaling symmetry and a discrete non-negative spectrum of scaling dimensions necessarily has both a left and a right local conformal symmetry. In this Letter, we consider a chiral situation beginning with ... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 161601 (2011)] Published Thu Oct 13, 2011
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Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
Daniel L. Whitenack and Adam Wasserman
Density functional resonance theory (DFRT) is a complex-scaled version of ground-state density functional theory (DFT) that allows one to calculate the in-principle exact resonance energies and lifetimes of metastable anions. In this formalism, the energy and lifetime of the lowest-energy resonance ... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 163002 (2011)] Published Fri Oct 14, 2011
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Nonlinear Dynamics, Fluid Dynamics, Classical Optics, etc.
M. I. Radulescu and J. Tang
The present study investigates the spatiotemporal variability in the dynamics of self-sustained supersonic reaction waves propagating through an excitable medium. The model is an extension of Fickett’s detonation model with a state-dependent energy addition term. Stable and pulsating supersonic wave... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 164503 (2011)] Published Fri Oct 14, 2011
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Alois Würger
We show that thermal creep is at the origin of the recently discovered Leidenfrost ratchet, where liquid droplets float on a vapor layer along a heated sawtooth surface and accelerate to velocities of up to 40 cm/s. As the active element, the asymmetric temperature profile at each ratchet summit re... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 164502 (2011)] Published Thu Oct 13, 2011
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G. Subramania, S. Foteinopoulou, and I. Brener
Enhancing and funneling light efficiently through deep subwavelength apertures is essential in harnessing light-matter interaction. Thus far, this has been accomplished resonantly, by exciting the structural surface plasmons of perforated nanostructured metal films, a phenomenon known as extraordina... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 163902 (2011)] Published Thu Oct 13, 2011
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Plasma and Beam Physics
M. Øieroset, T. D. Phan, J. P. Eastwood, M. Fujimoto, W. Daughton, M. A. Shay, V. Angelopoulos, F. S. Mozer, J. P. McFadden, D. E. Larson, and K.-H. Glassmeier
We report the direct detection by three THEMIS spacecraft of a magnetic flux rope flanked by two active X lines producing colliding plasma jets near the center of the flux rope. The observed density depletion and open magnetic field topology inside the flux rope reveal important three-dimensional ef... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 165007 (2011)] Published Thu Oct 13, 2011
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A. Benuzzi-Mounaix, F. Dorchies, V. Recoules, F. Festa, O. Peyrusse, A. Levy, A. Ravasio, T. Hall, M. Koenig, N. Amadou, E. Brambrink, and S. Mazevet
The electronic structure evolution of highly compressed aluminum has been investigated using time resolved K edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy. A long laser pulse (500 ps, IL≈8×1013 W/cm2) was used to create a uniform shock. A second ps pulse (IL≈1017 W/cm2) generated an ultrashort broadband x-ra... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 165006 (2011)] Published Thu Oct 13, 2011
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Condensed Matter: Structure, etc.
R. Gunnella, M. Ali, M. Abbas, F. D’Amico, E. Principi, and A. Di Cicco
An original approach for measuring the depth profile of melting and metallization of the Si(111) and Si(001) surfaces is proposed and applied. The different probing depths of the Auger electron and electron energy loss (EELS) spectroscopies are exploited to study the number of molten and metallic la... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 166103 (2011)] Published Fri Oct 14, 2011
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Douwe Jan Bonthuis, Stephan Gekle, and Roland R. Netz
The framework for deriving tensorial interfacial dielectric profiles from bound charge distributions is established and applied to molecular dynamics simulations of water at hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. In conjunction with a modified Poisson-Boltzmann equation, the trend of experimental dou... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 166102 (2011)] Published Thu Oct 13, 2011
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C. Blumenstein, J. Schäfer, M. Morresi, S. Mietke, R. Matzdorf, and R. Claessen
The one-dimensional (1D) model system Au/Ge(001), consisting of linear chains of single atoms on a surface, is scrutinized for lattice instabilities predicted in the Peierls paradigm. By scanning tunneling microscopy and electron diffraction we reveal a second-order phase transition at 585 K. It lea... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 165702 (2011)] Published Thu Oct 13, 2011
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Condensed Matter: Electronic Properties, etc.
Y. S. Chen, D. Reuter, A. D. Wieck, and G. Bacher
The dynamics of optically detected nuclear magnetic resonance is studied in n-GaAs via time-resolved Kerr rotation using an on-chip microcoil for rf field generation. Both optically allowed and optically forbidden NMR are observed with a dynamics controlled by the interplay between dynamic nuclear p... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 167601 (2011)] Published Wed Oct 12, 2011
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Shambhu Ghimire, Anthony D. DiChiara, Emily Sistrunk, Urszula B. Szafruga, Pierre Agostini, Louis F. DiMauro, and David A. Reis
We report time-resolved electroabsorption of a weak probe in a 500 μm thick zinc-oxide crystal in the presence of a strong midinfrared pump in the tunneling limit. We observe a substantial redshift in the absorption edge that scales with the cube root of intensity up to 1 TW/cm2 (0.38 eV cm2/3 TW... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 167407 (2011)] Published Fri Oct 14, 2011
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J. G. Tobin and S.-W. Yu
One of the crucial questions of all actinide electronic structure determinations is the issue of 5f versus 6d character and the distribution of these components across the density of states. Here, a breakthough experiment is discussed, which has allowed the direct determination of the U5f and U6d co... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 167406 (2011)] Published Fri Oct 14, 2011
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Joachim M. Hamm, Sebastian Wuestner, Kosmas L. Tsakmakidis, and Ortwin Hess
We establish a theory that traces light amplification in an active double-fishnet metamaterial back to its microscopic origins. Based on ab initio calculations of the light and plasmon fields we extract energy rates and conversion efficiencies associated with gain and loss channels directly from Poy... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 167405 (2011)] Published Thu Oct 13, 2011
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Qin Wang, Søren Stobbe, and Peter Lodahl
We use single self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots as internal probes to map the local density of optical states of photonic crystal membranes. The employed technique separates contributions from nonradiative recombination and spin-flip processes by properly accounting for the role of the exciton fine... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 167404 (2011)] Published Wed Oct 12, 2011
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T. S. Santos, B. J. Kirby, S. Kumar, S. J. May, J. A. Borchers, B. B. Maranville, J. Zarestky, S. G. E. te Velthuis, J. van den Brink, and A. Bhattacharya
We demonstrate that delta doping can be used to create a dimensionally confined region of metallic ferromagnetism in an antiferromagnetic (AFM) manganite host, without introducing any explicit disorder due to dopants or frustration of spins. Theoretical consideration of these additional carriers sho... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 167202 (2011)] Published Wed Oct 12, 2011
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Jian-Xin Zhu, Rong Yu, A. V. Balatsky, and Qimiao Si
We study the effect of a single nonmagnetic impurity on the recently discovered (K,Tl)FexSe2 superconductors, within both a toy two-band model and a more realistic five-band model. We find that, out of five types of pairing symmetry under consideration, only the dx2-y2-wave pairing gives rise to imp... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 167002 (2011)] Published Fri Oct 14, 2011
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Dung-Hai Lee
We study the Sz-conserving quantum spin Hall insulator in the presence of Hubbard U from a field theory point of view. The main findings are the following. (1) For arbitrarily small U the edges possess power-law correlated antiferromagnetic XY local moments. Gapless charge excitations arise from the... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 166806 (2011)] Published Fri Oct 14, 2011
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G. Sallen, B. Urbaszek, M. M. Glazov, E. L. Ivchenko, T. Kuroda, T. Mano, S. Kunz, M. Abbarchi, K. Sakoda, D. Lagarde, A. Balocchi, X. Marie, and T. Amand
In photoluminescence spectra of symmetric [111] grown GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots in longitudinal magnetic fields applied along the growth axis, we observe in addition to the expected bright states also nominally dark transitions for both charged and neutral excitons. We uncover a strongly nonmonotonic... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 166604 (2011)] Published Fri Oct 14, 2011
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Chinkhanlun Guite and V. Venkataraman
We propose and demonstrate a technique for electrical detection of polarized spins in semiconductors in zero applied magnetic fields. Spin polarization is generated by optical injection using circularly polarized light which is modulated rapidly using an electro-optic cell. The modulated spin polari... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 166603 (2011)] Published Wed Oct 12, 2011
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Soft Matter, Biological, and Interdisciplinary Physics
Marc Durand, Jos Käfer, Catherine Quilliet, Simon Cox, Shirin Ataei Talebi, and François Graner
We propose an analytical model for the statistical mechanics of shuffled two-dimensional foams with moderate bubble size polydispersity. It predicts without any adjustable parameters the correlations between the number of sides n of the bubbles (topology) and their areas A (geometry) observed in exp... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 168304 (2011)] Published Fri Oct 14, 2011
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Papers recently accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters (view more).
General Physics: Statistical and Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Information, etc.
S. Meuren and A. Di Piazza
The quantum state of an electron in a strong laser field is altered if the interaction of the electron with its own electromagnetic field is taken into account. Starting from the Schwinger-Dirac equation, we determine the states of an electron in a plane-wave field with inclusion, at leading order, of its electromagnetic self-interaction. On the one hand, the electron states show a pure "quantum" contribution to the electron quasi-momentum, conceptually different from the conventional "classical" one arising from the quiver motion of the electron. On the other hand, the electron self-interaction induces a distinct dynamics of the electron spin, whose effects are shown to be measurable in principle with available technology.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
Elementary Particles and Fields
Alessandro Bacchetta and Marco Radici
The determination of quark angular momentum requires the knowledge of the generalized parton distribution E in the forward limit. We assume a connection between this function and the Sivers transverse-momentum distribution, based on model calculations and theoretical considerations. Using this assumption, we show that it is possible to fit at the same time nucleon magnetic moments and semi-inclusive single-spin asymmetries. This imposes additional constraints on the Sivers function and opens a plausible way to quantifying quark angular momentum.
Accepted Thu Oct 13, 2011
Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
G. Stefanucci and S. Kurth
We demonstrate that the zero-temperature conductance of the Anderson model can be calculated within the Landauer formalism combined with static density functional theory (DFT). The proposed approximate functional is based on finite-temperature DFT and yields the exact Kohn-Sham potential at the particle-hole symmetric point. Furthermore, in the limit of zero temperature it correctly exhibits a derivative discontinuity which is shown to be essential to reproduce the conductance plateau. On the other hand, at the Kondo temperature the exact Kohn-Sham conductance overestimates the real one by an order of magnitude. To understand the failure of DFT we resort to its time-dependent version and conclude that the suppression of the Kondo resonance must be attibuted to dynamical exchange-correlation corrections.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
Misha Ivanov and Olga Smirnova
Attosecond streak-camera holds the promise to time-resolve the dynamics of photo-ionization with few-attosecond accuracy. But to what extent can the attosecond measurement be disentangled from the process it measures? We address this question by deriving simple closed-form analytical expressions for the measurement-related apparent time-delays in photo-ionization, associated with the application of the attosecond streak-camera and/or RABITT techniques. Our analytical results are accurate on about 1 asec level and show that both intrinsic and measurement-induced delays depend on the same scattering phase and are, therefore, not independent. However, our results also suggest a self-consistent procedure for extracting intrinsic time-delays from the measurement. Finally, they suggest possible resolution of the controversy caused by the recent experiments of Schultze et al .
Accepted Thu Oct 13, 2011
Miroslav Jezek, Ivo Straka, Michal Micuda, Miloslav Dusek, Jaromir Fiur\'{asek, and Radim Filip
We report on experimental verification of quantum non-Gaussianity of a heralded single photon state with positive Wigner function. We unambiguously demonstrate that the generated state cannot be expressed as a mixture of Gaussian states. A sufficient information to witness the quantum non-Gaussianity is obtained from a standard photon anti-correlation measurement.
Accepted Thu Oct 13, 2011
Nonlinear Dynamics, Fluid Dynamics, Classical Optics, etc.
Timothee Jamin, Charlotte Py, and Eric Falcon
Capillary origami is the wrapping of an usual fluid drop by a planar elastic membrane due to the interplay between capillary and elastic forces. Here, we use a drop of magnetic fluid whose shape is known to strongly depend on an applied magnetic field. We study the quasi-static and dynamical behaviors of such a magnetic capillary origami. We report the observation of an overturning instability that the origami undergoes at a critical magnetic field. This instability is triggered by an interplay between magnetic and gravitational energies in agreement with the theory presented here. Additional effects of elasticity and capillarity on this instability are also discussed.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
Jiao Wang, Italo Guarneri, Giulio Casati, and Jiangbin Gong
Using a dynamical model relevant to cold-atom experiments, we show that long-lasting exponential spreading of wave packets in momentum space is possible. Numerical results are explained via a pseudo-classical map, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Possible applications of our findings are also briefly discussed.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
Cesare Mollica and Jiri Van\'i\v{cek
While rigorous quantum dynamical simulations of many-body systems are extremely difficult (or impossible) due to the exponential scaling with dimensionality, corresponding classical simulations completely ignore quantum effects. Semiclassical methods are generally more efficient but less accurate than quantum methods, and more accurate but less efficient than classical methods. We find a remarkable exception to this rule by showing that a semiclassical method can be both more accurate and faster than a classical simulation. Specifically, we prove that for the semiclassical dephasing representation the number of trajectories needed to simulate quantum fidelity is independent of dimensionality and also that this semiclassical method is even faster than the most efficient corresponding classical algorithm. Analytical results are confirmed with simulations of quantum fidelity in up to 100 dimensions with 21700-dimensional Hilbert space.
Accepted Thu Oct 13, 2011
Condensed Matter: Structure, etc.
V. I. Razumovskiy, A. V. Ruban, and P. A. Korzhavyi
The elastic properties of pure iron and substitutionally disordered 10 at. % Cr Fe-Cr alloy are investigated as a function of temperature using first-principles electronic-structure calculations by the exact muffin-tin orbitals method. The temperature effects on the elastic properties are included via the electronic, magnetic, and lattice expansion contributions. We show that the degree of magnetic order in both pure iron and Fe90Cr10 alloy mainly determines the dramatic change of the elastic anisotropy of these materials at elevated temperatures. The effect of lattice expansion is found to be secondary but also very important for quantitative modeling.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
Zhisheng Zhao, Bo Xu, Xiang-Feng Zhou, Li-Min Wang, Bin Wen, Julong He, Zhongyuan Liu, Hui-Tian Wang, and Yongjun Tian
A novel carbon allotrope of C-centered orthorhombic C8 (Cco-C8) is predicted using a recently developed particle-swarm optimization method on structural search. Cco-C8 adopts a sp3 three-dimensional bonding network that can be viewed as interconnected (2, 2) carbon nanotubes (CNTs) through 4- and 6-member rings and is energetically more favorable than earlier proposed carbon polymorphs (e.g., M carbon, Bct-C4, W carbon, and Chiral C6) over a wide range of pressures studied (0-100 GPa). The simulated X-ray diffraction pattern, density, and bulk modulus of Cco-C8 are in good accordance with the experimental data on structurally undetermined superhard carbon recovered from cold compression of CNT bundles. The simulated hardness of Cco-C8 can reach a remarkably high value of 95.1 GPa, such that it is capable of cracking diamond.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
O. O. Soykal, Rusko Ruskov, and Charles Tahan
A quantum mechanical superposition of a long-lived, localized phonon and a matter excitation is described. We identify a realization in strained silicon: a low-lying donor transition (P or Li) driven solely by acoustic phonons at wavelengths where high-Q phonon cavities can be built. This phonon-matter resonance is shown to enter the strongly-coupled regime where the "vacuum" Rabi frequency exceeds the spontaneous phonon emission into non-cavity modes, phonon leakage from the cavity, and phonon anharmonicity and scattering. We introduce a micropillar distributed Bragg reflector Si/Ge cavity, where Q @ 105-106 and mode volumes V <~25l3 are reachable. These results indicate that single or many-body devices based on these systems are experimentally realizable.
Accepted Thu Oct 13, 2011
Condensed Matter: Electronic Properties, etc.
Mintu Mondal, Sanjeev Kumar, Madhavi Chand, Anand Kamlapure, Garima Saraswat, G. Seibold, L. Benfatto, and Pratap Raychaudhuri
We analyze the occurrence of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in thin films of NbN at various film thickness, by probing the effect of vortex fluctuations on the temperature dependence of the superfluid density below TBKT and of the resistivity above TBKT. By direct comparison between the experimental data and the theory we show the crucial role played by the vortex-core energy in determining the characteristic signatures of the BKT physics, and we estimate its dependence on the disorder level. Our work provides a paradigmatic example of BKT physics in a quasi-two-dimensional superconductor.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
Takashi Kobayashi, Kenichi Hitachi, Satoshi Sasaki, and Koji Muraki
We report a new transport feature in a \textGaAs lateral double quantum dot that emerges for magnetic-field sweeps and shows hysteresis due to dynamic nuclear spin polarization (DNP). This DNP signal appears in the Coulomb blockade regime by virtue of the finite inter-dot tunnel coupling and originates from the crossing between ground levels of the spin triplet and singlet extensively used for nuclear spin manipulations in pulsed gate experiments. The magnetic-field dependence of the current level is suggestive of unbalanced DNP between the two dots, which opens up the possibility of controlling electron and nuclear spin states via DC transport.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
Manish Jain, James R. Chelikowsky, and Steven G. Louie
We calculate the quasiparticle defect states and charge transition levels (CTLs) of oxygen vacancies in monoclinic hafnia using density functional theory (DFT) and the GW method. We introduce the criterion that the quality and reliability of CTLs may be evaluated by calculating the same CTL via two physical paths and show that it is necessary to include important electrostatic corrections previously neglected within the supercell DFT+GW approach. Contrary to previous reports, the oxygen vacancies in hafnia are large positive U centers, where U is the defect charging energy.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
Pablo Aguado-Puente, Pablo Garcia-Fern\'andez, and Javier Junquera
We report first-principles calculations, within the density functional theory, on the coupling between epitaxial strain, polarization, and oxygen octahedra rotations in monodomain (PbTiO3)n/(SrTiO3)n superlattices, with 1 n 3. We show how the interplay between (i) the epitaxial strain and (ii) the electrostatic conditions at the interfaces, can be used to control the orientation of the main axis of the system - defined by the direction of the polarization or the rotation axis of the oxygen octahedra. The electrostatic constrains at the interface facilitate the rotation of the polarization and, as a consequence, we predict large piezoelectric responses at epitaxial strains smaller than those that would be required considering only strain effects. Besides, ferroelectric (FE) and antiferrodistortive (AFD) modes are strongly coupled, with different rotation angles in the TiO6 octahedra as a function of the polarization direction. The magnitude of the rotations cannot be explained by the usual steric arguments alone, and a covalent model is proposed to account for the large polarization-tilting coupling. The energy gain due to the FE-AFD coupling decreases with the periodicity of the superlattice, becoming negligible for n = 3.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
Manish Jain, James R. Chelikowsky, and Steven G. Louie
We show that orbital energies from existing hybrid functionals do not give reliable band gaps. Even if a functional yields a good bulk gap, it in general does not provide accurate gaps in different structural configurations, e.g., surfaces or nanostructures. For examples, none of the popular hybrid functionals adequately describes the surface-state gap of Si (111) 2×1 surface. For graphene nanoribbons, some hybrid functionals give good optical gaps (neglecting strong excitonic effects), but not quasiparticle gaps. In both cases, there are strong variations from different hybrid functionals.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
B. W. Heinrich, L. Limot, M. V. Rastei, C. Iacovita, J. P. Bucher, Duval Mbongo Djimbi, Carlo Massobrio, and Mauro Boero
Low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy combined with first principles simulations reveal a non-dissociative physisorption of ferrocene molecules on a Cu(111) surface, giving rise to ordered molecular layers. At the interface, a 2D-like electronic band is found, which shows an identical dispersion as the Cu(111) Shockley surface-state band. Subsequent deposition of Cu atoms forms charged organometallic compounds that localize interface-state electrons.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
M. Modestov, V. Bychkov, and M. Marklund
Recent experiments, Ref. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 027203 (2009)), discovered ultra-fast propagation of spin avalanches in crystals of nanomagnets, which was three orders of magnitude faster than the traditionally studied magnetic deflagration. The new regime has been hypothetically identified as magnetic detonation. Here we demonstrate unequivocally the possibility of magnetic detonation in the crystals, as a front consisting of a leading shock and a zone of Zeeman energy release. We study the key features of the process and find that the magnetic detonation speed only slightly exceeds the sound speed in agreement with the experimental observations. For combustion science, our results provide a unique physical example of extremely weak detonation.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
J.-M. Maki, F. Tuomisto, A. Varpula, D. Fisher, R. U. A. Khan, and P. M. Martineau
We have developed a method called optical transient positron spectroscopy and apply it to study the optically induced carrier trapping and charge transfer processes in natural brown type IIa diamond. By measuring the positron lifetime with continuous and pulsed illumination, we present an estimate of the optical absorption cross section of the vacancy clusters causing the brown color. The vacancy clusters accept electrons from the valence band in the absorption process, giving rise to photoconductivity.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
N. D. Drummond, P. Lopez R\'ios, R. J. Needs, and C. J. Pickard
Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of the relaxation energy, pair-correlation function, and annihilating-pair momentum density are presented for a positron immersed in a homogeneous electron gas. We find smaller relaxation energies and contact pair-correlation functions in the important low-density regime than predicted by earlier studies. Our annihilating-pair momentum densities have almost zero weight above the Fermi momentum due to the cancellation of electron-electron and electron-positron correlation effects.
Accepted Thu Oct 13, 2011
Aftab Alam and D. D. Johnson
Laves-phase Nb1+cFe2-c is a rare itinerant intermetallic compound exhibiting magnetic quantum criticality at ccr ~ 1.5%Nb excess; its origin, and how alloying mediates it, remains an enigma. For NbFe2, we show that an unconventional band critical point (uBCP) above the Fermi level E\textF explains most observations, and that chemical alloying mediates access to this uBCP by an increase in E\textF with decreasing electrons (increasing %Nb), counter to rigid-band concepts. We calculate that E\textF enters the uBCP region for ccr > 1.5%Nb and by 1.74%Nb there is no Nb site-occupation preference between symmetry-distinct Fe sites, i.e., no electron-hopping disorder, making resistivity near constant as observed. At larger Nb (Fe) excess, the ferromagnetic Stoner criterion is satisfied.
Accepted Thu Oct 13, 2011
Soft Matter, Biological, and Interdisciplinary Physics
Daniel A. Charlebois, Nezar Abdennur, and Mads Kaern
We show that the effect of stress on the reproductive fitness of noisy cell populations can be modelled as first-passage time problem, and demonstrate that even relatively short-lived fluctuations in gene expression can ensure long-term survival of a drug-resistant population. We examine how this effect contributes to the development of drug-resistant cancer cells, and demonstrate that permanent immunity can arise independently of mutations.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
K. Karimi and C. E. Maloney
We report on two dimensional computer simulations of frictionless granular packings at various area fractions, f, above the jamming point fc. We measure the anisotropy in coarse-grained stress, es, and shear modulus, em, as functions of coarse-graining scale, R. es can be collapsed onto a master curve after rescaling R by a characteristic lengthscale, x, and es by an anisotropy magnitude, A. Both A and x accelerate as ffc from above, consistent with a divergence at fc. em shows no characteristic lengthscale and has a non-trivial power-law form, em ~ R-0.62, over almost the entire range of R at all f. These results suggest that the force chains present in the spatial structure of the quenched stress may be governed by different physics than the anomalous elastic response near jamming.
Accepted Thu Oct 13, 2011
Sang-Kil Son, Henry N. Chapman, and Robin Santra
The multi-wavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD) method is used to determine phase information in x-ray crystallography by employing dispersion corrections from heavy atoms on coherent x-ray scattering. X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) show promise for revealing the structure of single molecules or nanocrystals within femtoseconds, but the phase problem remains largely unsolved. Due to the ultrabrightness of x-ray FEL, samples experience severe electronic radiation damage, especially to heavy atoms, which hinders direct implementation of the MAD method with x-ray FELs. We propose a generalized version of the MAD phasing method at high x-ray intensity. We demonstrate the existence of a Karle-Hendrickson-type equation for the MAD method in the high-intensity regime and calculate relevant coefficients with detailed electronic damage dynamics of heavy atoms. Our results show that the bleaching effect on the scattering strength of the heavy atoms can be advantageous to the phasing method. The present method offers a potential for ab initio structural determination in femtosecond x-ray nanocrystallography.
Accepted Thu Oct 13, 2011
Gravitation and Astrophysics
Jan Ambjorn, S. Jordan, J. Jurkiewicz, and R. Loll
Causal Dynamical Triangulations (CDT) are a concrete attempt to define a nonperturbative path integral for quantum gravity. We present strong evidence that the lattice theory has a second-order phase transition line, which can potentially be used to define a continuum limit in the conventional sense of nongravitational lattice theories.
Accepted Fri Oct 14, 2011
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