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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 451 records · Page 25
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2011

Exact ground states of a staggered supersymmetric model for lattice fermions

We study a supersymmetric model for strongly interacting lattice fermions in the presence of a staggering parameter. The staggering is introduced as a tunable parameter in the manifestly supersymmetric Hamiltonian. We obtain analytic expressions for the ground states in the limit of small and large staggering for the model on the class of doubly decorated lattices. On this type of lattice there are two ground states, each with a different density. In one limit we find these ground states to be a simple Wigner crystal and a valence bond solid state. In the other limit we find two types of quantum liquids. As a special case, we investigate the quantum liquid state on the one dimensional chain in detail. It is characterized by a massless kink that separates two types of order.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Pressure-tuned quantum criticality in the antiferromagnetic Kondo semimetal CeNi 2–δ As 2

The easily tuned balance among competing interactions in Kondo-lattice metals allows access to a zero-temperature, continuous transition between magnetically ordered and disordered phases, a quantum-critical point (QCP). Indeed, these highly correlated electron materials are prototypes for discovering and exploring quantum-critical states. Theoretical models proposed to account for the strange thermodynamic and electrical transport properties that emerge around the QCP of a Kondo lattice assume the presence of an indefinitely large number of itinerant charge carriers. Here, we report a systematic transport and thermodynamic investigation of the Kondo-lattice system CeNi 2–δ As 2 (δ ≈ 0.28) as its antiferromagnetic order is tuned by pressure and magnetic field to zero-temperature boundaries. These experiments show that the very small but finite carrier density of ~0.032 e – /formular unit in CeNi 2–δ As 2 leads to unexpected transport signatures of quantum criticality and the delayed development of a fully coherent Kondo-lattice state with decreasing temperature. Here, the small carrier density and associated semimetallicity of this Kondo-lattice material favor an unconventional, local-moment type of quantum criticality and raises the specter of the Nozières exhaustion idea that an insufficient number of conduction-electron spins to separately screen local moments requires collective Kondo screening.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Stabilization of a Majorana zero mode through quantum frustration

We analyze a system in which a topological Majorana zero mode (tMZM) combines with a Majorana produced by quantum frustration (fMZM) to produce a novel ground state. The system that we study combines two parts, a grounded topological superconducting wire that hosts two tMZMs at its ends and an on-resonant quantum dot connected to two dissipative leads. The quantum dot with dissipative leads creates an effective two-channel Kondo (2CK) state in which quantum frustration yields an isolated fMZM at the dot. We find that coupling the dot to one end of the topological wire stabilizes the tMZM at the other end. Three routes are used to obtain these results: (i) calculation of the conductance through an auxiliary detector quantum dot, (ii) renormalization group (RG) arguments and the g theorem, and (iii) a fully nonequilibrium calculation of the I(V) curve and shot noise S(V) through the detector dot. In addition to providing a route to achieving an unpaired Majorana zero mode, this scheme provides a clear signature of the presence of the 2CK frustration-induced Majorana.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Morphing of two-dimensional hole systems at ν = 3 / 2 in parallel magnetic fields: Compressible, stripe, and fractional quantum Hall phases

A transport study of two-dimensional (2D) holes confined to wide GaAs quantum wells provides a glimpse of a subtle competition between different many-body phases at a Landau level filling ν = 3/2 in tilted magnetic fields. At large tilt angles (θ), an anisotropic, stripe (or nematic) phase replaces the isotropic compressible Fermi sea at ν = 3/2 if the quantum well has a symmetric charge distribution. Furthermore, when the charge distribution is made asymmetric, instead of the stripe phase, an even-denominator fractional quantum state appears at ν = 3/2 in a range of large θ, and reverts back to a compressible state at even higher θ. We attribute this remarkable evolution to the significant mixing of the excited and ground-state Landau levels of 2D hole systems in tilted fields.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

Andreev Reflection and Klein Tunneling in High-Temperature Superconductor-Graphene Junctions

Scattering processes in quantum materials emerge as resonances in electronic transport, including confined modes, Andreev states, and Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states. However, in most instances, these resonances are driven by a single scattering mechanism. Here, in this paper, we show the appearance of resonances due to the combination of two simultaneous scattering mechanisms, one from superconductivity and the other from graphene p-n junctions. These resonances stem from Andreev reflection and Klein tunneling that occur at two different interfaces of a hole-doped region of graphene formed at the boundary with superconducting graphene due to proximity effects from Bi 2 Sr 2 Ca 1 Cu 2 O 8+δ . The resonances persist with gating from p + -p and p-n configurations. The suppression of the oscillation amplitude above the bias energy which is comparable to the induced superconducting gap indicates the contribution from Andreev reflection. Our experimental measurements are supported by quantum transport calculations in such interfaces, leading to analogous resonances. Our results put forward a hybrid scattering mechanism in graphene–high-temperature superconductor heterojunctions of potential impact for graphene-based Josephson junctions.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2026

Shuttling Majorana zero modes in disordered and noisy topological superconductors

The braiding of Majorana zero modes (MZMs) forms the fundamental building block for topological quantum computation. Braiding protocols which involve the physical exchange of MZMs are typically envisioned on a network of topological superconducting wires. An important component of these protocols is the transport of MZMs, which can be performed by using electric gates to locally tune sections of the wire between topologically trivial and nontrivial phases. In this work, we numerically simulate this transport by tuning a single section of a superconducting wire which contains either disorder (uncorrelated and correlated) or noise. We focus on the impact of these additional effects on the diabatic error, which describes unwanted transitions between the ground state and excited states. We show that the behavior of the average diabatic error is predominantly controlled by the statistics of the minimum bulk energy gap which is suppressed in the presence of disorder. The increase in diabatic error can be several orders of magnitude and is most deleterious when the disorder correlation length is a finite fraction of the transport distance and negligible when these lengths are far apart. In the presence of noise, the diabatic error is significantly enhanced due to optical transitions which depend on the minimum bulk energy gap as well as the frequency modes present in the noise. The results presented here serve to further characterize the diabatic error in disordered and noisy settings, which are important considerations in practical implementations of physical braiding schemes.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Dehybridization of f and d states in the heavy-fermion system YbRh 2 Si 2

Here, we report an optically induced reduction of the f-d hybridization in the prototypical heavy-fermion compound YbRh 2 Si 2 . We use femtosecond time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to monitor changes of spectral weight and binding energies of the Yb 4f and Rh 4d states before the lattice temperature increases after pumping. Overall, the f-d hybridization decreases smoothly with increasing electronic temperature up to ~ 250 K but changes slope at ~ 100 K. This temperature scale coincides with the onset of coherent Kondo scattering and with thermally populating the first excited crystal electrical field level. Extending previous photoemission studies, we observe a persistent f-d hybridization up to at least ~ 250 K, which is far larger than the coherence temperature defined by transport but in agreement with the temperature dependence of the noninteger Yb valence. Our data underlines the distinction of probes accessing spin and charge degrees of freedom in strongly correlated systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Pseudo Landau levels and quantum oscillations in strained Weyl semimetals

The crystal lattice deformation in Weyl materials where the two chiralities are separated in momentum space leads to the appearance of gauge pseudo-fields. We investigated the pseudo-magnetic field induced quantum oscillations in strained Weyl semimetal (WSM). In contrast to all previous works on this problem, we use here a more general tilted Hamiltonian. Such Hamiltonian, seems to be is more suitable for a strained WSMs. We have shown that a pseudo-magnetic field induced magnetization of strained WSM is nonzero due to the fact that electric field (gradient of the deformation potential) is induced simultaneously with the pseudo-magnetic field. This related with fact that the pseudo Landau levels (LLs) in strained WSM are differ in vicinities of different WPs due to the presence of tilt in spectrum. Such violation of the equivalence between Weyl points (WPs) leads to modulation of quantum oscillations. We also showed that magnetization magnitude can be changed by application of an external electric field. In particular, it can be reduced to zero. The possibility of controlling of the magnetization by an electric field is interesting both from a fundamental point of view (a new type of magneto-electric effect) and application point of view (additional possibility to control diamagnetism of deformed WSMs). Finally, a coexistence of type-I and type-II Weyl fermions is possible in the system under investigation. Such phase is absolutely new for physics of topological systems.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2019

Specific heat and pairing of Dirac composite fermions in the half-filled Landau level

A recent proposal argues that an alternate description of the half-filled Landau level is a theory of massless Dirac fermions. We examine the possibility of pairing of these Dirac fermions by numerically solving the coupled Eliashberg equations unlike our previous calculation (Wang and Chakravarty, 2016). In addition, vertex corrections are calculated to be zero from the Ward identity. We find that pairing is possible in non-zero angular momentum channels; only differences are minor numerical shifts. As before, the pairing leads to the gapped Pfaffian and anti-Pfaffian states. However, in our approximation scheme, pairing is not possible in the putative particle–hole symmetric state for ℓ=0 angular momentum. The specific heat at low temperatures of a system of massless Dirac fermions interacting with a transverse gauge field, expected to be relevant for the half-filled Landau level, is calculated. Using the Luttinger formula, it is found to be ∝TlnT in the leading low temperature limit, due to the exchange of transverse gauge bosons. The result agrees with the corresponding one in the nonrelativistic composite fermion theory of Halperin, Lee and Read of the half-filled Landau level.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Symmetry-projected wave functions in quantum Monte Carlo calculations

Here, we consider symmetry-projected Hartree-Fock trial wave functions in constrained-path Monte Carlo (CPMC) calculations. Previous CPMC calculations have mostly employed Hartree-Fock (HF) trial wave functions, restricted or unrestricted. The symmetry-projected HF approach results in a hierarchy of wave functions with increasing quality: the more symmetries that are broken and restored in a self-consistent manner, the higher the quality of the trial wave function. This hierarchy is approximately maintained in CPMC calculations: the accuracy in the energy increases and the statistical variance decreases when further symmetries are broken and restored. Significant improvement is achieved in CPMC with the best symmetry-projected trial wave functions over those from simple HF. We analyze and quantify the behavior using the two-dimensional repulsive Hubbard model as an example. In the sign-problem-free region, where CPMC can be made exact but a constraint is deliberately imposed here, spin-projected wave functions remove the constraint bias. Away from half filling, spatial symmetry restoration in addition to that of the spin leads to highly accurate results from CPMC. Since the computational cost of symmetry-projected HF trial wave functions in CPMC can be made to scale algebraically with system size, this provides a potentially general approach for accurate calculations in many-fermion systems.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Extended nuclear quadrupole resonance study of the heavy-fermion superconductor PuCoGa 5

PuCoGa 5 has emerged as a prototypical heavy-fermion superconductor, with its transition temperature (T c ≃ 18.5 K) being the highest amongst such materials. Nonetheless, a clear description as to what drives the superconducting pairing is still lacking, rendered complicated by the notoriously intricate nature of plutonium's 5f valence electrons. Here, we present a detailed 69,71 Ga nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) study of PuCoGa 5 , concentrating on the system's normal state properties near to T c and aiming to detect distinct signatures of possible pairing mechanisms. In particular, the quadrupole frequency and spin-lattice relaxation rate were measured for the two crystallographically inequivalent Ga sites and for both Ga isotopes, in the temperature range 1.6–300 K. No evidence of significant charge fluctuations is found from the NQR observables. On the contrary, the low-energy dynamics is dominated by anisotropic spin fluctuations with strong, nearly critical, in-plane character, which are effectively identical to the case of the sister compound PuCoIn 5 . Lastly, these findings are discussed within the context of different theoretical proposals for the unconventional pairing mechanism in heavy-fermion superconductors.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Structure and physical properties of SrNiR u 5 O 11 single crystals: An $R$-type ferrite based on ordered kagome nets

Single crystals of the R-type ferrite SrNiR u 5 O 11 were grown from a chloride flux. The hexagonal crystal structure contains ruthenium located on distorted kagome nets. The low-temperature dc magnetic susceptibilities (χ ⊥ and χ ∥ , perpendicular and parallel to the c axis, respectively) diverge as T -0.3 , and do not exhibit any indication of long-range magnetic order down to 4.5 K. The electrical resistivity varies as T 1.6 below 40 K, which is typical of non-Fermi liquids, and may originate from a competition between residual magnetic interactions among Ni 2+ (S = 1) spins and geometrical frustration on the two-dimensional kagome lattice of Ru 3+ (S = ½ ) spins. The transverse magnetoresistivity ρ xy at constant temperature T = 5K for current (J)-magnetic field (H) configurations, J⊥H ∥ c axis and J ∥ H⊥c axis, reveals no anomalous contribution, which is consistent with the absence of magnetic order. Finally, fits of the specific heat data below 10 K require a dominant, but unusual electronic term of the form C el = γT 1.2 , which is expected for massless Dirac fermion states in topological insulators, or spin-liquid phases.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Anisotropic c – f Hybridization in the Ferromagnetic Quantum Critical Metal CeRh 6 Ge 4

Heavy fermion compounds exhibiting a ferromagnetic quantum critical point have attracted considerable interest. Common to two known cases, i.e., CeRh 6 Ge 4 and YbNi 4 P 2 , is that the 4f moments reside along chains with a large interchain distance, exhibiting strong magnetic anisotropy that was proposed to be vital for the ferromagnetic quantum criticality. Here, we report an angle-resolved photoemission study on CeRh 6 Ge 4 in which we observe sharp momentum-dependent 4f bands and clear bending of the conduction bands near the Fermi level, indicating considerable hybridization between conduction and 4f electrons. The extracted hybridization strength is anisotropic in momentum space and is obviously stronger along the Ce chain direction.The hybridized 4f bands persist up to high temperatures, and the evolution of their intensity shows clear band dependence. Our results provide spectroscopic evidence for anisotropic hybridization between conduction and 4f electrons in CeRh 6 Ge 4 , which could be important for understanding the electronic origin of the ferromagnetic quantum criticality.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Impurity-generated non-Abelions

Two classes of topological superconductors and Majorana modes in condensed matter systems are known to date: one in which disorder induced by impurities strongly suppresses topological superconducting gap and is detrimental to Majorana modes, and another where Majorana fermions are protected by a disorder-robust topological superconductor gap. Observation and control of Majorana fermions and other non-Abelions often requires a symmetry of an underlying system leading to a gap in the single-particle or quasiparticle spectra. In semiconductor structures, impurities that provide charge carriers introduce states into the gap and enable conductance and proximity-induced superconductivity via the in-gap states. Thus a third class of topological superconductivity and Majorana modes emerges, in which topological superconductivity and Majorana fermions appear exclusively when impurities generate in-gap states. We show that impurity-enabled topological superconductivity is realized in a quantum Hall ferromagnet, when a helical domain wall is coupled to an 𝑠-wave superconductor. As an example of emergence of topological superconductivity in quantum Hall ferromagnets, we consider the integer quantum Hall effect in Mn-doped CdTe quantum wells. Recent experiments on transport through the quantum Hall ferromagnet domain wall in this system indicated a vital role of impurities in the conductance, but left unresolved the question whether impurities preclude generation of Majorana fermions and other non-Abelions in such systems in general. Here, solving a general quantum-mechanical problem of impurity bound states in a system of spin-orbit coupled Landau levels, we demonstrate that impurity-induced Majorana modes emerge at boundaries between topological and conventional superconducting states generated in a domain wall due to proximity to an 𝑠 superconductor. We consider both short-range disorder and a smooth random potential. The phase diagram of the system is defined by characteristic disorder, gate voltage induced angular momentum splitting of impurity levels, and by a proximity superconducting gap. The phase diagram exhibits two ranges of gate voltage with conventional superconducting order separated by a gate voltage range with topological superconductivity. We show that electrostatic control of domain walls in an integer quantum Hall ferromagnet allows manipulation of Majorana fermions. Ferromagnetic transitions in the fractional quantum Hall regime may lead to the formation and electrostatic control of higher order non-Abelian excitations.

Edge states↗
DOE OSTI2011

Competing orders in one-dimensional half-filled multicomponent fermionic cold atoms: The Haldane-charge conjecture

We investigate the nature of the Mott-insulating phases of half-filled 2N-component fermionic cold atoms loaded into a one-dimensional optical lattice. By means of conformal field theory techniques and large-scale DMRG calculations, we show that the phase diagram strongly depends on the parity of N. First, we single out charged, spin-singlet degrees of freedom that carry a pseudospin S=N/2, making it possible to formulate a Haldane conjecture: For attractive interactions, we establish the emergence of Haldane insulating phases when N is even, whereas a metallic behavior is found when N is odd. We point out that the N=1,2 cases do not have the generic properties of each family. The metallic phase for N odd and larger than 1 has a quasi-long-range singlet pairing ordering with an interesting edge-state structure. Moreover, the properties of the Haldane insulating phases with even N further depend on the parity of N/2. In this respect, within the low-energy approach, we argue that the Haldane phases with N/2 even are not topologically protected but equivalent to a topologically trivial insulating phase and thus confirm the recent conjecture put forward by Pollmann et al.[arXiv:0909.4059 (to be published)].

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2011

Evidence for a Phase with Broken Translational Symmetry

We report on the discovering of a quantum phase which possesses neither continuous nor discrete translational symmetry. The phase emerges from the Quantum Hall state of matter and is induced by a toroidal moment which is a cross product of 'built-in' transverse electric field and tilted quantizing magnetic field. The phase is detected by the method of terahertz photo-voltaic spectroscopy which is insensitive to the vast majority of electrons remaining in conventional Quantum Hall states. The electrons in the new phase are demonstrated to have spatially-separated macroscopic-scale orbitlike wavefunctions distributed over a macroscopic sample with no spatial periodicity.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

Quantum simulation of boson-related Hamiltonians: techniques, effective Hamiltonian construction, and error analysis

Elementary quantum mechanics proposes that a closed physical system consistently evolves in a reversible manner. However, control and readout necessitate the coupling of the quantum system to the external environment, subjecting it to relaxation and decoherence. Consequently, system-environment interactions are indispensable for simulating physically significant theories. A broad spectrum of physical systems in condensed-matter and high-energy physics, vibrational spectroscopy, and circuit and cavity QED necessitates the incorporation of bosonic degrees of freedom, such as phonons, photons, and gluons, into optimized fermion algorithms for near-future quantum simulations. In particular, when a quantum system is surrounded by an external environment, its basic physics can usually be simplified to a spin or fermionic system interacting with bosonic modes. Nevertheless, troublesome factors such as the magnitude of the bosonic degrees of freedom typically complicate the direct quantum simulation of these interacting models, necessitating the consideration of a comprehensive plan. This strategy should specifically include a suitable fermion/boson-to-qubit mapping scheme to encode sufficiently large yet manageable bosonic modes, and a method for truncating and/or downfolding the Hamiltonian to the defined subspace for performing an approximate but highly accurate simulation, guided by rigorous error analysis. In this pedagogical tutorial review, we aim to provide such an exhaustive strategy, focusing on encoding and simulating certain bosonic-related model Hamiltonians, inclusive of their static properties and time evolutions. Specifically, we emphasize two aspects: (1) the discussion of recently developed quantum algorithms for these interacting models and the construction of effective Hamiltonians, and (2) a detailed analysis regarding a tightened error bound for truncating the bosonic modes for a class of fermion-boson interacting Hamiltonians.

bosonic Hamiltonian↗
DOE OSTI2021

Phase diagram of CeSb 2 from magnetostriction and magnetization measurements: Evidence for ferrimagnetic and antiferromagnetic states

Cerium diantimonide (CeSb 2 ) is one of a family of rare-earth-based magnetic materials that exhibit metamagnetism, enabling control of the magnetic ground state through an applied magnetic field. At low temperatures, CeSb 2 hosts a rich phase diagram with multiple magnetically ordered phases for many of which the order parameter is only poorly understood. In this work, we report a study of its metamagnetic properties by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and magnetization measurements. We use STM measurements to characterize the sample magnetostriction with subpicometer resolution from magnetic field and temperature sweeps. This allows us to directly assess the bulk phase diagram as a function of field and temperature and relate spectroscopic features from tunneling spectroscopy to bulk phases. Our magnetostriction and magnetization measurements indicate that the low-temperature ground state at zero field is ferrimagnetic. Quasiparticle interference mapping shows evidence for a reconstruction of the electronic structure close to the Fermi energy upon entering the magnetically ordered phase.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗