Atomic displacements and lattice distortion in the magnetic-field-induced charge ordered state of SmRu4_{4}P12_{12}

Structural properties of SmRu$_4$P$_{12}$ in the anomalous magnetic ordered phase between $T^*\sim 14$ K and $T_{\text{N}}=16.5$ K in magnetic fields has been studied by x-ray diffraction. Atomic displacements of Ru and P, reflecting the field-induced charge order of the $p$ electrons, have been deduced by analyzing the intensities of the forbidden Bragg peaks, assuming a cubic space group $Pm\bar{3}$. Also, by utilizing high-resolution x-ray diffraction experiment, we observed a splitting of fundamental Bragg peaks, clarifying that the unit cell in the magnetic ordered phase is rhombohedral elongated along the $[1\, 1\, 1]$ axis. Responses of the rhombohedral domains to the magnetic field, which reflects the direction of the magnetic moment, is studied in detail.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in PR

Prospects for improving the sensitivity of KAGRA gravitational wave detector

KAGRA is a new gravitational wave detector which aims to begin joint observation with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo from late 2019. Here, we present KAGRA's possible upgrade plans to improve the sensitivity in the decade ahead. Unlike other state-of-the-art detectors, KAGRA requires different investigations for the upgrade since it is the only detector which employs cryogenic cooling of the test mass mirrors. In this paper, investigations on the upgrade plans which can be realized by changing the input laser power, increasing the mirror mass, and injecting frequency dependent squeezed vacuum are presented. We show how each upgrade affects to the detector frequency bands and also discuss impacts on gravitational-wave science. We then propose an effective progression of upgrades based on technical feasibility and scientific scenarios

Adjusting optical cavity birefringence with wavelength tunable laser for axion searches

Axions have attracted attention promising candidates for dark matter (DM).Although axions have been intensively searched for, they have not been observedyet. Recently, novel experiments to search for axion DM have been proposed thatuse optical cavities to amplify polarization rotation of laser light induced bythe axion-photon interaction. One such experiment employs a ring cavitycomposed of four mirrors. However, its sensitivity to the axion-photon coupling\gag in the low axion mass region is limited due to the reflection phasedifference between s- and p-polarizations. In this paper, we propose a newmethod to improve the sensitivity using zero-phase shift mirrors and awavelength tunable laser. Moreover, the laser makes it easier to scan the highaxion mass region by tuning the reflection phase difference between s- andp-polarizations. We experimentally confirmed that the phase differencegenerated upon reflection on a zero phase shift mirror satisfies therequirement of 8.6 \times 10^{-3}~\si{deg}, which corresponds to the halfwidth at half maximum (HWHM) of the p-polarization with the mirror fixed on afolded cavity and a wavelength tunable laser.<br

Design and experimental demonstration of a laser modulation system for future gravitational-wave detectors

Detuning the signal-recycling cavity length from a cavity resonance significantly improves the quantum noise beyond the standard quantum limit, while there is no km-scale gravitational-wave detector successfully implemented the technique. The detuning technique is known to introduce great excess noise, and such noise can be reduced by a laser modulation system with two Mach-Zehnder interferometers in series. This modulation system, termed Mach-Zehnder Modulator (MZM), also makes the control of the gravitational-wave detector more robust by introducing the third modulation field which is non-resonant in any part of the main interferometer. On the other hand, mirror displacements of the Mach-Zehnder interferometers arise a new kind of noise source coupled to the gravitational-wave signal port. In this paper, the displacement noise requirement of the MZM is derived, and also results of our proof-of-principle experiment is reported

Exact solution of the geometrically frustrated spin-1/2 Ising-Heisenberg model on the triangulated Kagome (triangles-in-triangles) lattice

The geometric frustration of the spin-1/2 Ising-Heisenberg model on the triangulated Kagome (triangles-in-triangles) lattice is investigated within the framework of an exact analytical method based on the generalized star-triangle mapping transformation. Ground-state and finite-temperature phase diagrams are obtained along with other exact results for the partition function, Helmholtz free energy, internal energy, entropy, and specific heat, by establishing a precise mapping relationship to the corresponding spin-1/2 Ising model on the Kagome lattice. It is shown that the residual entropy of the disordered spin liquid phase is for the quantum Ising-Heisenberg model significantly lower than for its semi-classical Ising limit (S_0/N_T k_B = 0.2806 and 0.4752, respectively), which implies that quantum fluctuations partially lift a macroscopic degeneracy of the ground-state manifold in the frustrated regime. The investigated model system has an obvious relevance to a series of polymeric coordination compounds Cu_9X_2(cpa)_6 (X=F, Cl, Br and cpa=carboxypentonic acid) for which we made a theoretical prediction about the temperature dependence of zero-field specific heat.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Application of independent component analysis to the iKAGRA data

We apply independent component analysis (ICA) to real data from a gravitational wave detector for the first time. Specifically, we use the iKAGRA data taken in April 2016, and calculate the correlations between the gravitational wave strain channel and 35 physical environmental channels. Using a couple of seismic channels which are found to be strongly correlated with the strain, we perform ICA. Injecting a sinusoidal continuous signal in the strain channel, we find that ICA recovers correct parameters with enhanced signal-to-noise ratio, which demonstrates the usefulness of this method. Among the two implementations of ICA used here, we find the correlation method yields the optimal results for the case of environmental noise acting on the strain channel linearly