Nonequilibrium phases in hybrid arrays with flux qubits and NV centers

We propose a startling hybrid quantum architecture for simulating a localization-delocalization transition. The concept is based on an array of superconducting flux qubits which are coupled to a diamond crystal containing nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. The underlying description is a Jaynes-Cummings-lattice in the strong-coupling regime. However, in contrast to well-studied coupled cavity arrays the interaction between lattice sites is mediated here by the qubit rather than by the oscillator degrees of freedom. Nevertheless, we point out that a transition between a localized and a delocalized phase occurs in this system as well. We demonstrate the possibility of monitoring this transition in a non-equilibrium scenario, including decoherence effects. The proposed scheme allows the monitoring of localization-delocalization transitions in Jaynes-Cummings-lattices by use of currently available experimental technology. Contrary to cavity-coupled lattices, our proposed recourse to stylized qubit networks facilitates (i) to investigate localization-delocalization transitions in arbitrary dimensions and (ii) to tune the inter-site coupling in-situ.Comment: Version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Relevance of the Heisenberg-Kitaev model for the honeycomb lattice iridates A_2IrO_3

Combining thermodynamic measurements with theoretical density functional and thermodynamic calculations we demonstrate that the honeycomb lattice iridates A2IrO3 (A = Na, Li) are magnetically ordered Mott insulators where the magnetism of the effective spin-orbital S = 1/2 moments can be captured by a Heisenberg-Kitaev (HK) model with Heisenberg interactions beyond nearest-neighbor exchange. Experimentally, we observe an increase of the Curie-Weiss temperature from \theta = -125 K for Na2IrO3 to \theta = -33 K for Li2IrO3, while the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature remains roughly the same T_N = 15 K for both materials. Using finite-temperature functional renormalization group calculations we show that this evolution of \theta, T_N, the frustration parameter f = \theta/T_N, and the zig-zag magnetic ordering structure suggested for both materials by density functional theory can be captured within this extended HK model. Combining our experimental and theoretical results, we estimate that Na2IrO3 is deep in the magnetically ordered regime of the HK model (\alpha \approx 0.25), while Li2IrO3 appears to be close to a spin-liquid regime (0.6 < \alpha < 0.7).Comment: Version accepted for publication in PRL. Additional DFT and thermodynamic calculations have been included. 6 pages of supplementary material include

Anomalous expansion and phonon damping due to the Co spin-state transition in RCoO_3 with R = La, Pr, Nd and Eu

We present a combined study of the thermal expansion and the thermal conductivity of the perovskite series RCoO_3 with R = La, Nd, Pr and Eu. The well-known spin-state transition in LaCoO_3 is strongly affected by the exchange of the R ions due to their different ionic radii, i.e. chemical pressure. This can be monitored in detail by measurements of the thermal expansion, which is a highly sensitive probe for detecting spin-state transitions. The Co ions in the higher spin state act as additional scattering centers for phonons, therefore suppressing the phonon thermal conductivity. Based on the analysis of the interplay between spin-state transition and heat transport, we present a quantitative model of the thermal conductivity for the entire series. In PrCoO_3, an additional scattering effect is active at low temperatures. This effect arises from the crystal field splitting of the 4f multiplet, which allows for resonant scattering of phonons between the various 4f levels.Comment: 15 pages including 5 figure

Crystallographically oriented magnetic ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles synthesized by Fe implantation into ZnO

In this paper, a correlation between structural and magnetic properties of Fe implanted ZnO is presented. High fluence Fe^+ implantation into ZnO leads to the formation of superparamagnetic alpha-Fe nanoparticles. High vacuum annealing at 823 K results in the growth of alpha-Fe particles, but the annealing at 1073 K oxidized the majority of the Fe nanoparticles. After a long term annealing at 1073 K, crystallographically oriented ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles were formed inside ZnO with the orientation relationship of ZnFe2O4(111)[110]//ZnO(0001)[1120]. These ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles show a hysteretic behavior upon magnetization reversal at 5 K.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, accepted by J. Phys. D: Appl. Phy

Discrete exterior calculus (DEC) for the surface Navier-Stokes equation

We consider a numerical approach for the incompressible surface Navier-Stokes equation. The approach is based on the covariant form and uses discrete exterior calculus (DEC) in space and a semi-implicit discretization in time. The discretization is described in detail and related to finite difference schemes on staggered grids in flat space for which we demonstrate second order convergence. We compare computational results with a vorticity-stream function approach for surfaces with genus 0 and demonstrate the interplay between topology, geometry and flow properties. Our discretization also allows to handle harmonic vector fields, which we demonstrate on a torus.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure

Anisotropic Susceptibility of La_2-xSr_xCoO_4 related to the Spin States of Cobalt

We present a study of the magnetic susceptibility of La_2-xSr_xCoO_4 single crystals in a doping range 0.3<=x<=0.8. Our data shows a pronounced magnetic anisotropy for all compounds. This anisotropy is in agreement with a low-spin ground state (S=0) of Co^3+ for x>=0.4 and a high-spin ground state (S=3/2) of Co^2+. We compare our data with a crystal-field model calculation assuming local moments and find a good description of the magnetic behavior for x>=0.5. This includes the pronounced kinks observed in the inverse magnetic susceptibility, which result from the anisotropy and low-energy excited states of Co^2+ and are not related to magnetic ordering or temperature-dependent spin-state transitions

Anisotropic susceptibilities in the honeycomb Kitaev system α−RuCl3

The magnetic insulator α−RuCl3 is a promising candidate to realize Kitaev interactions on a quasi-two-dimensional honeycomb lattice. We perform extensive susceptibility measurements on single crystals of α−RuCl3, including angle dependence of the in-plane longitudinal and transverse susceptibilities, which reveal a unidirectional anisotropy within the honeycomb plane. By comparing the experimental results to a high-temperature expansion of a Kitaev-Heisenberg-Γ spin Hamiltonian with bond anisotropy, we find excellent agreement with the observed phase shift and periodicity of the angle-resolved susceptibilities. Within this model, we show that the pronounced difference between in-plane and out-of-plane susceptibilities as well as the finite transverse susceptibility are rooted in strong symmetric off-diagonal Γ spin exchange. The Γ couplings and relationships between other terms in the model Hamiltonian are quantified by extracting relevant Curie-Weiss intercepts from the experimental data

Terminal Pleistocene Alaskan genome reveals first founding population of Native Americans

Despite broad agreement that the Americas were initially populated via Beringia, the land bridge that connected far northeast Asia with northwestern North America during the Pleistocene epoch, when and how the peopling of the Americas occurred remains unresolved. Analyses of human remains from Late Pleistocene Alaska are important to resolving the timing and dispersal of these populations. The remains of two infants were recovered at Upward Sun River (USR), and have been dated to around 11.5 thousand years ago (ka). Here, by sequencing the USR1 genome to an average coverage of approximately 17 times, we show that USR1 is most closely related to Native Americans, but falls basal to all previously sequenced contemporary and ancient Native Americans. As such, USR1 represents a distinct Ancient Beringian population. Using demographic modelling, we infer that the Ancient Beringian population and ancestors of other Native Americans descended from a single founding population that initially split from East Asians around 36 ± 1.5 ka, with gene flow persisting until around 25 ± 1.1 ka. Gene flow from ancient north Eurasians into all Native Americans took place 25–20 ka, with Ancient Beringians branching off around 22–18.1 ka. Our findings support a long-term genetic structure in ancestral Native Americans, consistent with the Beringian ‘standstill model’. We show that the basal northern and southern Native American branches, to which all other Native Americans belong, diverged around 17.5–14.6 ka, and that this probably occurred south of the North American ice sheets. We also show that after 11.5 ka, some of the northern Native American populations received gene flow from a Siberian population most closely related to Koryaks, but not Palaeo-Eskimos, Inuits or Kets, and that Native American gene flow into Inuits was through northern and not southern Native American groups. Our findings further suggest that the far-northern North American presence of northern Native Americans is from a back migration that replaced or absorbed the initial founding population of Ancient Beringians

Creation and manipulation of entanglement in spin chains far from equilibrium

We investigate creation, manipulation, and steering of entanglement in spin chains from the viewpoint of quantum communication between distant parties. We demonstrate how global parametric driving of the spin-spin coupling and/or local time-dependent Zeeman fields produce a large amount of entanglement between the first and the last spin of the chain. This occurs whenever the driving frequency meets a resonance condition, identified as "entanglement resonance". Our approach marks a promising step towards an efficient quantum state transfer or teleportation in solid state system. Following the reasoning of Zueco et al. [1], we propose generation and routing of multipartite entangled states by use of symmetric tree-like structures of spin chains. Furthermore, we study the effect of decoherence on the resulting spin entanglement between the corresponding terminal spins.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Gene set analysis exploiting the topology of a pathway

BACKGROUND: Recently, a great effort in microarray data analysis is directed towards the study of the so-called gene sets. A gene set is defined by genes that are, somehow, functionally related. For example, genes appearing in a known biological pathway naturally define a gene set. The gene sets are usually identified from a priori biological knowledge. Nowadays, many bioinformatics resources store such kind of knowledge (see, for example, the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, among others). Although pathways maps carry important information about the structure of correlation among genes that should not be neglected, the currently available multivariate methods for gene set analysis do not fully exploit it. RESULTS: We propose a novel gene set analysis specifically designed for gene sets defined by pathways. Such analysis, based on graphical models, explicitly incorporates the dependence structure among genes highlighted by the topology of pathways. The analysis is designed to be used for overall surveillance of changes in a pathway in different experimental conditions. In fact, under different circumstances, not only the expression of the genes in a pathway, but also the strength of their relations may change. The methods resulting from the proposal allow both to test for variations in the strength of the links, and to properly account for heteroschedasticity in the usual tests for differential expression. CONCLUSIONS: The use of graphical models allows a deeper look at the components of the pathway that can be tested separately and compared marginally. In this way it is possible to test single components of the pathway and highlight only those involved in its deregulation