Bipolaronic Nature of the Pseudogap in Quasi-One-Dimensional (TaSe4)2I Revealed via Weak Photoexcitation.

The origin of the pseudogap in many strongly correlated materials has been a longstanding puzzle. Here, we present experimental evidence that many-body interactions among small Holstein polarons, i.e., the formation of bipolarons, are primarily responsible for the pseudogap in (TaSe4)2I. After weak photoexcitation of the material, we observe the appearance of both dispersive (single-particle bare band) and flat bands (single-polaron sub-bands) in the gap by using time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Based on Monte Carlo simulations of the Holstein model, we propose that the melting of pseudogap and emergence of new bands originate from a bipolaron to single-polaron crossover. We also observe dramatically different relaxation times for the excited in-gap states in (TaSe4)2I (∼600 fs) compared with another 1D material Rb0.3MoO3 (∼60 fs), which provides a new method for distinguishing between pseudogaps induced by polaronic or Luttinger-liquid many-body interactions.

Linear-in-temperature resistivity for optimally superconducting (Nd,Sr)NiO2.

The occurrence of superconductivity in proximity to various strongly correlated phases of matter has drawn extensive focus on their normal state properties, to develop an understanding of the state from which superconductivity emerges1-4. The recent finding of superconductivity in layered nickelates raises similar interests5-8. However, transport measurements of doped infinite-layer nickelate thin films have been hampered by materials limitations of these metastable compounds: in particular, a high density of extended defects9-11. Here, by moving to a substrate (LaAlO3)0.3(Sr2TaAlO6)0.7 that better stabilizes the growth and reduction conditions, we can synthesize the doping series of Nd1-xSrxNiO2 essentially free from extended defects. In their absence, the normal state resistivity shows a low-temperature upturn in the underdoped regime, linear behaviour near optimal doping and quadratic temperature dependence for overdoping. This is phenomenologically similar to the copper oxides2,12 despite key distinctions-namely, the absence of an insulating parent compound5,6,9,10, multiband electronic structure13,14 and a Mott-Hubbard orbital alignment rather than the charge-transfer insulator of the copper oxides15,16. We further observe an enhancement of superconductivity, both in terms of transition temperature and range of doping. These results indicate a convergence in the electronic properties of both superconducting families as the scale of disorder in the nickelates is reduced.

Non-Abelian Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis.

The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) explains why nonintegrable quantum many-body systems thermalize internally if the Hamiltonian lacks symmetries. If the Hamiltonian conserves one quantity ("charge"), the ETH implies thermalization within a charge sector-in a microcanonical subspace. But quantum systems can have charges that fail to commute with each other and so share no eigenbasis; microcanonical subspaces may not exist. Furthermore, the Hamiltonian will have degeneracies, so the ETH need not imply thermalization. We adapt the ETH to noncommuting charges by positing a non-Abelian ETH and invoking the approximate microcanonical subspace introduced in quantum thermodynamics. Illustrating with SU(2) symmetry, we apply the non-Abelian ETH in calculating local operators' time-averaged and thermal expectation values. In many cases, we prove, the time average thermalizes. However, we find cases in which, under a physically reasonable assumption, the time average converges to the thermal average unusually slowly as a function of the global-system size. This work extends the ETH, a cornerstone of many-body physics, to noncommuting charges, recently a subject of intense activity in quantum thermodynamics.

A stability bound on the [Formula: see text]-linear resistivity of conventional metals.

Perturbative considerations account for the properties of conventional metals, including the range of temperatures where the transport scattering rate is 1/τtr = 2πλT, where λ is a dimensionless strength of the electron-phonon coupling. The fact that measured values satisfy λ ≲ 1 has been noted in the context of a possible "Planckian" bound on transport. However, since the electron-phonon scattering is quasielastic in this regime, no such Planckian considerations can be relevant. We present and analyze Monte Carlo results on the Holstein model which show that a different sort of bound is at play: a "stability" bound on λ consistent with metallic transport. We conjecture that a qualitatively similar bound on the strength of residual interactions, which is often stronger than Planckian, may apply to metals more generally.

Interstitial-Induced Ferromagnetism in a Two-Dimensional Wigner Crystal.

The two-dimensional Wigner crystal (WC) occurs in the strongly interacting regime (r_{s}≫1) of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). The magnetism of a pure WC is determined by tunneling processes that induce multispin ring-exchange interactions, resulting in fully polarized ferromagnetism for large enough r_{s}. Recently, Hossain et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117, 32244 (2020)PNASA60027-842410.1073/pnas.2018248117] reported the occurrence of a fully polarized ferromagnetic insulator at r_{s}≳35 in an AlAs quantum well, but at temperatures orders of magnitude larger than the predicted exchange energies for the pure WC. Here, we analyze the large r_{s} dynamics of an interstitial defect in the WC, and show that it produces local ferromagnetism with much higher energy scales. Three hopping processes are dominant, which favor a large, fully polarized ferromagnetic polaron. Based on the above results, we speculate concerning the phenomenology of the magnetism near the metal-insulator transition of the 2DEG.

A Study of Variations of the Stomach in Adults and Growth of the Fetal Stomach.

The stomach is a site for various pathological conditions like congestive hypertrophic pyloric stenosis, peptic ulcer, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and carcinoma of the stomach. Further, for the treatment of obesity too, surgical manipulation of the stomach is done by a bariatric surgeon. With the availability of a wide range of diagnostic tools like barium meals, USG, CT scan, MRI, and endoscopy, it is possible to identify the variations in the position and shape of the stomach and developmental defects while diagnosing diseases. As thorough knowledge of stomach position and variations will help in preoperative planning and preventing inadvertent damage during surgeries, this topic was taken up for research. Aims and objectives This study aims to study the variations of the stomach in human cadavers and dead fetuses with regard to its length, shape, capacity, ends, curvatures, and mucosal folding and classify them into various groups. In addition, this study also aims to assess the pattern of growth of the stomach in fetuses. Material and methods The stomachs of 50 adult cadavers and 20 dead fetuses were studied by standard dissection method, concerning their topography, shape, level of the cardiac and pyloric orifice, cardiac angle, length of greater (GC) and lesser curvatures (LC), pyloric sphincter, volume, and mucosal folds. Results The stomach was located in the left hypochondriac quadrant in 78% of the samples and in relation to the 7th costal cartilage in 64%. The two main types of classification established were Type I (variation in position along the vertical axis) in 4% and Type II (variation in position along the transverse axis) in 14%. Type III classification comprised the variations in shape, with a J-shaped stomach in 58%, cylindrical in 20%, crescentic in 14%, and reversed L in 8%. The average length showed significant differences in males, 19±2.48 cm vis-a-vis females, 17.1±2.01 cm. In 66% of the cases, the cardiac orifice was to the left of the midline behind the 7th costal cartilage, and the pyloric orifice was to the right, 1.2 cm to the midline and in the transpyloric plane in 76%. The average GC and LC were 33.6±1.43 cm and 27±5.28 cm, respectively. GC was more significant in males. The average length and diameter of the pyloric canal were about 3.56±0.38 cm & 0.77±0.23 cm, respectively. The thickness of the pyloric sphincter did not show a significant gender difference. The average volume was 289.88±69.15 ml. Rugae were normally spaced in 68%, nearly spaced in 18%, and widely spaced in 6%. The fetal stomach measurements were significantly correlated to gestational age and showed linear growth. Conclusion The study of the morphology of the stomach and its variations are important not only to surgeons and anatomists but also to gastroenterologists. The linear growth of the stomach in embryos helps radiologists and obstetricians to diagnose intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) and congenital anomalies early.

Almost Perfect Metals in One Dimension.

We show that a one-dimensional quantum wire with as few as two channels of interacting fermions can host metallic states of matter that are stable against all perturbations up to qth order in fermion creation or annihilation operators for any fixed finite q. Thus, the leading relevant perturbations are complicated operators that are expected to modify the physics only at very low energies, below accessible temperatures. The stability of these non-Fermi liquid fixed points is due to strong interactions between the channels, which can (but need not) be chosen to be purely repulsive. Our results might enable elementary physical realizations of these phases.

Bounds on Chaos from the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis.

We show that the known bound on the growth rate of the out-of-time-order four-point correlator in chaotic many-body quantum systems follows directly from the general structure of operator matrix elements in systems that obey the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. This ties together two key paradigms of thermal behavior in isolated many-body quantum systems.

Structure of chaotic eigenstates and their entanglement entropy.

We consider a chaotic many-body system (i.e., one that satisfies the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis) that is split into two subsystems, with an interaction along their mutual boundary, and study the entanglement properties of an energy eigenstate with nonzero energy density. When the two subsystems have nearly equal volumes, we find a universal correction to the entanglement entropy that is proportional to the square root of the system's heat capacity (or a sum of capacities, if there are conserved quantities in addition to energy). This phenomenon was first noted by Vidmar and Rigol in a specific system; our analysis shows that it is generic, and expresses it in terms of thermodynamic properties of the system. Our conclusions are based on a refined version of a model of a chaotic eigenstate originally due to Deutsch, and analyzed more recently by Lu and Grover.

Relaxation to Gaussian and generalized Gibbs states in systems of particles with quadratic Hamiltonians.

We present an elementary, general, and semiquantitative description of relaxation to Gaussian and generalized Gibbs states in lattice models of fermions or bosons with quadratic Hamiltonians. Our arguments apply to arbitrary initial states that satisfy a mild condition on clustering of correlations. We also show that similar arguments can be used to understand relaxation (or its absence) in systems with time-dependent quadratic Hamiltonians and provide a semiquantitative description of relaxation in quadratic periodically driven (Floquet) systems.

Observation of the 4π-periodic Josephson effect in indium arsenide nanowires.

Quantum computation by non-Abelian Majorana zero modes (MZMs) offers an approach to achieve fault tolerance by encoding quantum information in the non-local charge parity states of semiconductor nanowire networks in the topological superconductor regime. Thus far, experimental studies of MZMs chiefly relied on single electron tunneling measurements, which lead to the decoherence of the quantum information stored in the MZM. As a next step towards topological quantum computation, charge parity conserving experiments based on the Josephson effect are required, which can also help exclude suggested non-topological origins of the zero bias conductance anomaly. Here we report the direct measurement of the Josephson radiation frequency in indium arsenide nanowires with epitaxial aluminium shells. We observe the 4π-periodic Josephson effect above a magnetic field of ≈200 mT, consistent with the estimated and measured topological phase transition of similar devices.

Dynamics of nanoparticle assembly from disjointed images of nanoparticle-polymer composites.

Understanding how nanoparticles (NPs) diffuse, stick, and assemble into larger structures within polymers is key to the design and fabrication of NP-polymer composites. Here we describe an approach for inferring the dynamic parameters of NP assembly from spatially and temporally disjointed images of composites. The approach involves iterative adjustment of the parameters of a kinetic model of assembly until the computed size statistics of NP clusters match those obtained from high-throughput analysis of the experimental images. Application of this approach to the assembly of shaped, metal NPs in polymer films suggests that NP structures grow via a cluster-cluster aggregation mechanism, where NPs and their clusters diffuse with approximately Stokes-Einstein diffusivity and stick to other NPs or clusters with a probability that depends strongly on the size and shape of the NPs and the molecular weight of the polymer.

Automated quantitative image analysis of nanoparticle assembly.

The ability to characterize higher-order structures formed by nanoparticle (NP) assembly is critical for predicting and engineering the properties of advanced nanocomposite materials. Here we develop a quantitative image analysis software to characterize key structural properties of NP clusters from experimental images of nanocomposites. This analysis can be carried out on images captured at intermittent times during assembly to monitor the time evolution of NP clusters in a highly automated manner. The software outputs averages and distributions in the size, radius of gyration, fractal dimension, backbone length, end-to-end distance, anisotropic ratio, and aspect ratio of NP clusters as a function of time along with bootstrapped error bounds for all calculated properties. The polydispersity in the NP building blocks and biases in the sampling of NP clusters are accounted for through the use of probabilistic weights. This software, named Particle Image Characterization Tool (PICT), has been made publicly available and could be an invaluable resource for researchers studying NP assembly. To demonstrate its practical utility, we used PICT to analyze scanning electron microscopy images taken during the assembly of surface-functionalized metal NPs of differing shapes and sizes within a polymer matrix. PICT is used to characterize and analyze the morphology of NP clusters, providing quantitative information that can be used to elucidate the physical mechanisms governing NP assembly.

Mass transport effects in suspended waveguide biosensors integrated in microfluidic channels.

Label-free optical biosensors based on integrated photonic devices have demonstrated sensitive and selective detection of biological analytes. Integrating these sensor platforms into microfluidic devices reduces the required sample volume and enables rapid delivery of sample to the sensor surface, thereby improving response times. Conventionally, these devices are embedded in or adjacent to the substrate; therefore, the effective sensing area lies within the slow-flow region at the floor of the channel, reducing the efficiency of sample delivery. Recently, a suspended waveguide sensor was developed in which the device is elevated off of the substrate and the sensing region does not rest on the substrate. This geometry places the sensing region in the middle of the parabolic velocity profile, reduces the distance that a particle must travel by diffusion to be detected, and allows binding to both surfaces of the sensor. We use a finite element model to simulate advection, diffusion, and specific binding of interleukin 6, a signaling protein, to this waveguide-based biosensor at a range of elevations within a microfluidic channel. We compare the transient performance of these suspended waveguide sensors with that of traditional planar devices, studying both the detection threshold response time and the time to reach equilibrium. We also develop a theoretical framework for predicting the behavior of these suspended sensors. These simulation and theoretical results provide a roadmap for improving sensor performance and minimizing the amount of sample required to make measurements.