Search results for " phase transition"
showing 10 items of 150 documents
Viologen-based ionic liquid crystals: induction of a smectic A phase by dimerisation.
2014
The stability of thermotropic ionic liquid crystals is essentially due to micro-phase segregation between the ionic heads and the long alkyl chains. Here we show, using newly synthesized viologen dimers, that the structure of the central core is another key parameter to play with in order to tune the mesomorphic behaviour. © 2014 the Owner Societies.
A strong electroweak phase transition from the inflaton field
2016
We study a singlet scalar extension of the Standard Model. The singlet scalar is coupled non-minimally to gravity and assumed to drive inflation, and also couple sufficiently strongly with the SM Higgs field in order to provide for a strong first order electroweak phase transition. Requiring the model to describe inflation successfully, be compatible with the LHC data, and yield a strong first order electroweak phase transition, we identify the regions of the parameter space where the model is viable. We also include a singlet fermion with scalar coupling to the singlet scalar to probe the sensitivity of the constraints on additional degrees of freedom and their couplings in the singlet sec…
High temperature ferro-paraelectric phase transition in tris(trimethylammonium) nonachlorodiantimonate(III) (TMACA) studied by X-ray diffraction meth…
2000
Abstract The structure of [NH(CH3)3]3Sb2Cl9, tris(trimethylammonium) nonachlorodiantimonate(III) (TMACA) has been determined at 295 K and 373 K, below and above the high temperature ferro-paraelectric phase transition. In both phases the anionic sublattice of TMACA is built of characteristic two-dimensional (Sb2Cl93−)n polyanionic layers lying in the bc plane. In room temperature, ferroelectric phase (monoclinic, Pc space group) there are three crystallographically non-equivalent trimethylammonium [NH(CH3)3]+ cations. Two of them are located between polyanionic layers and the third one, disordered, inside the cavity formed by six SbCl63− octahedra. In the high temperature paraelectric phase…
Multiparameter quantum critical metrology
2022
Single parameter estimation is known to benefit from extreme sensitivity to parameter changes in quantum critical systems. However, the simultaneous estimation of multiple parameters is generally limited due to the incompatibility arising from the quantum nature of the underlying system. A key question is whether quantum criticality may also play a positive role in reducing the incompatibility in the simultaneous estimation of multiple parameters. We argue that this is generally the case and verify this prediction in paradigmatic quantum many-body systems close to first and second order phase transitions. The antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic 1-D Ising chain with both transverse and longi…
Superradiant Quantum Phase Transition for an Exactly Solvable Two-Qubit Spin-Boson Model
2023
A spin-boson-like model with two interacting qubits is analysed. The model turns out to be exactly solvable since it is characterized by the exchange symmetry between the two spins. The explicit expressions of eigenstates and eigenenergies make it possible to analytically unveil the occurrence of first-order quantum phase transitions. The latter are physically relevant since they are characterized by abrupt changes in the two-spin subsystem concurrence, in the net spin magnetization and in the mean photon number.
Raman analysis of insulin denaturation induced by high-pressure and thermal treatments
2012
Raman spectroscopy has been used to investigate different conformational states of bovine pancreatic insulin: the native form and several structurally modified states with different extent of denaturation induced by thermo-chemical treatment and by applying very high pressure (up to 8 GPa) using a diamond anvil cell. High-pressure results confirm the peculiar strength to volume compression of insulin and largely extend the pressure range of its structural stability (0-4.2 GPa). Above 4.2 GPa, insulin undergoes an irreversible structural transition that, once pressure is released, leaves the sample in a new conformational state. The protein secondary structure after the pressure treatment re…
Some remarks on Landau's (macroscopic) phase transition theory
2012
This paper explain the existence of a particular formal model (drew from Theoretical Astrophysics) whose thermodynamical phenomenology shows a possible second order phase transition (according to Landau’s Thermodynamical Theory) that seems does not verify the (Birman-Goldrich-Jaric) ”chain subduction criterion” and the (Ascher’s) ”maximality criterion” of Landau’s Phenomenological Theory. Therefore, it follows that Landau’s Phenomenological Theory is more restrictive than the Landau’s Thermodynamical Theory.
Odd triplet superconductivity induced by a moving condensate
2020
It has been commonly accepted that a magnetic field suppresses superconductivity by inducing the ordered motion of Cooper pairs. We demonstrate that a magnetic field can instead provide a generation of superconducting correlations by inducing the motion of a superconducting condensate. This effect arises in superconductor/ferromagnet heterostructures in the presence of Rashba spin-orbital coupling. We predict the odd-frequency spin-triplet superconducting correlations called the Berezinskii order to be switched on at large distances from the superconductor/ferromagnet interface by the application of a magnetic field. This is shown to result in the unusual behavior of Josephson effect and lo…
Mean-field theory for superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene
2018
Recent experiments show how a bilayer graphene twisted around a certain magic angle becomes superconducting as it is doped into a region with approximate flat bands. We investigate the mean-field s-wave superconducting state in such a system and show how the state evolves as the twist angle is tuned, and as a function of the doping level. We argue that part of the experimental findings could well be understood to result from an attractive electron-electron interaction mediated by electron-phonon coupling, but the flat-band nature of the excitation spectrum also makes the superconductivity quite unusual. For example, as the flat-band states are highly localized around certain spots in the st…
Superfluid weight and Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature of twisted bilayer graphene
2019
We study superconductivity of twisted bilayer graphene with local and non-local attractive interactions. We obtain the superfluid weight and Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition temperature for microscopic tight-binding and low-energy continuum models. We predict qualitative differences between local and non-local interaction schemes which could be distinguished experimentally. In the flat band limit where the pair potential exceeds the band width we show that the superfluid weight and BKT temperature are determined by multiband processes and quantum geometry of the band.