The interplay between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in disordered ultrathin high-Tc films

A series of ultrathin films of DyBa₂Cu₃O_7−x, with properties spanning the zero-field superconductor-to-insulator transition, were prepared for the purpose of investigating the magnetic field driven superconductor-insulator transition. The resistance of these films was found to exhibit a peak whose magnitude became larger with the weakening of the superconductivity of the films. For a film just on the superconducting side of the zero-field superconductor-to-insulator transition, three successive changes in the sign of the low temperature dR/dT with increasing field were found. These have been taken as evidence of the superconducting state being successively excited, reentered, and finally exited with increasing field as the sign changes from positive to negative, to positive, and finally to negative. This unusual behavior may result from an interaction of the carriers with Cu²⁺ ions on the copper-oxygen sheets. These spins exhibit an increasing tendency to antiferromagnetic ordering as the superconductivity of the films is weakened. The presence of many grain boundaries in the films may be the reason the effect is strikingly large.     

Study of the charge-exchange reactions\pi ^ - p \to (\pi ^0 ,\eta ,\eta \prime )n at 63 GeV

Muon electron pairs were detected in an Al multiplate spark chamber, exposed to a neutrino beam from the CERN PS. The leptons were not accompanied by other particles, except occasionally by protons. The background came mainly from muon associated π⁰ production, with one decay gamma lost. It was determined empirically, together with the small contribution from υ _e reactions. For electron energies above 2 GeV the background is 5.7±1.5 events, whereas 18 (μe)-candidates have been observed. Hence the effect is established, with a rate of about 10^?4 as compared to the muonic reactions above 3 GeV. Charm creation as the origin of this (μe)-production process is excluded; heavy neutral lepton production does not fit the kinematics observed. Instead the events are compatible with the two-body decay of an object with variable invariant mass of order 1 GeV, possibly resulting from axion interactions.