First principles study of improper ferroelectricity in TbMnO3

We carry out a first-principles theoretical study of the magnetically induced polarization in orthorhombic TbMnO3, a prototypical material in which a cycloidal-spin structure generates an electric polarization via the spin-orbit interaction. We compute both the electronic and the lattice-mediated contributions to the polarization and find that the latter is strongly dominant. We analyze the spin-orbit induced forces and lattice displacements from both atomic and mode-decomposition viewpoints, and show that a simple model based on nearest Mn-Mn neighbor Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions is not able to account fully for the results. The direction and magnitude of our computed polarization are in good agreement with experiment.     

Compositional inversion symmetry breaking in ferroelectric perovskites

Cubic perovskite compounds of the form (A(1/3)A(')(1/3)A(")(1/3))BO3 and A(B(1/3)B(')(1/3)B(")(1/3))O3, in which the differentiated cations form an alternating series of monolayers, are studied using first-principles methods. Such compounds are representative of a possible new class of materials in which ferroelectricity is perturbed by compositional breaking of inversion symmetry. For isovalent substitution the ferroelectric double-well potential becomes asymmetric, so that minority domains may no longer survive. The symmetry breaking is enormously stronger for heterovalent substitution; here the double-well behavior is destroyed. Tuning between these behaviors may allow for the optimization of desired materials properties.     

Magnetic rotation and chiral symmetry breaking

The deformed mean field of nuclei exhibits various geometrical and dynamical symmetries which manifest themselves as various types of rotational and decay patterns. Most of the symmetry operations considered so far have been defined for a situation wherein the angular momentum coincides with one of the principal axes and the principal axis cranking may be invoked. New possibilities arise with the observation of rotational features in weakly deformed nuclei and now interpreted as magnetic rotational bands. More than 120 MR bands have now been identified by filtering the existing data. We present a brief overview of these bands. The total angular momentum vector in such bands is tilted away from the principal axes. Such a situation gives rise to several new possibilities including breaking of chiral symmetry as discussed recently by Frauendorf. We present the outcome of such symmetries and their possible experimental verification. Some possible examples of chiral bands are presented.     

On edge states in superconductors with time inversion symmetry breaking

The efficiency of conversion of the heat flux into hard x radiation (HXR) is analyzed, via time-dependent two-temperature one-dimensional non-LTE-radiation-hydrodynamic numerical modeling, for a heat-to-radiation flux converter linked to the edge of a low-atomic-number hot Z-pinch. The domain of parameters in this scheme is found where about the same HXR yield can be achieved at values of input energy which are an order of magnitude lower than in the conventional scheme of a radially imploding plasma. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 7, 502–506 (10 April 1997) Published in English in the original Russian Journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.     

电荷对称破缺

1930年 ,物理学家海森伯曾认为 ,中子与质子实质上是在质量上具有微小差别的同一种粒子 ,他将两者统称为“核子” .近代的核物理学家赞同这样的观点 ,即在大量的核反应中 ,如果用中子来代替质子时 ,核反应过程将以相同方式继续进行下去 ,反之亦然 .但这种相似性在某些情况下会发生破坏 ,因为它将导致电荷对称破缺 ,简称为CSB .2 0 0 3年 4月 ,在美国费城召开的美国物理学会的会议上 ,有两个实验室分别独立地宣布 ,他们完成了对电荷对称破缺的实验观测 .一个是美国印第安那大学回旋加速器实验室 (IUCF) .IUCF的E .Stephenson教授宣…     

Solvent-induced symmetry breaking

Symmetry breaking can be induced in a number of ways including interactions with a solvent. An example is the triiodide ion which is centrosymmetric in the gas phase. Molecular dynamics simulations of the triiodide ion in solution have been used to investigate the extent of symmetry breaking in a variety of solvents. We find that the triiodide ion loses its symmetry in water, ethanol, and methanol which form hydrogen bonds with the ion. This results in a localization of charge at one end of the ion and breaking of the geometric symmetry. The extent of symmetry breaking increases as the temperature is lowered. Correlation times for interconversion are reported and the energetics of symmetry breaking are presented. Analogies are made with second-order phase transitions.     

Magnetic excitations in multiferroic TbMnO3: evidence for a hybridized soft mode

The magnetic excitations in multiferroic TbMnO3 have been studied by inelastic neutron scattering in the spiral and sinusoidally ordered phases. At the incommensurate magnetic zone center of the spiral phase, we find three low-lying magnons whose character has been fully determined using neutron-polarization analysis. The excitation at the lowest energy is the sliding mode of the spiral, and two modes at 1.1 and 2.5 meV correspond to rotations of the spiral rotation plane. These latter modes are expected to couple to the electric polarization. The 2.5 meV mode is in perfect agreement with recent infrared-spectroscopy data giving strong support to its interpretation as a hybridized phonon-magnon excitation.     

Chiral symmetry breaking in QCD

By applying bifurcation theory to a truncated Dyson-Schwinger equation for the quark propagator in massless QCD, we show that dynamical symmetry breaking occurs at a certain critical value of the coupling constant. Essential ingredients are (a) an effective dynamical mass for the gluon, and (b) a running coupling constant.     

Spontaneous symmetry breaking in QCD

We study dynamical chiral symmetry breaking in massless QCD by the use of the generalized Hartree-Fock method. As the order parameter of chiral symmetry we choose the dynamical quark mass in the zero momentum limit which we call low energy quark mass. We calculate the low energy mass to the second order of diagrammatic expansion around shifted perturbative vacuum. We then show that the mass is finite and renormalization group invariant. After the improvement of the result by the method of effective charges we estimate the mass in the true vacuum under the gap and stationarity conditions and demonstrate that both of them produce non-zero mass proportional to a conventional scale, which breaks down the chiral symmetry.     

Gravitation and spontaneous symmetry breaking

It is pointed out that the Higgs field may be supplanted by an ordinary Klein-Gordon field conformally coupled to the space-time curvature, and with very small, real, rest mass. Provided there is a bare cosmological constant of order of its square mass, this field can induce spontaneous symmetry breaking with a mass scale that can be as large as the Planck-Wheeler mass, but may be smaller. It can thus play a natural role in grand unified theories. In the theory presented here the physical cosmological constant is small, being of order of the squared mass, and can meet observational constraints without having to be cancelled accurately. The physical gravitational constant differs somewhat from the coupling constant in Einstein's equation, and is temperature dependent in the broken symmetry regime. Symmetry restoration occurs at high temperature.Research supported by the Arnow Chair in Astrophysics.     

Chiral symmetry breaking in SQCD

Using a spectral function sum rules approach, we derive some constraints among the Goldstone parameters, the lowest dimension vacuum condensates and the mass of the chiral matter superfield in supersymmetric QCD (SQCD). These relations are consistent with previous results on SQCD and complement them.     

Flavor symmetry breaking in DTU

The implications of the breaking of SU (N) flavor symmetry are studied at the planar and cylinder levels of the Dual Topological Unitarization scheme. It is shown that the ρ intercept is constrained to lie between 0.51 and 0.54, and that SU (4) symmetry is necessarily more strongly broken that SU (3). The matrix structure of the cylinder bootstrap equations is shown to suppress many of the problems of the “cylinder extinction of the planar poles”, and to lead to a sensible singularity spectrum.     

Discrete symmetry and GUT breaking

We study the supersymmetric GUT models in which the supersymmetry and GUT gauge symmetry can be broken by a discrete symmetry. First, with the ansatz that there exist discrete symmetries in the branes' neighborhoods, we discuss the general reflection symmetries and GUT breaking on and . In those models, the extra dimensions can be large and the KK states can be set arbitrarily heavy. Second, considering that the extra space manifold is the annulus or the disc , we can define any symmetry and break any 6-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric SU(M) models down to the 4-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric models for the zero modes. In particular, there might exist the interesting scenario on where just a few KK states are light, while the others are relatively heavy. Third, we discuss the complete global discrete symmetries on and study the GUT breaking. Received: 12 February 2002 / Published online: 14 June 2002     

Space-time geometry and symmetry breaking

We look for solutions of the Einstein-Yang-Mills equations in a 4 + D dimensional space-time. We find solutions where the first 4 dimensions are a flat Minkowskian space-time, while the D others are a compact, space-like manifold of small size. Such solutions can be obtained for an arbitrary compact gauge group K and are invariant under a sub-group G of K related to the space-time geometry. This shows that 4 + D dimensional gravity can give a mechanism for the super-strong symmetry breaking needed in grand unified field theories without introducing Higgs scalars.     

PT symmetry and spontaneous symmetry breaking in a microwave billiard

We demonstrate the presence of parity-time (PT) symmetry for the non-Hermitian two-state Hamiltonian of a dissipative microwave billiard in the vicinity of an exceptional point (EP). The shape of the billiard depends on two parameters. The Hamiltonian is determined from the measured resonance spectrum on a fine grid in the parameter plane. After applying a purely imaginary diagonal shift to the Hamiltonian, its eigenvalues are either real or complex conjugate on a curve, which passes through the EP. An appropriate basis choice reveals its PT symmetry. Spontaneous symmetry breaking occurs at the EP.     

Twofold spontaneous symmetry breaking in the heavy-fermion superconductor UPt3

The field-orientation dependent thermal conductivity of the heavy-fermion superconductor UPt3 was measured down to very low temperatures and under magnetic fields throughout the distinct superconducting phases: B and C phases. In the C phase, a striking twofold oscillation of the thermal conductivity within the basal plane is resolved reflecting the superconducting gap structure with a line of node along the a axis. Moreover, we find an abrupt vanishing of the oscillation across a transition to the B phase, as a clear indication of a change of gap symmetries. We also identify extra two line nodes below and above the equator in both B and C phases. From these results together with the symmetry consideration, the gap function of UPt3 is determined as a E(1u) representation characterized by a combination of two line nodes at the tropics and point nodes at the poles.