Contact electrification

If two materials are brought into contact and then separated they are found to be charged; this is the phenomenon of ‘contact electrification’. The subject falls naturally into three divisions—electrification of metals by metals; of insulators by metals; and of insulators by insulators. The first of these is well understood; charge transfer between metals is such as to bring the two Fermi levels into coincidence. The second division, electrification of insulators by metals, has been much studied recently and takes up the main part of our review; our understanding remains imperfect, chiefly because of lack of knowledge about the relevant electron states in insulators. Electrification of insulators by insulators has not been studied so extensively, but there is evidence that an understanding of the metal/insulator case will lead to an understanding of the insulator/insulator case as well.     

Transverse Ward-Takahashi identities and full vertex functions in different representations of QED_3

We derive the transverse Ward-Takahashi identities(WTI) of N-dimensional quantum electrodynamics by means of the canonical quantization method and the path integration method, and subsequently attempt to prove that QED_3 is solvable based on the transverse and longitudinal WTI, indicating that the full vector and tensor vertices functions can be expressed in terms of the fermion propagators in QED_3. Further, we discuss the effect of different γ matrix representations on the full vertex function.     

拓扑绝缘体表面态的STM研究

文章主要介绍了利用扫描隧道显微镜对拓扑绝缘体表面态进行的一系列研究工作,包括拓扑绝缘体表面态的电子驻波以及拓扑表面态的朗道量子化现象.这些工作对于拓扑绝缘体基本性质的确立以及深入理解具有十分重要的意义.     

Polarization fluctuations in insulators and metals: new and old theories merge

The ground-state fluctuation of polarization P is finite in insulators and divergent in metals, owing to the SWM sum rule [I. Souza, T. Wilkens, and R. M. Martin, Phys. Rev. B 62, 1666 (2000)]. This is a virtue of periodic (i.e., transverse) boundary conditions. I show that within any other boundary conditions the P fluctuation is finite even in metals, and a generalized sum rule applies. The boundary-condition dependence is a pure correlation effect, not present at the independent-particle level. In the longitudinal case inverted triangle x P = -rho, and one equivalently addresses charge fluctuations: the generalized sum rule reduces then to a well-known result of the many-body theory.     

The insulating state of matter: a geometrical theory

In 1964 Kohn published the milestone paper “Theory of the insulating state”, according to which insulators and metals differ in their ground state. Even before the system is excited by any probe, a different organization of the electrons is present in the ground state and this is the key feature discriminating between insulators and metals. However, the theory of the insulating state remained somewhat incomplete until the late 1990s; this review addresses the recent developments. The many-body ground wavefunction of any insulator is characterized by means of geometrical concepts (Berry phase, connection, curvature, Chern number, quantum metric). Among them, it is the quantum metric which sharply characterizes the insulating state of matter. The theory deals on a common ground with several kinds of insulators: band insulators, Mott insulators, Anderson insulators, quantum Hall insulators, Chern and topological insulators.     

Study of ultraintense laser-produced fast-electron propagation and filamentation in insulator and metal foil targets by optical emission diagnostics

The transport of an intense electron beam produced by ultrahigh intensity laser pulses through metals and insulators has been studied by high resolution imaging of the optical emission from the targets. In metals, the emission is mainly due to coherent transition radiation, while in plastic, it is due to the Cerenkov effect and it is orders of magnitude larger. It is also observed that in the case of insulators the fast-electron beam undergoes strong filamentation and the number of filaments increases with the target thickness. This filamented behavior in insulators is due to the instability of the ionization front related to the electric field ionization process. The filamentary structures characteristic growth rate and characteristic transversal scale are in agreement with analytical predictions.     

Universal Star Products

One defines the notion of universal deformation quantization: given any manifold M, any Poisson structure Λ on M and any torsionfree linear connection ? on M, a universal deformation quantization associates to this data a star product on (M, Λ) given by a series of bidifferential operators whose corresponding tensors are given by universal polynomial expressions in the Poisson tensor Λ, the curvature tensor R and their covariant iterated derivatives. Such universal deformation quantization exist. We study their unicity at order 3 in the deformation parameter, computing the appropriate universal Poissoncohomology.     

Calculation of the electric field gradient tensor from energy band structures

The electric field gradient tensor (EFG) can be measured accurately by various experimental techniques. The theoretical understanding, however, was restricted to point charge models, Sternheimer antishielding factors and model calculations for a restricted number of compounds. We have developed a method which obtains the EFG from a full potential linearized augmented plane wave (LAPW) energy band structure calculation. Starting from the total crystal charge density (including the core electrons) the EFG is obtained numerically without further approximations. We have applied our method successfully to all hep metals up to Cd, to semiconductors, and to insulators such as lithiumnitride or cuprite. Good agreement with experiment is found and we predict interesting changes in the sign of the EFG in the 3d and 4d transition metal series. The aspherical distribution of the valence electrons determines 80 or 90% of the total EFG and the influence of the core electrons is small. Even for the 3d and 4d metals the asphericity of the valence p electrons dominates over the d contribution to the EFG due to the different radial behavior of p and d wave functions.     

Some remarks on Nelson's stochastic field

An attempt to extend Nelson's stochastic quantization procedure to tensor fields indicates that the results of Guerra et al. on the connection between a euclidean Markov scalar field and a stochastic scalar field fails to hold for tensor fields.     

Magnetic semiconductors

As far as the electrical conductivity is concerned, solids are usually classified as metals, semiconductors, or insulators. In metals the concentration of the charge carriers responsible for the electrical conductivity is large, whereas in semiconductors and insulators the carrier concentration is much smaller. The distinction between semiconductors and insulators is based on a difference in the nature of the conductivity. For semiconductors the charge carriers (electrons or holes) occupy the states of energy bands; these states are not Iocalized on particular atoms, but spread throughout the entire crystal. In such a situation the mobility of the carriers can be quite high and would, in fact, be infinite in a rigid periodic lattice; in this model the thermal motion of the atoms induces a scattering of the carriers and thus limits the conductivity to finite values. The classical examples of semiconductors are the elements Si and Ge and compounds such as GaAs, InSb, CdTe, ZnS, etc.     

Quantization and unitary in antisymmetric tensor gauge theories

Following the procedure of Batalin and Vilkovisky we discuss the quantization of a non-abelian antisymmetric tensor gauge theory and describe the verification of one-loop unitarity for the quantized model, using the Ward identities and the procedure of 't Hooft and Veltman. The quantization of this system is similar to that of the Witten string field theory, requiring among other things the presence of three-ghost couplings.     

Correlation between alkali concentration,surface potential,and exoelectronic emission of thin films

For several types of thin films (insulators, semiconductors, and metals) a maximum in exoelectron emission and a minimum in work function have been found for the same concentration in alkaline dopants. These results are in accordance with theoretical models predicting a decrease in'intensity with the work function, such as the thermionic model for insulators or the Auger emission for conductors.     

Tensor Form Factors and Transverse Spin Structures of the Nucleon

We briefly review recent investigations on the transverse spin structure of the nucleon, based on the chiral quark-soliton model. We discuss the results of the tensor and anomalous tensor magnetic form factors and the corresponding transverse quark spin densities inside a nucleon. The results are compared with those of the recent lattice calculation. While their qualitative features are similar to the lattice ones, there are some discrepancies in the momentum dependence of the form factors and accordingly in the strengths of the transverse spin densities.     

The antisymmetric tensor field in superstring theory

We discuss various aspects of the role of the antisymmetric tensor field in superstring theory, including the quantization law obeyed by its field strength and its role in topological defects and in vacuum configurations.     

Spatial uniformity of laser-accelerated ultrahigh-current MeV electron propagation in metals and insulators

The evolution of laser-generated MeV, MA electron beams propagating through conductors and insulators has been studied by comparing measurement and modeling of the distribution of MeV protons that are sheath accelerated by the propagated electrons. We find that electron flow through metals is uniform and can be laser imprinted, whereas propagation through insulators induces spatial disruption of the fast electrons. Agreement is found with material dependent modeling.     

Theory of magnetoresistance in amorphous ferromagnetics

Expressions are obtained for the symmetric anomalous conductivity tensor of ferromagnetic alloys based on 3d-transition metals. The contribution to anomolous conductivity of scattering on structural disorder is evaluated, and a numerical calculation of longitudinal and transverse components of the conductivity and magnetoresistance tensors is performed for Ni_0.81P_0.19 and Fe_0.87B_0.13. The results obtained agree satisfactorily with experiment.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 11, pp. 57–62, November, 1989.     

Inversion layer plasma waves in quantizing magnetic field

The electromagnetic plasma wave spectrum of an inversion layer plasma subject to Landau quantization is investigated here. Magnetic field effects on local and nonlocal plasma modes are determined using the two dimensional RPA magnetoconductivity tensor.     

Recent test and new applications of the unified theory of electron emission

A review is presented of the recent experimental research confirming the unified theory of electron emission from metals in vacuum, insulators and semiconductors in the whole range between the extreme conditions of field and thermionic emission. Some new applications of the theory for calculation of the electron current in vacuum discharge, for determination of the metal-insulator (semiconductor) work function and for estimation of the effective (conduction band) electron mass in insulators and semiconductors, are also considered.     

Canonical quantization of the electromagnetic field in the presence of non-dispersive bi-anisotropic inhomogeneous magnetodielectric media

By introducing a suitable Lagrangian, a canonical quantization of the electromagnetic field in the presence of a non-dispersive bi-anisotropic inhomogeneous magnetodielectric medium is investigated. A tensor projection operator is defined and the commutation relation between the vector potential and its canonically conjugate variable is written in terms of the projection operator. The quantization method is generalized in the presence of the atomic systems. The spontaneous emission of a two-level atom located in a non-dispersive anisotropic megnetodielectric medium is studied.