Staggered flux phase in a model of strongly correlated electrons

We present numerical evidence for the existence of a staggered flux (SF) phase in the half-filled two-leg t-U-V-J ladder, with true long-range order in the countercirculating currents. The density-matrix renormalization-group finite-size scaling approach, generalized to describe complex-valued Hamil-tonians and wave functions, is employed. The SF phase exhibits robust currents at intermediate values of the interaction strength.     

Weak ferromagnetic exchange and anomalous specific heat in ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2

Experimental evidence for a plethora of low energy spin excitations in the spin-1/2 kagome antiferromagnet ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2 may be understandable in terms of an extended Fermi surface of spinons coupled to a U(1) gauge field. We carry out variational calculations to examine the possibility that such a state may be energetically viable. A Gutzwiller-projected wave function reproduces the dimerization of a kagome strip found previously by the density matrix renormalization group. Application to the full kagome lattice shows that the inclusion of a small ferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor interaction favors a ground state with a spinon Fermi surface.     

Orbital currents and charge density waves in a generalized Hubbard ladder

We study a generalized Hubbard model on the two-leg ladder at zero temperature, focusing on a parameter region with staggered flux (SF)/d-density wave (DDW) order. To guide our numerical calculations, we first investigate the location of a SF/DDW phase in the phase diagram of the half-filled weakly interacting ladder using a perturbative renormalization group (RG) and bosonization approach. For hole doping δ away from half-filling, finite-system density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) calculations are used to study ladders with up to 200 rungs for intermediate-strength interactions. In the doped SF/DDW phase, the staggered rung current and the rung electron density both show periodic spatial oscillations, with characteristic wavelengths 2/δ and 1/δ, respectively, corresponding to ordering wavevectors 2k_F and 4k_F for the currents and densities, where 2k_F = π (1 − δ). The density minima are located at the anti-phase domain walls of the staggered current. For sufficiently large dopings, SF/DDW order is suppressed. The rung density modulation also exists in neighboring phases where currents decay exponentially. We show that most of the DMRG results can be qualitatively understood from weak-coupling RG/bosonization arguments. However, while these arguments seem to suggest a crossover from non-decaying correlations to power-law decay at a length scale of order 1/δ, the DMRG results are consistent with a true long-range order scenario for the currents and densities.     

Negative axial radiation forces on solid spheres and shells in a Bessel beam

Prior computations predict that fluid spheres illuminated by an acoustic Bessel beam can be subjected to a radiation force directed opposite the direction of beam propagation. The prediction of negative acoustic radiation force is extended to the cases of a solid poly(methylmethacrylate) PMMA sphere in water and an empty aluminum spherical shell in water. Compared with the angular scattering patterns for plane wave illumination, the scattering into the back hemisphere is suppressed when the radiation force is negative. This investigation may be helpful in the development of acoustic tweezers and in the development of methods for manipulating objects during space flight.     

Group Actions on the Cubic Tree

It is known that every group which acts transitively on the ordered edges of the cubic tree ₃, with finite vertex stabilizer, is isomorphic to one of seven finitely presented subgroups of the full automorphism group of ₃–one of which is the modular group. In this paper a complete answer is given for the question (raised by Djokovi and Miller) as to whether two such subgroups which intersect in the modular group generate their free product with the modular group amalgamated.     

Cavitation structures formed during the rebound of a sphere from a wetted surface

We use high-speed imaging to observe the dynamics of cavitation, caused by the impact and subsequent rebound of a sphere from a solid surface covered with a thin layer of highly viscous liquid. We note marked qualitative differences between the cavitation structures with increase in viscosity, as well as between Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquids. The patterns observed are quite unexpected and intricate, appearing in concentric ring formations around the site of impact. In all cases, we identify a distinct radius from which the primary bubbles emanate. This radius is modelled with a modified form of Hertz contact theory. Within this radius, we show that some fine cavitation structure may exist or that it may be one large cavitation bubble. For the non-Newtonian fluids, we observe foam-like structures extending radially with diminishing bubble sizes with increase in radial position. Whereas for the Newtonian fluids, the opposite trend is observed with increasing bubble size for increasing radial position. Finally, we compare our experimental observations of cavitation to the maximum tension criterion proposed by Joseph (J Fluid Mech 366:367–378, 1998) showing that this provides the lower limit for the onset of cavitation in our experiments.     

Vertex-Transitive Non-Cayley Graphs with Arbitrarily Large Vertex-Stabilizer

A construction is given for an infinite family {_n} of finite vertex-transitive non-Cayley graphs of fixed valency with the property that the order of the vertex-stabilizer in the smallest vertex-transitive group of automorphisms of _n is a strictly increasing function ofn . For each n the graph is 4-valent and arc-transitive, with automorphism group a symmetric group of large prime degree . The construction uses Sierpinski's gasket to produce generating permutations for the vertex-stabilizer (a large 2-group).     

Hurwitz Groups with Given Centre

A Hurwitz group is any non-trivial finite group that can be(2,3,7)-generated; that is, generated by elements x and y satisfyingthe relations x² = y³ = (xy)⁷ = 1. In this short paper a completeanswer is given to a 1965 question by John Leech, showing thatthe centre of a Hurwitz group can be any given finite abeliangroup. The proof is based on a recent theorem of Lucchini, Tamburiniand Wilson, which states that the special linear group SL_n(q)is a Hurwitz group for every integer n 287 and every prime-powerq. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification 20F05 (primary);57M05 (secondary).