SMM Behaviour of the Butterfly {CrIII2DyIII2} Pivalate Complex and Magneto-structurally Correlated Relaxation Thermal Barrier

We are reporting the synthesis, single-crystal X-ray structure characterization, and magnetic property investigations of the pivalate butterfly {Cr^III₂Ln^III₂} complexes with Ln= Gd and Dy and the isostructural Y(III) sample. We found an anti-ferromagnetic Cr(III)-Ln(III) exchange interaction, which, as previously observed in related Cr(III)/Ln(III) systems, plays a key role in suppressing quantum tunnelling of magnetization and enhances the SMM performance in the Dy(III) complex. In fact, a pure Orbach relaxation mechanism, with absence of QT regime, is observed with a thermal barrier of 50 cm⁻¹, leading to magnetization hysteresis opening, measured with a commercial magnetometer, up to 3.6 K with a coercive field of 2.9 T. Analysis of SMM behaviour in literature-known butterfly {Cr^III₂Dy^III₂} complexes, reveals the existence of a magneto-structural correlation between U_eff, the thermal barrier size, and the mean Cr−Dy bond distances. Moreover, a clear correlation is found for the thermal barrier magnitude and the maximum temperature hysteresis opening and coercive field.     

On a class of hyperbolic 3-orbifolds of small volume and small heegaard genus associated to 2-bridge links

We consider a class of hyperbolic 3-orbifoldsO(α/β); the underlying topological space of such an orbifold is the 3-sphere and the singular set is obtained by adding the two standard (upper and lower) unknotting tunnels to a 2-bridge linkL(α/β) (and associating branching order two to both unknotting tunnels). These 3-orbifolds are extremal with respect to the notion of Heegaard genus or Heegaard number of 3-orbifolds; it is to be expected that they are also extremal with respect to the volume, that is the smallest volume hyperbolic 3-orbifolds should belong to this or some closely related class. We show that an orbifoldO(α/β) has a uniqueD ₂-covering by an orbifold? _n(α/β) wose space is the 3-sphere and whose singular set is the same 2-bridge linkL(α/β) used for the construction ofO(α/β); moreoverO(α/β) is hyperbolic if and only if? _n(α/β) is hyperbolic. As the volumes of the orbifolds? _n(α/β) are known resp. can be computed, this allows to compute the volumes of the orbifoldsO(α/β). The problem of computation of volumes remains open for some closely related classes of 3-orbifolds which are also extremal with respect to the Heegaard genus (for example associating a branching order bigger than two to one or both unknotting tunnels).     

On finite groups acting on ℤ<Subscript>2</Subscript>-homology 3-spheres

We consider finite groups G admitting orientation-preserving actions on homology 3-spheres (arbitrary, i.e. not necessarily free actions), concentrating on the case of nonsolvable groups. It is known that every finite group G admits actions on rational homology 3-spheres (and even free actions). On the other hand, the class of groups admitting actions on integer homology 3-spheres is very restricted (and close to the class of finite subgroups of the orthogonal group SO(4), acting on the 3-sphere). In the present paper, we consider the intermediate case of ₂-homology 3-spheres (i.e., with the ₂-homology of the 3-sphere where ₂ denote the integers mod two; we note that these occur much more frequently in 3-dimensional topology than the integer ones). Our main result is a list of finite nonsolvable groups G which are the candidates for orientation-preserving actions on ₂-homology 3-spheres. From this we deduce a corresponding list for the case of integer homology 3-spheres. In the integer case, the groups of the list are closely related to the dodecahedral group or the binary dodecahedral group most of these groups are subgroups of the orthogonal group SO(4) and hence admit actions on S³. Roughly, in the case of ₂-homology 3-spheres the groups PSL(2,5) and SL(2,5) get replaced by the groups PSL(2,q) and SL(2,q), for an arbitrary odd prime power q. We have many examples of actions of the groups PSL(2,q) and SL(2,q) on ₂-homology 3-spheres, for various small values of q (constructed as regular coverings of suitable hyperbolic 3-orbifolds and 3-manifolds, using computer-supported methods to calculate the homology of the coverings). We think that all of them occur but have no method to prove this at present (in particular, the exact classification of the finite nonsolvable groups admitting actions on ₂-homology 3-spheres remains still open).     

On a class of hyperbolic 3-orbifolds of small volume and small heegaard genus associated to 2-bridge links

We consider a class of hyperbolic 3-orbifoldsO(α/β); the underlying topological space of such an orbifold is the 3-sphere and the singular set is obtained by adding the two standard (upper and lower) unknotting tunnels to a 2-bridge linkL(α/β) (and associating branching order two to both unknotting tunnels). These 3-orbifolds are extremal with respect to the notion of Heegaard genus or Heegaard number of 3-orbifolds; it is to be expected that they are also extremal with respect to the volume, that is the smallest volume hyperbolic 3-orbifolds should belong to this or some closely related class. We show that an orbifoldO(α/β) has a uniqueD ₂-covering by an orbifoldℒ _n(α/β) wose space is the 3-sphere and whose singular set is the same 2-bridge linkL(α/β) used for the construction ofO(α/β); moreoverO(α/β) is hyperbolic if and only ifℒ _n(α/β) is hyperbolic. As the volumes of the orbifoldsℒ _n(α/β) are known resp. can be computed, this allows to compute the volumes of the orbifoldsO(α/β). The problem of computation of volumes remains open for some closely related classes of 3-orbifolds which are also extremal with respect to the Heegaard genus (for example associating a branching order bigger than two to one or both unknotting tunnels).     

On finite simple and nonsolvable groups acting on homology 4-spheres

The only finite non-Abelian simple group acting on a homology 3-sphere—necessarily non-freely—is the dodecahedral group A₅≅PSL(2,5) (in analogy, the only finite perfect group acting freely on a homology 3-sphere is the binary dodecahedral group ). In the present paper we show that the only finite simple groups acting on a homology 4-sphere, and in particular on the 4-sphere, are the alternating or linear fractional groups A₅≅PSL(2,5) and A₆≅PSL(2,9). From this we deduce a short list of groups which contains all finite nonsolvable groups admitting an action on a homology 4-sphere.