We study electronic ordering instabilities of twisted bilayer graphene around the filling ofn=2electrons per supercell, where correlated insulator state and superconductivity have been recently ...observed. Motivated by the Fermi surface nesting and the proximity to Van Hove singularity, we introduce a hot-spot model to study the effect of various electron interactions systematically. Using the renormalization group method, we find thatdorp-wave superconductivity and charge or spin density wave emerge as the two types of leading instabilities driven by Coulomb repulsion. The density-wave state has a gapped energy spectrum aroundn=2and yields a single doubly degenerate pocket upon doping ton>2. The intertwinement of density wave and superconductivity and the quasiparticle spectrum in the density-wave state are consistent with experimental observations.
SignificanceOur work shows a fascinating application of finite-momentum superconductivity, the supercurrent diode effect, which is being reported in a growing number of experiments. We show that, ...under external magnetic field, Cooper pairs can acquire finite momentum so that critical currents in the direction parallel and antiparallel to the Cooper pair momentum become unequal.
We develop an effective extended Hubbard model to describe the low-energy electronic properties of the twisted bilayer graphene. By using the Bloch states in the effective continuum model and with ...the aid of the maximally localized algorithm, we construct the Wannier orbitals and obtain an effective tight-binding model on the emergent honeycomb lattice. We find that the Wannier state takes a peculiar three-peak form in which the amplitude maxima are located at the triangle corners surrounding the center. We estimate the direct Coulomb interaction and the exchange interaction between the Wannier states. At the filling of two electrons per supercell, in particular, we find an unexpected coincidence in the direct Coulomb energy between a charge-ordered state and a homogeneous state, which could possibly lead to an unconventional many-body state.
The propagation characteristics of Lamb waves in composites, with emphasis on group velocity and characteristic wave curves, are investigated theoretically and experimentally. In particular, the ...experimental study focuses on the existence of multiple
higher-order Lamb wave modes that can be observed from piezoelectric sensors by the excitation of ultrasonic frequencies. Using three-dimensional (3-D) elasticity theory, the exact dispersion relations governed by transcendental equations are numerically solved for an infinite number of possible wave modes. For symmetric laminates, a robust method by imposing boundary conditions on the mid-plane and top surface is proposed to separate symmetric and anti-symmetric wave modes. A new semi-exact method is developed to calculate group velocities of Lamb waves in composites. Meanwhile, three characteristic wave curves: velocity, slowness, and wave curves are adopted to analyze the angular dependency of Lamb wave propagation. The dispersive and anisotropic behavior of Lamb waves in a two different types of symmetric laminates is studied in detail theoretically. In the experimental study, two surface-mounted piezoelectric actuators are excited either symmetric or anti-symmetric wave modes with narrowband signals, and a Gabor wavelet transform is used to extract group velocities from arrival times of Lamb wave received by a piezoelectric sensor. In comparison with the results from the theory and experiment, it is confirmed that multiple higher-order Lamb waves can be excited from piezoelectric actuators and the measured group velocities agree well with those from 3-D elasticity theory.
The van Hove singularity in density of states generally exists in periodic systems due to the presence of saddle points of energy dispersion in momentum space. We introduce a new type of van Hove ...singularity in two dimensions, resulting from high-order saddle points and exhibiting power-law divergent density of states. We show that high-order van Hove singularity can be generally achieved by tuning the band structure with a single parameter in moiré superlattices, such as twisted bilayer graphene by tuning twist angle or applying pressure, and trilayer graphene by applying vertical electric field. Correlation effects from high-order van Hove singularity near Fermi level are also discussed.
Nearly 500 basidiomycetous yeast species were accepted in the latest edition of The Yeasts: A Taxonomic Study published in 2011. However, this number presents only the tip of the iceberg of yeast ...species diversity in nature. Possibly more than 99 % of yeast species, as is true for many groups of fungi, are yet unknown and await discovery. Over the past two decades nearly 200 unidentified isolates were obtained during a series of environmental surveys of yeasts in phyllosphere and soils, mainly from China. Among these isolates, 107 new species were identified based on the phylogenetic analyses of nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) D1/D2 domains of the large subunit (LSU), the small subunit (SSU), and the internal transcribed spacer region including the 5.8S rDNA (ITS) and protein-coding genes both subunits of DNA polymerase II (RPB1 and RPB2), the translation elongation factor 1-α (TEF1) and the mitochondrial gene cytochrome b (CYTB), and physiological comparisons. Forty-six of these belong to 16 genera in the Tremellomycetes (Agaricomycotina). The other 61 are distributed in 26 genera in the Pucciniomycotina. Here we circumscribe eight new genera, three new families and two new orders based on the multi-locus phylogenetic analyses combined with the clustering optimisation analysis and the predicted similarity thresholds for yeasts and filamentous fungal delimitation at genus and higher ranks. Additionally, as a result of these analyses, three new combinations are proposed and 66 taxa are validated.
Recently, moiré superlattices have been found on the surface of topological insulators due to the rotational misalignment of topmost layers. In this work, we study the effects of moiré superlattices ...on the topological surface states using a continuum model of Dirac electrons moving in a periodic potential. Unlike twisted bilayer graphene, moiré surface states cannot host isolated bands due to their topological nature. Instead, we find (high-order) van Hove singularities (VHS) in the moiré band structure that give rise to divergent density of states (DOS) and enhance interaction effects. Because of spin-momentum locking in moiré surface states, possible interaction channels are limited. In the presence of phonon mediated attraction, superconductivity is strongly enhanced by the power-law divergent DOS at high-order VHS. The transition temperatureTcexhibits a power-law dependence on the retarded electron-phonon interaction strengthλ*. This enhancement is found to be robust under various perturbations from the high-order VHS.
In Cooper pairs--pairs of electrons responsible for the exotic properties of superconductors--the two electrons' spins typically point in opposite directions. A strong-enough external magnetic field ...will destroy superconductivity by making the spins point in the same direction. Lu et al. observed a two-dimensional superconducting state in the material MoS2 that was surprisingly immune to a magnetic field applied in the plane of the sample (see the Perspective by Suderow). The band structure of MoS2 and its spin-orbit coupling conspired to create an effective magnetic field that reinforced the electron pairing, with spins aligned perpendicular to the sample. Science, this issue p. 1353; see also p. 1316 The Zeeman effect, which is usually detrimental to superconductivity, can be strongly protective when an effective Zeeman field from intrinsic spin-orbit coupling locks the spins of Cooper pairs in a direction orthogonal to an external magnetic field. We performed magnetotransport experiments with ionic-gated molybdenum disulfide transistors, in which gating prepared individual superconducting states with different carrier dopings, and measured an in-plane critical field Bc2 far beyond the Pauli paramagnetic limit, consistent with Zeeman-protected superconductivity. The gating-enhanced Bc2 is more than an order of magnitude larger than it is in the bulk superconducting phases, where the effective Zeeman field is weakened by interlayer coupling. Our study provides experimental evidence of an Ising superconductor, in which spins of the pairing electrons are strongly pinned by an effective Zeeman field.
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