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Charge noise in semiconducting quantum dots has been observed to have a 1/f spectrum. We propose a model in which a pair of quantum dots are coupled to a 2D bath of fluctuating two level systems (TLS) that have electric dipole moments and that interact with each other, i.e., with the other fluctuators. These interactions are primarily via the elastic strain field. We use a 2D nearest-neighbor Ising spin glass to represent these elastic interactions and to simulate the dynamics of the bath of electric dipole fluctuators in the presence of a ground plane representing metal gates above the oxide layer containing the fluctuators. The interactions between the TLS cause the energy splitting of individual fluctuators to change with time. We calculate the resulting fluctuations in the electric potential at the two quantum dots that lie below the oxide layer. We find that 1/f electric potential noise spectra at the quantum dots and cross correlation in the noise between the two quantum dots are in qualitative agreement with experiment. Our simulations find that the cross correlations decrease exponentially with increasing quantum dot separation., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures

Silicon quantum dot qubits show great promise but suffer from charge noise with a 1/f^\alpha spectrum, where f is frequency and \alpha \lesssim 1. It has recently been proposed that 1/f^\alpha noise spectra can emerge from a few thermally activated two-level fluctuators in the presence of sub-bath temperature fluctuations associated with a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG)~\cite{Ahn2021}. We investigate this proposal by doing Monte Carlo simulations of a single Ising spin in a bath with a fluctuating temperature. We find that to obtain noise with a $1/f^\alpha$ spectrum with $alpha \lesssim 1 down to low frequencies, the duration of temperature fluctuations must be comparable to the inverse of the lowest frequency at which the noise is measured. This result is consistent with an analytic calculation in which the fluctuator is a two-state system with dynamics governed by time-dependent switching rates. In this case we find that the noise spectrum follows a Lorentzian at frequencies lower than the inverse of the average duration of the lowest switching rate. We then estimate relaxation times of thermal fluctuations by considering thermal diffusion in an electron gas in a confined geometry. We conclude that temperature fluctuations in a 2DEG sub-bath would require an unphysically long duration to be consistent with experimental measurements of 1/f-like charge noise in quantum dots at frequencies extending well below 1 Hz., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

The thermal and acoustic properties displayed by a wide variety of glasses at low temperatures are well described by the model of tunneling two level systems (TLS). We review the standard TLS model as well as developments that have occurred since the earlier work. In spite of half a century of effort and impressive successes, mysteries still remain. We discuss some of these longstanding puzzles about glasses at low temperatures and speculate about future directions., Comment: 28 pages, 1 figure, 1 table. To be published as Chapter 5 of the book entitled, "Low-Temperature Thermal and Vibrational Properties of Disordered Solids: A Half-Century of Universal "Anomalies" in Glasses," edited by M. A. Ramos, World Scientific Press

We present a novel view of the standard model of tunneling two level systems (TLS) to explain the puzzling universal value of a quantity, $C\sim 3\times 10^{-4}$, that characterizes phonon scattering in glasses below 1 K as reflected in thermal conductivity, ultrasonic attenuation, internal friction, and the change in sound velocity. Physical considerations lead to a broad distribution of phonon-TLS couplings that (1) exponentially renormalize tunneling matrix elements, and (2) reduce the TLS density of states through TLS-TLS interactions. We find good agreement between theory and experiment for a variety of individual glasses., Comment: Resubmission: several typos were corrected and the notation clarified in some places. No major changes

We show that a glass transition, signaled by a peak in the specific heat vs. temperature, can occur because a glassy system that shows no signs of aging progresses so slowly through the energy landscape that the time needed to obtain an accurate estimate of the thermodynamic averages exceeds the observation time. We find that below the glass transition temperature of a three dimensional binary mixture of soft spheres, the specific heat increases with measurement time spans orders of magnitude longer than previously recognized equilibration times., Comment: 4 pages, Latex, 3 encapsulated postscript figures

We introduce a new quantity to probe the glass transition. This quantity is a linear generalized compressibility which depends solely on the positions of the particles. We have performed a molecular dynamics simulation on a glass forming liquid consisting of a two component mixture of soft spheres in three dimensions. As the temperature is lowered (or as the density is increased), the generalized compressibility drops sharply at the glass transition, with the drop becoming more and more abrupt as the measurement time increases. At our longest measurement times, the drop occurs approximately at the mode coupling temperature $T_C$. The drop in the linear generalized compressibility occurs at the same temperature as the peak in the specific heat. By examining the inherent structure energy as a function of temperature, we find that our results are consistent with the kinetic view of the glass transition in which the system falls out of equilibrium. We find no size dependence and no evidence for a second order phase transition though this does not exclude the possibility of a phase transition below the observed glass transition temperature. We discuss the relation between the linear generalized compressibility and the ordinary isothermal compressibility as well as the static structure factor., Comment: 18 pages, Latex, 26 encapsulated postscript figures, revised paper is shorter, to appear in Phys. Rev. E

We introduce a new quantity to probe the glass transition. This quantity is a linear generalized compressibility which depends solely on the positions of the particles. We have performed a molecular dynamics simulation on a glass forming liquid consisting of a two component mixture of soft spheres in three dimensions. As the temperature is lowered, the generalized compressibility drops sharply at the glass transition. Our results are consistent with the kinetic view of the glass transition, but not with an underlying second order phase transition., Comment: 5 pages, Latex, 4 postscript figures, to be published in Phil. Mag. B, some corrections to previous version

We show that thermally activated interstitial and vacancy defects can lead to first order melting of a vortex lattice. We obtain good agreement with experimentally measured melting curve, latent heat, and magnetization jumps for YBCO and BSCCO. The shear modulus of the vortex liquid is frequency dependent and crosses over from zero at low frequencies to a finite value at high frequencies. We also find a small surface tension between the vortex line liquid and the vortex lattice., Comment: 10 pages, Latex, 6 encapsulated postscript figures

This paper has been withdrawn by the authors. It has been superceded by an improved investigation: ``Thermodynamic Generalized Compressibility in a Glass Forming Liquid,'' H. M. Carruzzo and C. C. Yu, cond-mat/0004320., Comment: withdrawn; superceded by improved investigation:cond-mat/0004320

Vortex lattices in the high temperature superconductors undergo a first order phase transition which has thus far been regarded as melting from a solid to a liquid. We point out an alternative possibility of a two step process in which there is a first order transition from an ordinary vortex lattice to a soft vortex solid followed by another first order melting transition from the soft vortex solid to a vortex liquid. We focus on the first step. This premelting transition is induced by vacancy and interstitial vortex lines. We obtain good agreement with the experimental transition temperature versus field, latent heat, and magnetization jumps for YBCO and BSCCO., Comment: revised version replaces 9705092, 5 pages, Latex, 2 postscript figures, defect line wandering is included, 2 step melting is proposed

We investigate whether or not Kondo insulators undergo a magnetic field induced metal-insulator transition in one dimension at half filling using both a density matrix formulation of the numerical renormalization group and a new analytical approach. Contrary to expectations, the quasiparticle gap never vanishes at any field and no metal-insulator transition is found. We discuss generalizing our result to three dimensions and to the asymmetric Anderson lattice. Our result is consistent with recent experiments., Comment: 4 pages (using REVTEX), 2 figures in postscript. Submitted to Physical Review Letters