Search

In this article, we discover a fundamental excitation called electromagnon in the cuprate superconducting states. Doped holes render local inversion asymmetry which produces hidden Rashba spin-orbit coupling in copper-oxide plane. Rashba effect leads to Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction between neighboring spins, which establishes a general spin Hamitonian combined with Heisenberg exchange interaction. The physical origin of spin fluctuations has been revealed from Rashba-induced DM term. Electromagnon excitations are found to result from spin fluctuations manifested as spin spiral states by hopping of doped holes in high temperature superconducting states. The frequency of electromagnon excitations, peak position of dielectric constant spectrum, decreases linearly with decrease of exchange interaction in various families of superconductors. Comparisons with superconductivity-induced B1g Raman peaks show good agreement and thus possibly provide the experimental evidences for electromagnon excitations in cuprates.

We performed an experimental observation on the spontaneous imbibition of water in a porous media in a radial Hele-Shaw cell and confirmed Washburn's law, where r is distance and t is time. Spontaneous imbibition with a radial interface window followed scaling dynamics when the front invaded into the porous media. We found a growth exponent (\b{eta}=0.6) that was independent of the pressure applied at the liquid inlet. The roughness exponent decreased with an increase in pressure. The roughening dynamics of two dimensional spontaneous radial imbibition obey Family-Vicsek scaling, which is different from that with a one-dimensional planar interface window.

We report forced radial imbibition of water in a porous medium in a Hele-Shaw cell. Washburn's law is confirmed in our experiment. Radial imbibition follows scaling dynamics and shows anomalous roughening dynamics when the front invades the porous medium. The roughening dynamics depend on the flow rate of the injected fluid. The growth exponents increase linearly with an increase in the flow rate while the roughness exponents decrease with an increase in the flow rate. Roughening dynamics of radial imbibition is markedly different from one dimensional imbibition with a planar interface window. Such difference caused by geometric change suggests that "universality class" for the interface growth is not universal.

We present the observational results of the Gamma-ray blazar, 3C 66A, at 2.3, 8.4, and 22 GHz at 4 epochs during 2004-05 with the VLBA. The resulting images show an overall core-jet structure extending roughly to the south with two intermediate breaks occurring in the region near the core. By model-fitting to the visibility data, the northmost component, which is also the brightest, is identified as the core according to its relatively flat spectrum and its compactness. As combined with some previous results to investigate the proper motions of the jet components, it is found the kinematics of 3C 66A is quite complicated with components of inward and outward, subluminal and superluminal motions all detected in the radio structure. The superluminal motions indicate strong Doppler boosting exists in the jet. The apparent inward motions of the innermost components last for at least 10 years and could not be caused by new-born components. The possible reason could be non-stationarity of the core due to opacity change., Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures

To explain the multi-wavelength light curves (from radio to X-ray) of HST-1 in the M87 jet, we propose an hourglass model that is a modified two-zone system of Tavecchio & Ghisellini (hereafter TG08): a slow hourglass-shaped or Laval nozzle-shaped layer connected by two revolving exponential surfaces surrounding a fast spine, through which plasma blobs flow. Based on the conservation of magnetic flux, the magnetic field changes along the axis of the hourglass. We adopt the result of TG08---the high-energy emission from GeV to TeV can be produced through inverse Compton by the two-zone system, and the photons from radio to X-ray are mainly radiated by the fast inner zone system. Here, we only discuss the light curves of the fast inner blob from radio to X-ray. When a compressible blob travels down the axis of the first bulb in the hourglass, because of magnetic flux conservation, its cross section experiences an adiabatic compression process, which results in particle acceleration and the brightening of HST-1. When the blob moves into the second bulb of the hourglass, because of magnetic flux conservation, the dimming of the knot occurs along with an adiabatic expansion of its cross section. A similar broken exponential function could fit the TeV peaks in M87, which may imply a correlation between the TeV flares of M87 and the light curves from radio to X-ray in HST-1. The Very Large Array (VLA) 22 GHz radio light curve of HST-1 verifies our prediction based on the model fit to the main peak of the VLA 15 GHz radio light curve., Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in AJ

We report the spontaneous generation of an Archimedean spiral pattern of fullerene via the evaporation of solvent. The self-organized spiral pattern exhibited equi-spacing on the order of micrometer between neighboring stripes. The characteristics of the spirals, such as the spacing between stripes, the number of stripes and the band width of stripes, could be controlled by tuning the thickness of the liquid bridge and the concentration of solution. The mechanism of pattern formation is interpreted in terms of a specific traveling wave on the liquid-solid interface accompanied by a stick-slip process of the contact line., Comment: 5 pages

We report the generation of a dynamic labyrinthine pattern in an active alcohol film. A dynamic labyrinthine pattern is formed along the contact line of air/pentanol/aqueous three phases. The contact line shows a clear time-dependent change with regard to both perimeter and area of a domain. An autocorrelation analysis of time-development of the dynamics of the perimeter and area revealed a strong geometric correlation between neighboring patterns. The pattern showed autoregressive behavior. The behavior of the dynamic pattern is strikingly different from those of stationary labyrinthine patterns. The essential aspects of the observed dynamic pattern are reproduced by a diffusion-controlled geometric model.

In this article, we describe the instability of a contact line under nonequilibrium conditions mainly based on the results of our recent studies. Two experimental examples are presented: the self-propelled motion of a liquid droplet and spontaneous dynamic pattern formation. For the self-propelled motion of a droplet, we introduce an experiment in which a droplet of aniline sitting on an aqueous layer moves spontaneously at an air-water interface. The spontaneous symmetry breaking of Marangoni-driven spreading causes regular motion. In a circular Petri dish, the droplet exhibits either beeline motion or circular motion. On the other hand, we show the emergence of a dynamic labyrinthine pattern caused by dewetting of a metastable thin film from the air-water interface. The contact line between the organic phase and aqueous phase forms a unique spatio-temporal pattern characterized as a dynamic labyrinthine. Motion of the contact line is controlled by diffusion processes. We propose a theoretical model to interpret essential aspects of the observed dynamic behavior.

We studied the curvature-driven roughening of a disk domain pattern with a variable interface window. The relaxation of interface is driven by negative surface tension . When a domain boundary propagates radially at a constant rate, we found that evolution of interface roughness follows scaling dynamic behavior. The local growth exponents are substantially different from the global exponents. Curvature-driven roughening belongs to a new class of anomalous roughening dynamics. However, a different surface tension leads to different global exponents. This is different from that of interface evolution with a fixed-size window, which has universal exponent. The variable growth window leads to a new class of anomalous roughening dynamics.

We report on a periodic precipitation pattern emerged from a drying meniscus via evaporation of a polystyrene solution in a Petri dish. It appeared a quasi-logarithmic spacing relation in the pattern as a result of stick-slip motion of the contact line towards the wall. A model based on the dynamics of the evaporating meniscus is proposed.

We report the generation of directed self-propelled motion of a droplet of aniline oil with a velocity on the order of centimeters per second on an aqueous phase. It is found that, depending on the initial conditions, the droplet shows either circular or beeline motion in a circular Petri dish. The motion of a droplet depends on volume of the droplet and concentration of solution. The velocity decreases when volume of the droplet and concentration of solution increase. Such unique motion is discussed in terms of Marangoni-driven spreading under chemical nonequilibrium. The simulation reproduces the mode of motion in a circular Petri dish.