Search

Theories of the origin of superconductivity in cuprates are dependent on an understanding of their normal state which exhibits various competing orders. Transport and thermodynamic measurements on La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ show signatures of a quantum critical point, including a peak in the electronic specific heat $C$ versus doping p, near the doping p*, where the pseudogap collapses. The fundamental nature of the fluctuations associated with this peak is unclear. Here we use inelastic neutron scattering to show that close to $T_c$ and near p*, there are low-energy collective spin excitations with characteristic energies $\approx$ 5 meV. The correlation length of the spin fluctuations does not diverge in spite of the low energy scale and we conclude that the underlying quantum criticality is not due to antiferromagnetism but most likely to a collapse of the pseudogap. We show that the large specific heat near p* can be understood in terms of collective spin fluctuations. The spin fluctuations we measure exist across the superconducting phase diagram and may be related to the strange metal behaviour observed in overdoped cuprates.

The tetragonal heavy fermion compound CeAuSb$_2$ (space group $P4/nmm$) exhibits incommensurate spin density wave (SDW) order below $T_{N}\approx6.5~K$ with the propagation vector $\mathbf{q}_A = (\delta_A,\delta_A,1/2)$. The application uniaxial stress along the [010] direction induces a sudden change in the resistivity ratio $\rho_a/\rho_b$ at a compressive strain of $\epsilon \approx -0.5$\%. Here we use neutron scattering to show that the uniaxial stress induces a first-order transition to a SDW state with a different propagation vector $(0,\delta_B,1/2)$ with $\delta_B=0.25$. The magnetic structure of the new (B) phase consists of Ce layers with ordered moments alternating with layers with zero moment stacked along the $c$-axis. The ordered layers have an up-up-down-down configuration along the $b$-axis. This is an unusual situation in which the loss of spatial inversion is driven by itinerant magnetic order. We argue that the change in SDW wavevector leads to a concomitant Fermi surface reconstruction, similar to other materials where a SDW can be controlled by uniaxial stress or magnetic field such as Sr$_3$Ru$_2$O$_7$.

Hall effect and quantum oscillation measurements on high temperature cuprate superconductors show that underdoped compositions have small Fermi surface pockets whereas when heavily overdoped, a single much larger pocket is found. The origin of this change in electronic structure has been unclear, but may be related to the high temperature superconductivity. Here we show that the clean overdoped single-layer cuprate Tl2Ba2CuO6+δ (Tl2201) displays CDW order with a remarkably long correlation length ξ ≈ 200 Å which disappears above a hole doping of pCDW ≈ 0.265. We show that the evolution of the electronic properties of Tl2201 as the doping is lowered may be explained by a Fermi surface reconstruction which accompanies the emergence of the CDW below pCDW. Our results demonstrate importance of CDW correlations in understanding the electronic properties of overdoped cuprates., The origin of the Fermi surface reconstruction that occurs in cuprate superconductors as hole doping increases remains unclear. Here, the authors observe long range charge density wave (CDW) order in the overdoped single-layer cuprate Tl2Ba2CuO6+δ, which then disappears above a hole concentration 0.265, suggesting a correlation between Fermi surface reconstruction and the emergence of the CDW.

Recent observations [A. Pustogow et al., Nature (London) 574, 72 (2019).NATUAS0028-083610.1038/s41586-019-1596-2] of a drop of the ^{17}O nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) Knight shift in the superconducting state of Sr_{2}RuO_{4} challenged the popular picture of a chiral odd-parity paired state in this compound. Here we use polarized neutron scattering (PNS) to show that there is a 34±6% drop in the magnetic susceptibility at the Ru site below the superconducting transition temperature. We measure at lower fields H∼1/3H_{c2} than a previous PNS study allowing the suppression to be observed. The PNS measurements show a smaller susceptibility suppression than NMR measurements performed at similar field and temperature. Our results rule out the chiral odd-parity d=z[over ^](k_{x}±ik_{y}) state and are consistent with several recent proposals for the order parameter including even-parity B_{1g} and odd-parity helical states.

Summary. The families of sporadic haemophilia A patients registered at the Royal London Hospital and with living grandparents were selected for study. Twelve of the 13 known families agreed to collaborate. Of these 11 had a patient with severe and one a patient with mild haemophilia. Five of the severely affected patients had inversions of type 1, that is involving int22h-1 and int22h-3, and two had inversions of type 2, that is involving int22h-1 and int22h-2. The remaining four patients with severe disease had single base substitutions causing two different non-sense (Gln592Stop; Trp2313Stop) and two different mis-sense mutations (His267Pro; Arg2209Gln). A single base substitution causing a mis-sense mutation (His1961Asp) was also found in the patient with mild haemophilia. The Arg2209Gln mutation has previously been found in other patients while the other single base substitutions have not hitherto been observed. Three mutations (all single base substitutions) appear to have arisen in the germline of the patient’s mother, while seven mutations originated in the gonad of one of the patient’s grandparents. In two of the latter families (both with inversion type 2) the origin of muta-tions could be clearly assigned to the grandpaternal gonad. Data on parental age at the onset of mutation were ob-tained in the families investigated. In addition, further evidence was obtained that the int-22h-related inversions arise by intrachromatid, intrachromosome homologous re-combination as the int22h repeat sequences of a patient were found to be identical to those of the maternal grand-father whose germline represents the origin of mutation.

High-temperature superconductivity emerges from an un-conventional metallic state. This has stimulated strong efforts to understand exactly how Fermi liquids breakdown and evolve into an un-conventional metal. A fundamental question is how Fermi liquid quasiparticle excitations break down in momentum space. Here we show, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, that the Fermi liquid quasiparticle excitations of the overdoped superconducting cuprate La1.77Sr0.23CuO4 is highly anisotropic in momentum space. The quasiparticle scattering and residue behave differently along the Fermi surface and hence the Kadowaki-Wood's relation is not obeyed. This kind of Fermi liquid breakdown may apply to a wide range of strongly correlated metal systems where spin fluctuations are present.

Chick actin depolymerizing factor (ADF) is an actin binding protein previously shown to rapidly depolymerize actin filaments in vitro, yielding a 1:1 complex of ADF and actin monomer. Here we show that ADF protects actin monomer from denaturation by EDTA by inhibiting the exchange of actin-bound nucleotide. Under low ionic strength conditions, the approximate dissociation constant (KD) for the ADF-actin complex determined from exchange of nucleotide (1,N6-etheno-ATP) is about 150 and is calcium-independent. Addition of ADF to monomeric actin inhibits actin assembly as well as the ATP hydrolysis that normally accompanies assembly. Complex formation is demonstrated between ADF and actin containing either ATP, ADP, or AMPPNP as the bound nucleotide. A KD of 0.1-0.2 microM was calculated for both the ADF-ATP-actin and ADF-AMPPNP-actin complexes, whereas the KD for the ADF-ADP-actin complex is about 1.3 microM. ADF can either depolymerize or cosediment with F-actin in a stoichiometric fashion, but these reciprocal activities are pH-dependent. At pHs between 6.5 and 7.1, ADF cosediments with F-actin and demonstrates only weak depolymerizing activity. ADF binding is cooperative and saturates at a 1:1 ADF:actin molar ratio. At pHs between 7.1 and 7.7, ADF shows increasing depolymerizing activity and less F-actin binding. At pH 8.0, ADF depolymerizes F-actin in a stoichiometric manner. Both the F-actin binding and the depolymerizing activities of ADF are inhibited by phalloidin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Magnetic properties of the FCC type II antiferromagnetic CeSe have been studied by elastic, diffuse critical and inelastic neutron scattering experiments. The diffuse critical scattering above the Neel temperature corresponds to highly anisotropic longitudinal spin fluctuations with a lenslike intensity distribution. The magnetic phase diagram for fields along the (110) direction contains a first-order magnetic phase transition at H=Hcrit(T)

Inelastic neutron scattering is used to investigate the collective magnetic excitations of the high-temperature superconductor-parent antiferromagnet La2CuO4. We find that while the lower energy excitations are well described by spin-wave theory, including one- and two-magnon scattering processes, the high-energy spin waves are strongly damped near the (1/2, 0) position in reciprocal space and merge into a momentum dependent continuum. This anomalous damping indicates the decay of spin waves into other excitations, possibly unbound spinon pairs.

We use inelastic neutron scattering to measure the magnetic excitations in underdoped La2-xSrxCuO4 (x=0.085, T_{c}=22 K) for large energy (5E200 meV) and temperature (5T300 K) ranges. At low T, the response is highly structured in E and q, with peaks in the local susceptibility at 15 and 50 meV and a four-peaked structure in q for E approximately 185 meV. Raising T from 30 K greater, similarT_{c} to 300 K causes the structure in chi;{''}(q,omega) present for E70 meV to disappear. It is replaced with a strongly damped response. We attribute this change to the disappearance of the pseudogap with increasing temperature.

We report a detailed inelastic neutron scattering study of the collective magnetic excitations of overdoped superconducting La(1.78)Sr(0.22)CuO(4) for the energy range 0-160 meV. Our measurements show that overdoping suppresses the strong response present for optimally doped La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4) which is peaked near 50 meV. The remaining response is peaked at incommensurate wave vectors for all energies investigated. We observe a strong high-frequency magnetic response for E approximately80 meV suggesting that significant antiferromagnetic exchange couplings persist well into the overdoped part of the cuprate phase diagram.

High-resolution neutron scattering experiments on optimally doped La2-xSrxCuO4 (x=0.16) reveal that the magnetic excitations are dispersive. The dispersion is the same as in YBa2Cu3O6.85, and is quantitatively related to that observed with charge sensitive probes. The associated velocity in La2-xSrxCuO4 is only weakly dependent on doping with a value close to the spin-wave velocity of the insulating (x=0) parent compound. In contrast with the insulator, the excitations broaden rapidly with increasing energy, forming a continuum at higher energy and bear a remarkable resemblance to multiparticle excitations observed in 1D S=1/2 antiferromagnets. The magnetic correlations are 2D, and so rule out the simplest scenarios where the copper oxide planes are subdivided into weakly interacting 1D magnets.

Summary The evolution of comprehensive care centres for haemophilia has altered the work of those involved in the care of haemophilia patients. The role of the haemophilia sister has expanded and the concept of the haemophilia nurse specialist has emerged. We describe the implementation of a local policy which has enabled haemophilia nurse specialists to requisition and administer clotting factor concentrates, DDAVP, tranexamic acid and hepatitis vaccines independently, in hospital and community settings. Since the introduction of this policy on 2 August 1994, prescribing practice has not changed in the haemophilia centre, nor has the involvement of medical staff in the care of haemophilia patients. This approach is widely applicable in other centres and should be a logical progression of the haemophilia nurse specialist's role.

We report a study of the ferromagnetism of ZrZn2, the most promising material to exhibit ferromagnetic quantum criticality, at low temperatures T as a function of pressure p. We find that the ordered ferromagnetic moment disappears discontinuously at p(c)=16.5 kbar. Thus a tricritical point separates a line of first order ferromagnetic transitions from second order (continuous) transitions at higher temperature. We also identify two lines of transitions of the magnetization isotherms up to 12 T in the p-T plane where the derivative of the magnetization changes rapidly. These quantum phase transitions (QPT) establish a high sensitivity to local minima in the free energy in ZrZn2, thus strongly suggesting that QPT in itinerant ferromagnets are always first order.

The thermal conductivity kappa of the layered s-wave superconductor NbSe2 was measured down to T(c)/100 throughout the vortex state. With increasing field, we identify two regimes: one with localized states at fields very near H(c1) and one with highly delocalized quasiparticle excitations at higher fields. The two associated length scales are naturally explained as multiband superconductivity, with distinct small and large superconducting gaps on different sheets of the Fermi surface. This behavior is compared to that of the multiband superconductor MgB2 and the conventional superconductor V3Si.

We report a study of the de Haas-van Alphen effect in the normal state of the ferromagnetic superconductor ZrZn2. Our results are generally consistent with a linear muffin-tin orbital band structure which predicts four exchange-split Fermi surface sheets. Quasiparticle effective masses are enhanced by a factor of 4.9 implying a strong coupling to magnetic excitations or phonons. ZrZn2 is unique among metallic ferromagnets in that it has a very large density of states in the ferromagnetic phase.

We report a study of the magnetization density in the mixed state of the unconventional superconductor Sr2RuO4. On entering the superconducting state we find no change in the magnitude or distribution of the induced moment for a magnetic field of 1 T applied within the Ru O2 planes. Our results are consistent with a spin-triplet Cooper pairing with spins lying in the basal plane. This is in contrast with similar experiments performed on conventional and high- T(c) superconductors.

The magnetic excitations of the square-lattice spin-1/2 antiferromagnet and high- T(c) parent compound La2CuO4 are determined using high-resolution inelastic neutron scattering. Sharp spin waves with absolute intensities in agreement with theory including quantum corrections are found throughout the Brillouin zone. The observed dispersion relation shows evidence for substantial interactions beyond the nearest-neighbor Heisenberg term which can be understood in terms of a cyclic or ring exchange due to the strong hybridization path around the Cu4O4 square plaquettes.

Inelastic neutron scattering reveals strong spin fluctuations with energies as high as 0.4 eV in the nearly antiferromagnetic metal Cr0. 95V0.05. The magnetic response is well described by a modified Millis-Monien-Pines function. From the low-energy response, we deduce a large exchange enhancement, more than an order of magnitude larger than the corresponding enhancement of the low-temperature electronic heat capacity gammaT. A scaling relationship between gamma and the inverse of the wave vector-averaged spin relaxation rate gammaave is demonstrated for a number of magnetically correlated metals.

Since the discovery of superconductivity in (La1-xBax)2CuO4 by Bednorz and Muller1 in 1986, there has been an enormous interest in all aspects of this family of materials. Our measurements have used neutron scattering techniques to study the magnetic properties of these materials. The measurements were made at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France, and at the Riso National Laboratory at Roskilde, Denmark. A number of studies of these types of materials have previously been made at other laboratories, particularly Brookhaven National Laboratory.2 Many of our measurements have been made on a different energy scale than the earlier measurements, and different aspects of the problem have been addressed. Where the experiments have overlapped, good agreement has generally been found.

The electronic structure of the incipient ferromagnet ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{3}$Ga has been studied by means of the de Haas--van Alphen technique in the magnetic field and temperature ranges 10\ensuremath{\le}H\ensuremath{\le}100 kG and 0.38\ensuremath{\le}T\ensuremath{\le}4.2 K, respectively. Concurrently, first-principles energy bands have been calculated by means of the linear-muffin-tin-orbital method. The calculated Fermi surface consists of four concentric hole sheets centered on the point \ensuremath{\Gamma} of the simple-cubic Brillouin zone. de Haas--van Alphen frequency branches in close agreement with those expected for each of these four sheets have been observed for field directions both in the (100) and (11\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}0) planes. The cyclotron masses of these branches, as well as the linear coefficient \ensuremath{\gamma} of the electronic heat capacity, are, however, greater than predicted by our band model, by a factor of between 1.5 and 2.7. Comparison of the measured and calculated magnetic susceptibility yields a Stoner enhancement factor of 98, the highest so far reported in an ordered paramagnetic transition metal, and an enhancement of the quadratic coefficient of the inverse susceptibility \ensuremath{\alpha}=\ensuremath{\partial}${\ensuremath{\chi}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$(T)/\ensuremath{\partial}(${T}^{2}$), of over 8. The strong renormalization of \ensuremath{\gamma} and \ensuremath{\alpha} points to the importance of exchange-enhanced spin fluctuations for this material, as previously reported in the weak itinerant-electron ferromagnet ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{3}$Al.

Actin depolymerizing factor (ADF) from 19-day embryonic chick brains has been purified to greater than 98% homogeneity with a yield of 7.2 mg/100 g of brain. Quantitative immunoblotting with a monospecific antibody to ADF indicated that ADF comprises 0.3% of the total brain protein, resulting in an actual purification yield of about 20%. Brain ADF migrates as a single polypeptide of 19,000 kDa on SDS-containing polyacrylamide gels. The molecular weight of the native protein determined from sedimentation equilibrium in buffers containing from 50 to 200 mM KCl is 20,000. The secondary structure of ADF calculated from the circular dichroic spectrum consists of about 22% alpha-helix, 24% beta-sheet, and 18% beta-turn. ADF contains a blocked N-terminus, a single tryptophan residue located about one-third of the way from one end of the protein, and six cysteine residues (all in reduced form in the native protein). All six cysteine residues could be chemically modified with eosinylmaleimide under nondenaturing conditions; however, ADF activity was lost when more than one cysteine residue was modified. ADF microheterogeneity has been observed upon nonequilibrium pH gradient electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gels containing 9 M urea, the major isoform having a pI of congruent to 7.9-8.0. ADF can interact with either monomeric or filamentous actin to give a complex which can be isolated by gel filtration chromatography. Both major and minor isoforms of the ADF are found in the complex. Assembly-competent actin and active ADF can both be recovered from the complex by chromatography on ATP-saturated DEAE-cellulose.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

All but one of the six free sulfhydryl groups of chick brain actin depolymerizing factor (ADF) are protected from modification when ADF forms a 1:1 complex with actin. This exposed sulfhydryl can be cross-linked to cys 374 of actin with N,N'-phenylenedimaleimide. The cross-linked complex inhibits the hydrolytic activity of pancreatic deoxyribonuclease (DNase I) to an identical extent as both the untreated complex and an equivalent amount of free actin. These data indicate that ADF binds to actin at a site which does not overlap with the DNase I binding site.

Fermi surface areas representative of all bands crossing the Fermi level are observed by the de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) technique in Ni 3 Ga and found to be in good agreement with our LMTO band model. Masses and other low temperature properties, however, appear to be strongly renormalised by interactions. Splittings of some of the dHvA frequency branches are observed at high fields and are interpreted in terms of the effect of the exchange interaction at local regions in k -space.