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HfTe3 single crystal undergoes a charge-density-wave (CDW) transition at TCDW = 93 K without the appearance of superconductivity (SC) down to 50 mK at ambient pressure. Here, we determined its CDW vector q = 0.91(1) a* + 0.27(1) c* via low-temperature transimission electron microscope and then performed comprehensive high-pressure transport measurements along three major crystallographic axes. Our results indicate that the superconducting pairing starts to occur within the quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) -Te2-Te3- chain at 4-5 K but the phase coherence between the superconducting chains cannot be realized along either the b- or c-axis down to at least 1.4 K, giving rise to an extremely anisotropic SC rarely seen in real materials. We have discussed the prominent Q1D SC in pressurized HfTe3 in terms of the anisotropic Fermi surfaces arising from the unidirectional Te-5px electronic states and the local pairs formed along the -Te2-Te3- chains based on the first-principles electronic structure calculations.

Geometric phases, arising from cyclic evolutions in a curved parameter space, appear in a wealth of physical settings. Recently, and largely motivated by the need of an experimentally realistic definition for quantum computing applications, the quantum geometric phase was generalized to open systems. The definition takes a kinematical approach, with an initial state that is evolved cyclically but coupled to an environment --- leading to a correction of the geometric phase with respect to the uncoupled case. We obtain this correction by measuring the nonunitary evolution of the reduced density matrix of a spin one-half coupled to an environment. In particular, we consider a bath that can be tuned near a quantum phase transition, and demonstrate how the criticality information imprinted in the decoherence factor translates into the geometric phase. The experiments are done with a NMR quantum simulator, in which the critical environment is modeled using a one-qubit system.

Nonthermal X-rays and very high-energy (VHE) $\gamma$-rays have been detected from the supernova remnant (SNR) RX J1713.7-3946, and especially the recent observations with the \textit{Suzaku} satellite clearly reveal a spectral cutoff in the X-ray spectrum, which directly relates to the cutoff of the energy spectrum of the parent electrons. However, whether the origin of the VHE $\gamma$-rays from the SNR is hadronic or leptonic is still in debate. We studied the multi-band nonthermal emission from RX J1713.7-3946 based on a semi-analytical approach to the nonlinear shock acceleration process by including the contribution of the accelerated electrons to the nonthermal radiation. The results show that the multi-band observations on RX J1713.7-3946 can be well explained in the model with appropriate parameters and the TeV $\gamma$-rays have hadronic origin, i.e., they are produced via proton-proton (p-p) interactions as the relativistic protons accelerated at the shock collide with the ambient matter., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted by MNRAS

We analyze the available data on eta photo- and electroproduction, around W~1535 MeV, in the framework of the effective Lagrangian approach, and extract, in a nearly model-independent fashion, the electrostrong amplitude for the gamma+N--> N*(1535)--> N+eta processes. Quark model approaches are shown to be quite inadequate to explain this property at all Q^2. In particular, at high Q^2, the extracted amplitude falls much slower than the predictions of the quark model, as a function of Q^2, a situation similar to the electroexcitation and decay of Delta(1232). A QCD explanation of these observations is urgently needed., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

We analyze the existing data on electroproduction of eta mesons in the region of W~1.5GeV, and extract an electrostrong form factor for the N*(1535) electroexcitation and decay into the eta-N channel, which is found to be relatively insensitive to the uncertainties of the effective Lagrangian approach. this extracted quantity is of interest in the QCD description of relevant baryons., Comment: 12 pages, two figures; to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett

From the new Mainz data of eta photoproduction off protons\cite{ref1} and deuterons\cite{ref2}, we can extract, via the effective Lagrangian approach (ELA)\cite{ref3}, the electrostrong parameters $\xi_{p}$ and $\xi_{n}$ for the N$^*$(1535) excitation. These parameters are, in units of $10^{-4} MeV^{-1}$, $(2.20\pm 0.15)$ and $(-1.86\pm 0.20)$ respectively. They yield the ratio of the helicity amplitudes for the excitation of N$^*$(1535) by photons off neutrons and protons to be $A^{n}_{1/2}/A^{p}_{1/2}=-0.84\pm 0.15$, a quantity of fundamental importance in the baryon structure. Best estimates in the quark model are close to this ratio., Comment: 1 fig. in ps.. It is an invited talk in Baryon'95, Santa Fe, Oct. 1995

Using the recent precise measurements of eta photopro- duction in proton and deuteron targets, we extract the ratio of the helicity amplitudes A^n_1/2 / A^p_1/2, for the excitation of N^*(1535), in the effective Lagrangian approach, It is fairly model-independent, free from the final-state interaction effects, and negative as predicted by the quark models. We stress the importance of polarization observables in further elucidation of the N^*(1520) photoexcitation amplitudes., Comment: 4 figures. It will be published in Phys. Lett. B

We extract a parameter $\xi$, a characteristic product of the strong and electromagnetic amplitudes for the N^*(1535), to be (2.20+-0.15) in unit of 10^(-4)MeV^(-1) from the new data on photoproduction of etas off proton., Comment: will be published in Phys. Rev. Lett

We discuss the eta and eta prime photo- and electroproduction as a way to probe the nucleon resonance structure., Comment: 6 pages,including 2 figs.(psfig)

We examine eta prime photoproduction, as a novel tool to study baryon resonances around 2 GeV, of particular interest to the quark shell model, which predicts a number of them. We find important roles of the form factors at the strong vertices, and show that the N^*(2080) can be probed efficiently by this reaction., Comment: Will be published in Phys. Rev. C

We investigate eta photoproduction in the $N^{*}(1535)$ resonance region within the effective Lagrangian approach (ELA), wherein leading contributions to the amplitude at the tree level are taken into account. These include the nucleon Born terms and the leading $t$-channel vector meson exchanges as the non-resonant pieces. In addition, we consider five resonance contributions in the $s$- and $u$- channel; besides the dominant $N^{*}(1535)$, these are: $N^{*}(1440),N^{*}(1520),N^{*}(1650)$ and $N^{*}(1710)$. The amplitudes for the $\pi^\circ$ and the $\eta$ photoproduction near threshold have significant differences, even as they share common contributions, such as those of the nucleon Born terms. Among these differences, the contribution to the $\eta$ photoproduction of the $s$-channel excitation of the $N^{*}(1535)$ is the most significant. We find the off-shell properties of the spin-3/2 resonances to be important in determining the background contributions. Fitting our effective amplitude to the available data base allows us to extract the quantity $\sqrt{\chi \Gamma_\eta} A_{1/2}/\Gamma_T$, characteristic of the photoexcitation of the $N^{*}(1535)$ resonance and its decay into the $\eta$-nucleon channel, of interest to precise tests of hadron models. At the photon point, we determine it to be $(2.2\pm 0.2)\times 10^{-1} GeV^{-1}$ from the old data base, and $(2.2\pm 0.1) \times 10^{-1} GeV^{-1}$ from a combination of old data base and new Bates data. We obtain the helicity amplitude for $N^{*}(1535)\rightarrow \gamma p$ to be $A_{1/2}=(97\pm 7)\times 10^{-3} GeV^{-1/2}$ from the old data base, and $A_{1/2}=(97\pm 6)\times 10^{-3} GeV^{-1/2}$ from the combination of the old data base and new Bates data, compared with the results of the analysis of pion photoproduction yielding $74\pm 11$, in the same units., Comment: 43 pages, RevTeX, 9 figures available upon request, to appear in Phys. Rev. D