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Lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) is a largely genetically determined biomarker for cardiovascular disease (CVD), while its potential interplay with family history (FHx) of CVD, a measure of both genetic and environmental exposures, remains unclear. We examined the associations of Lp(a) in terms of circulating concentration or polygenetic risk score (PRS), and FHx of CVD with risk of incident heart failure (HF). Included were 299,158 adults from the UK Biobank without known HF and CVD at baseline. Hazards ratios (HRs) and 95% Cls were estimated by Cox regression models adjusted for traditional risk factors defined by the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study HF risk score. During the 11.8-year follow-up, 5,502 incidents of HF occurred. Higher levels of circulating Lp(a), Lp(a) PRS, and positive FHx of CVD were associated with higher risks of HF. Compared with individuals who had lower circulating Lp(a) and no FHx, HRs (95% CIs) of HF were 1.36 (1.25, 1.49), 1.31 (1.19, 1.43), and 1.42 (1.22, 1.67) for those with higher Lp(a) and a positive history of CVD for all family members, parents, and siblings, respectively; similar results were observed by using Lp(a) PRS. The risk estimates for HF associated with elevated Lp(a) and positive FHx were attenuated after excluding those with incident myocardial infarction (MI) during follow-up. Lp(a) and FHx of CVD were independent risk factors for incident HF, and the highest risk of HF was observed among individuals with both risk factors. The association may be partly mediated by myocardial infarction.

The transport behavior at the quantum limit may show exotic phenomena such as special interlayer quantum transport. Here, the authors observe negative interlayer magnetoresistance resulted from tunneling of Dirac fermions between the zeroth Landau levels in BaGa2, indicating a feature at the quantum limit.

Exotic chiral fermions beyond Weyl fermions have recently been discovered in a series of chiral crystals such as CoSi. Here, the authors report the evidences of chiral fermions in RhSn with opposite handedness compared to those observed in CoSi, where the structural chirality is also opposite.

The interplay between the low-energy carriers in Dirac materials and magnetism is likely to reveal many novel physical phenomena. Here, the authors use two-magnon Raman scattering to determine the exchange energies of two prototypical magnetic Dirac systems, CaMnBi2 and SrMnBi2.

The interplay between time-reversal symmetry (TRS) and band topology plays a crucial role in topological states of quantum matter. In time-reversal-invariant (TRI) systems, the inversion of spin-degenerate bands with opposite parity leads to nontrivial topological states, such as topological insulators and Dirac semimetals. When the TRS is broken, the exchange field induces spin splitting of the bands. The inversion of a pair of spin-splitting subbands can generate more exotic topological states, such as quantum anomalous Hall insulators and magnetic Weyl semimetals. So far, such topological phase transitions driven by the TRS breaking have not been visualized. In this work, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we have demonstrated that the TRS breaking induces a band inversion of a pair of spin-splitting subbands at the TRI points of Brillouin zone in EuB_{6}, when a long-range ferromagnetic order is developed. The dramatic changes in the electronic structure result in a topological phase transition from a TRI ordinary insulator state to a TRS-broken topological semimetal (TSM) state. Remarkably, the magnetic TSM state has an ideal electronic structure, in which the band crossings are located at the Fermi level without any interference from other bands. Our findings not only reveal the topological phase transition driven by the TRS breaking, but also provide an excellent platform to explore novel physical behavior in the magnetic topological states of quantum matter.

We report the magneto-transport properties and electronic structures of BaZnBi _2 . BaZnBi _2 is a quasi-two-dimensional material with metallic behavior. Transverse magnetoresistance (MR) depends on magnetic field linearly and exhibits Shubnikov–de Haas (SdH) oscillation at low temperature and high field. The observed linear MR may originate from the disorder in samples or the edge conductivity in compensated two-component systems. The first-principles calculations reveal the absence of stable gapless Dirac fermion. Combined with the trivial Berry phase extracted from the SdH oscillation, BaZnBi _2 is suggested as a topologically trivial semimetal. Nearly compensated electron-like Fermi surfaces (FSs) and hole-like FSs coexist in BaZnBi _2 .

Using Anderson impurity model to describe the magnetic moments of Ni doped in high-T[sub c]d-wave cuprates, the impurity state of Ni at the vortex core is studied. We find that the existence of the impurity resonance is insensitive to the vortex core although the resonant energy is sightly changed, which might help to examine the dominant mechanism of experimentally observed impurity state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report an investigation of the structural, magnetic and electronic properties of Ba(Fe1−xVx)2As2 using x-ray, transport, magnetic susceptibility and neutron scattering measurements. The vanadium substitutions in Fe sites are possible up to ∼40%. Hall effect measurements indicate strong hole-doping effect through V doping, while no superconductivity is observed in all samples down to 2 K. The antiferromagnetic and structural transition temperature of BaFe2As2 is gradually suppressed to finite temperature, then vanishes at with the emergence of spin glass behavior, suggesting an avoided quantum critical point (QCP). Our results demonstrate that the avoided QCP and spin glass state which were previously reported in the superconducting phase of Co/Ni-doped BaFe2As2 can also be realized in non-superconducting Ba(Fe1−xVx)2As2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the synthesis of single crystals of α-ZrSb2/α-HfSb2 and their magneto-transport properties. Both of α-ZrSb2 and α-HfSb2 exhibit metallic behavior. The T3 behavior of zero-field resistivity for both compounds below 30 K indicates interband electron-phonon scattering. The magnetoresistance (MR) is found to obey Kohler's rule for ZrSb2 while the MR of HfSb2 deviates from this rule. A possible explanation for the results of Kohler's plot is considered, which is confirmed with the results of the Hall effect. The positive linear Hall resistivity of ZrSb2 suggests hole-type carriers and a mobility of , while the existence of two types of carriers in HfSb2 is confirmed from the nonlinear Hall resistivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dirac semimetal is a class of materials that host Dirac fermions as emergent quasi-particles. Dirac cone-type band structure can bring interesting properties such as quantum linear magnetoresistance and large mobility in the materials. In this paper, we report the synthesis of high quality single crystals of BaMnBi2 and investigate the transport properties of the samples. BaMnBi2 is a metal with an antiferromagnetic transition at TN = 288 K. The temperature dependence of magnetization displays different behavior from CaMnBi2 and SrMnBi2, which suggests the possible different magnetic structure of BaMnBi2. The Hall data reveals electron-type carriers and a mobility μ(5 K) = 1500 cm2/V·s. Angle-dependent magnetoresistance reveals the quasi-two-dimensional (2D) Fermi surface in BaMnBi2. A crossover from semiclassical MR ∼ H2 dependence in low field to MR ∼ H dependence in high field, which is attributed to the quantum limit of Dirac fermions, has been observed in magnetoresistance. Our results indicate the existence of Dirac fermions in BaMnBi2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We synthesized single crystals of β-MoTe2 by the chemical vapor transport (CVT) method. Resistivity and magnetoresistivity (MR) have been measured. The MR displays H2 behavior at low field and linear field dependence at high field, which is different from the quadratic behavior in the sample obtained from the NaCl-flux method. It is suggested that the observed linear MR may originate from disorder. The quality and low-temperature property of β-MoTe2 clearly depend on the growth method. Moreover, the angular-dependent MR reveals the two-fold symmetry of Fermi surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In topological insulators (TIs), metallic surface conductance saturates the insulating bulk resistance with decreasing temperature, resulting in resistivity plateau at low temperatures as a transport signature originating from metallic surface modes protected by time reversal symmetry (TRS). Such a characteristic has been found in several materials including Bi2Te2Se, SmB6 etc. Recently, similar behavior has been observed in metallic compound LaSb, accompanying an extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR). Shubnikov-de Hass (SdH) oscillation at low temperatures further confirms the metallic behavior of the plateau region under magnetic fields. LaSb [Tafti et al., Nat. Phys. 12, 272 (2015)] has been proposed by the authors as a possible topological semimetal (TSM), while negative magnetoresistance is absent at this moment. Here, high quality single crystals of NbAs2/TaAs2 with inversion symmetry have been grown, and the resistivity under magnetic field is systematically investigated. Both of them exhibit metallic behavior under zero magnetic field, and a metal-to-insulator transition occurs when a nonzero magnetic field is applied, resulting in XMR (1.0×105% for NbAs2 and 7.3×105% for TaAs2 at 2.5 K and 14 T). With temperature decreased, a resistivity plateau emerges after the insulatorlike regime, and SdH oscillation has also been observed in NbAs2 and TaAs2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]