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Theoretically, communities at or near their equilibrium species number resist entry of new species. Such 'biotic resistance' recently has been questioned because of successful entry of alien species into diverse natural communities. Data on 10,409 naturalizations of 5350 plant species over 16 sites dispersed globally show exponential distributions for both species over sites and sites over number of species shared. These exponentials signal a statistical mechanics of species distribution, assuming two conditions. First, species and sites are equivalent, either identical ('neutral'), or so complex that the chance a species is in the right place at the right time is vanishingly small ('idiosyncratic'); the range of species and sites in our data disallows a neutral explanation. Secondly, the total number of naturalisations is fixed in any era by a 'regulator'. Previous correlation of species naturalization rates with net primary productivity over time suggests that regulator is related to productivity. We conclude that biotic resistance is a moving ceiling, with resistance controlled by productivity. The general observation that the majority of species occur naturally at only a few sites but only a few at many now has a quantitative [exponential] character, offering the study of species' distributions a previously unavailable rigor., Comment: 30 pages, including 4 figures, 1 table and 4 appendices

The magnetic properties of a new family of molecular-based quasi-two dimension $S=1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnets are reported. Three compounds, ($Cu(pz)_2(ClO_4)_2$, $Cu(pz)_2(BF_4)_2$, and $[Cu(pz)_2(NO_3)](PF_6)$) contain similar planes of Cu$^{2+}$ ions linked into magnetically square lattices by bridging pyrazine molecules (pz = $C_4H_4N_2$). The anions provide charge balance as well as isolation between the layers. Single crystal measurements of susceptibility and magnetization, as well as muon spin relaxation studies, reveal low ratios of N\'{e}el temperatures to exchange strengths ($4.25 / 17.5 = 0.243$, $3.80/15.3=0.248$, and $3.05/10.8=0.282$, respectively) while the ratio of the anisotropy fields $H_A$ (kOe) to the saturation field $H_\mathrm{SAT}$ (kOe) are small ($2.6/490 = 5.3\times10^{-3}$, $2.4/430=5.5\times10^{-3}$, and $0.07/300=2.3\times10^{-4}$, respectively), demonstrating close approximations to a 2D Heisenberg model. The susceptibilities of ClO$_4$ and BF$_4$ show evidence of an exchange anisotropy crossover (Heisenberg to $XY$) at low temperatures; their ordering transitions are primarily driven by the $XY$ behavior with the ultimate 3D transition appearing parasitically. The PF$_6$ compound remains Heisenberg-like at all temperatures, with its transition to the N\'{e}el state due to the interlayer interactions. Effects of field-induced anisotropy have been observed., Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review B

Co3V2O8 (CVO) has a geometrically frustrated magnetic lattice, a Kagome staircase. The crystal structure consists of two inequivalent Co sites, one-dimensional chains of Co(2) spine sites, linked by Co(1) cross-tie sites. Neutron powder diffraction has been used to solve the basic magnetic and crystal structures of this system, while polarized and unpolarized single crystal diffraction measurements have been used to reveal a variety of incommensurate phases, interspersed with lock-in transitions to commensurate phases. CVO initially orders magnetically at 11.3 K into an incommensurate, transversely polarized, spin density wave state, with wave vector k=(0,delta,0) with delta=0.55 and the spin direction along the a axis. Delta is found to decrease monotonically with decreasing temperature, and then it locks into a commensurate antiferromagnetic structure with delta=0.5 for 6.9

The results of inelastic neutron scattering provide a solution for the crystal field level scheme in PrOs4Sb12 in which the ground state in the cubic crystal field potential of Th symmetry is a Gamma_1 singlet. The conduction electron mass enhancement is consistent with inelastic exchange scattering, and we propose that inelastic quadrupolar, or aspherical Coulomb, scattering is responsible for enhancing the superconducting transition temperature. PrOs4Sb12 appears to be the first compound in which aspherical Coulomb scattering is strong enough to overcome magnetic pair-breaking and increase Tc., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures

Perovskite manganite compounds such as Pr_(1-x)(Ca_(1-y)Sr_y)_xMn3 can be tuned to exhibit a metastable ground state where two magnetic/crystallographic phases coexist in zero magnetic field. Field-dependent neutron diffraction measurements on both poly- and single-crystal samples with a range of Pr, Ca, and Sr dopings(0.3

We have measured the magnetic field dependence of the paramagnetic to the field-induced high temperature antiferroquadrupolar magnetically ordered phase transition is CeB6 from 0 to 60 T using a variety of techniques. It is found that the field-dependent phase separation line becomes re-entrant above 35 T and below 10 K. Measurements of resonant ultra-sound, specific heat and neutron diffraction show conclusively that the zero-field temperature-dependent phase transition is to a state with no ordered dipole moments, but with second order transition signatures in both sound attenuation and specific heat., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 11 references, submitted to Physical Review Letters

The magnetic susceptibility and magnetization of two new layered S=1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnets with moderate exchange are reported. The two isostructural compounds, (2-amino-5-chloropyridinium)2CuBr4 ((5CAP)2CuBr4) and (2-amino-5-methylpyridinium)2CuBr4 ((5MAP)2CuBr4), contain S=1/2, Cu(II) ions related by C-centering, yielding four equivalent nearest neighbors. The crystal structure of newly synthesized compound, (5CAP)2CuBr4, shows the existence of layers of distorted copper(II)-bromide tetrahedra parallel to the ab plane, separated by the organic cations along the c axis. Magnetic pathways are available through the bromide-bromide contacts within the layers and provide for moderate antiferromagnetic exchange. Susceptibility measurements indicate interaction strengths to be 8.5(1) K, and 6.5(1) K and ordering temperatures of 5.1(2) K and 3.8(2) K for (5CAP)2CuBr4 and (5MAP)2CuBr4 respectively. High field magnetization experiments on both compounds show upward curvature of M(H,T). Magnetization measurements made at T = 1.3 K show saturation occurs in (5MAP)2CuBr4 at 18.8 T and in (5CAP)2CuBr4 at 24.1 T. The magnetization curves are consistent with recent theoretical predictions. Single crystal magnetization measured at 2.0 K indicate a spin flop transition at 0.38 T and 0.63 T for (5CAP)2CuBr4 and (5MAP)2CuBr4 respectively., Comment: 20 pages, 10 Figures Updated Figures and minor corrections to text

We have synthesized and characterized a new spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic ladder: bis 5-iodo-2-aminopyridinium tetrabromocuprate(II) dihydrate. X-ray diffraction studies show the structure of the compound to consist of well isolated stacked ladders and the interaction between the Cu(2+) atoms to be due to direct Br...Br contacts. Magnetic susceptibility and magnetization studies show the compound to be in the strong-coupling limit, with the interaction along the rungs (J' ~ 13 K) much greater than the interaction along the rails (J ~ 1 K). Magnetic critical fields are observed near 8.3 T and 10.4 T, respectively, establishing the existence of the energy gap., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B Figure 4 did not print. *.eps files replaced with figures.ps file

Experimental NMR implementations of the Deutsch-Josza quantum algorithm based on pesudo-pure spin states exhibit an exponential sensitivity scaling with the number of qubits. By employing truly mixed spin states in spin Liouville space, where molecules with different nuclear spin configurations represent different input states, the Deutsch-Josza problem can be solved by single function evaluation without sensitivity loss concomitant with increase of the number of bits., Comment: 7 page PDF format, no figures. References added to include works by J. M. Myers et al. and A. Kumar et al

The maximum photosynthetic carboxylation rate (V (sub cmax)) is an influential plant trait that has multiple scaling hypotheses, which is a source of uncertainty in predictive understanding of global gross primary production (GPP). Four trait-scaling hypotheses (plant functional type, nutrient limitation, environmental filtering, and plant plasticity) with nine specific implementations were used to predict global V(sub cmax) distributions and their impact on global GPP in the Sheffield Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (SDGVM). Global GPP varied from 108.1 to 128.2 petagrams of Carbon (PgC) per year, 65 percent of the range of a recent model intercomparison of global GPP. The variation in GPP propagated through to a 27percent coefficient of variation in net biome productivity (NBP). All hypotheses produced global GPP that was highly correlated (r equals 0.85-0.91) with three proxies of global GPP. Plant functional type-based nutrient limitation, underpinned by a core SDGVM hypothesis that plant nitrogen (N) status is inversely related to increasing costs of N acquisition with increasing soil carbon, adequately reproduced global GPP distributions. Further improvement could be achieved with accurate representation of water sensitivity and agriculture in SDGVM. Mismatch between environmental filtering (the most data-driven hypothesis) and GPP suggested that greater effort is needed understand V(sub cmax) variation in the field, particularly in northern latitudes.