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We present here a study of the magnetic properties of the antiferromagnetic dimer material CuVOF$_4$(H$_2$O)$_6\cdot$H$_2$O, in which the dimer unit is composed of two different $S = 1/2$ species, Cu(II) and V(IV). An applied magnetic field of $\mu_0H_{\rm c1} = 13.1(1)~\rm T$ is found to close the singlet-triplet energy gap, the magnitude of which is governed by the antiferromagnetic intradimer, $J_0 \approx 21~\rm K$, and interdimer, $J' \approx 1~\rm K$, exchange energies, determined from magnetometry and electron-spin resonance measurements. The results of density functional theory (DFT) calculations are consistent with the experimental results and predicts antiferromagnetic coupling along all nearest-neighbor bonds, with the magnetic ground state comprising spins of different species aligning antiparallel to one another, while spins of the same species are aligned parallel. The magnetism in this system cannot be accurately described by the overlap between localized V orbitals and magnetic Cu orbitals lying in the Jahn-Teller (JT) plane, with a tight-binding model based on such a set of orbitals incorrectly predicting that interdimer exchange should be dominant. DFT calculations indicate significant spin density on the bridging oxide, suggesting instead an unusual mechanism in which intradimer exchange is mediated through the O atom on the Cu(II) JT axis., Comment: Main - 12 pages, 11 figures. Supplemental Information - 11 pages, 11 figures; V2 - Corrected typo in author list

We report the results of the pressure-dependent measurements of the static magnetization and of the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) of Cr$_2$Ge$_2$Te$_6$ to address the properties of the ferromagnetic phase of this quasi-two-dimensional van der Waals magnet. The static magnetic data at hydrostatic pressures up to 3.4 GPa reveal a gradual suppression of ferromagnetism in terms of a reduction of the critical transition temperature, a broadening of the transition width and an increase of the field necessary to fully saturate the magnetization $M_{\rm s}$. The value of $M_{\rm s} \simeq 3\mu_{\rm B}$/Cr remains constant within the error bars up to a pressure of 2.8 GPa. The anisotropy of the FMR signal continuously diminishes in the studied hydrostatic pressure range up to 2.39 GPa suggesting a reduction of the easy-axis type magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (MAE). A quantitative analysis of the FMR data gives evidence that up to this pressure the MAE constant $K_{\rm U}$, although getting significantly smaller, still remains finite and positive, i.e. of the easy-axis type. Therefore, a recently discussed possibility of switching the sign of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy in Cr$_2$Ge$_2$Te$_6$ could only be expected at still higher pressures, if possible at all due to the observed weakening of the ferromagnetism under pressure. This circumstance may be of relevance for the design of strain-engineered functional heterostructures containing layers of Cr$_2$Ge$_2$Te$_6$.

Antiferromagnet Mn$_3$P with Neel temperature $T_N=30$ K is composed of Mn-tetrahedrons and zigzag chains formed by three inequivalent Mn sites. Due to the nearly frustrated lattice with many short Mn-Mn bonds, competition of the exchange interactions is expected. We here investigate the magnetic structure and physical properties including pressure effect in single crystals of this material, and reveal a complex yet well-ordered helimagnetic structure. The itinerant character of this materials is strong, and the ordered state with small magnetic moments is easily suppressed under pressure, exhibiting a quantum critical point at $\sim1.6$ GPa. The remarkable mass renormalization, even in the ordered state, and an incoherent-coherent crossover in the low-temperature region, characterize an unusual electronic state in Mn$_3$P, which is most likely effected by the underlying frustration effect., Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, including the Supplemental Material, to be published in Physical Review Letters

Quantum triangular-lattice antiferromagnets are important prototype systems to investigate phenomena of the geometrical frustration in condensed matter. Apart from highly unusual magnetic properties, they possess a rich phase diagram (ranging from an unfrustrated square lattice to a quantum spin liquid), yet to be confirmed experimentally. One major obstacle in this area of research is the lack of materials with appropriate (ideally tuned) magnetic parameters. Using Cs$_2$CuCl$_4$ as a model system, we demonstrate an alternative approach, where, instead of the chemical composition, the spin Hamiltonian is altered by hydrostatic pressure. The approach combines high-pressure electron spin resonance and magnetization measurements, allowing us not only to quasi-continuously tune the exchange parameters, but also to accurately monitor them. Our experiments indicate a substantial increase of the exchange coupling ratio from 0.3 to 0.42 at a pressure of 1.8 GPa, revealing a number of emergent field-induced phases.

The current helicity in solar active regions derived from vector magnetograph observations for more than 20 years indicates the so-called hemispheric sign rule; the helicity is predominantly negative in the northern hemisphere and positive in the southern hemisphere. In this paper we revisit this property and compare the statistical distribution of current helicity with Gaussian distribution using the method of normal probability paper. The data sample comprises 6630 independent magnetograms obtained at Huairou Solar Observing Station, China, over 1988-2005 which correspond to 983 solar active regions. We found the following. (1) For the most of cases in time-hemisphere domains the distribution of helicity is close to Gaussian. (2) At some domains (some years and hemispheres) we can clearly observe significant departure of the distribution from a single Gaussian, in the form of two- or multi-component distribution. (3) For the most non-single-Gaussian parts of the dataset we see co-existence of two or more components, one of which (often predominant) has a mean value very close to zero, which does not contribute much to the hemispheric sign rule. The other component has relatively large value of helicity that often determines agreement or disagreement with the hemispheric sign rule in accord with the global structure of helicity reported by Zhang et al. (2010).

We report the synthesis and the magnetic susceptibility of (pipdH)2Cu1-xZnxBr4, which is a nonmagnetic impurity-doped S=1/2 spin ladder system. The samples were synthesized from a solution by using a slow evaporation method. Samples were confirmed to be in a single phase and to have the same crystal structure as the pure system (pipdH)2CuBr4 by using X-ray diffraction measurements. To check the magnetic properties, we performed magnetic susceptibility and magnetization measurements with a SQUID magnetometer. A plot of the inverse magnetic susceptibility indicates the presence of dominant antiferromagnetic coupling. The magnetic susceptibility shows a broad maximum due to low dimensionality and a spin gap behavior related to the two-leg spin ladder at low temperature. The spin gap and the Curie constants of Zn-doped samples, as estimated from an analysis of the magnetic susceptibility, monotonically decrease as the Zn concentration decreases. A nonmagnetic impurity of S=1/2 spin ladder system affects the spin gap., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

We present results for application of block BiCGSTAB algorithm modified by the QR decomposition and the SAP preconditioner to the Wilson-Dirac equation with multiple right-hand sides in lattice QCD on a $32^3 \times 64$ lattice at almost physical quark masses. The QR decomposition improves convergence behaviors in the block BiCGSTAB algorithm suppressing deviation between true residual and recursive one. The SAP preconditioner applied to the domain-decomposed lattice helps us minimize communication overhead. We find remarkable cost reduction thanks to cache tuning and reduction of number of iterations., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 table

We consider a quadrature-based eigensolver to find eigenpairs of Hermitian matrices arising in lattice quantum chromodynamics. To reduce the computational cost for finding eigenpairs of such Hermitian matrices, we propose a new technique for solving shifted linear systems with complex shifts by means of the shifted CG method. Furthermore using integration paths along horizontal lines corresponding to the real axis of the complex plane, the number of iterations for the shifted CG method is also reduced. Some numerical experiments illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method by comparison with a conventional method., Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures

We previously attempted to ascertain why the Li I 6708 line-strengths of Sun-like stars differ so significantly despite the superficial similarities of stellar parameters. We carried out a comprehensive analysis of 118 solar analogs and reported that a close connection exists between the Li abundance A_Li and the line-broadening width (v_r+m; mainly contributed by rotational effect), which led us to conclude that stellar rotation may be the primary control of the surface Li content. To examine our claim in more detail, we study whether the degree of stellar activity exhibits a similar correlation with the Li abundance, which is expected because of the widely believed close connection between rotation and activity. We measured the residual flux at the line center of the strong Ca II 8542 line, r_0(8542), known to be a useful index of stellar activity, for all sample stars using newly acquired spectra in this near-IR region. The projected rotational velocity (v_e sin i) was estimated by subtracting the macroturbulence contribution from v_r+m that we had already established. A remarkable (positive) correlation was found in the A_Li versus (vs.) r_0(8542) diagram as well as in both the r_0(8542) vs. v_e sin i and A_Li vs. v_e sin i diagrams, as had been expected. With the confirmation of rotation-dependent stellar activity, this clearly shows that the surface Li abundances of these solar analogs progressively decrease as the rotation rate decreases. Given this observational evidence, we conclude that the depletion of surface Li in solar-type stars, probably caused by effective envelope mixing, operates more efficiently as stellar rotation decelerates. It may be promising to attribute the low-Li tendency of planet-host G dwarfs to their different nature in the stellar angular momentum., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures; accepted for publication in Astron. Astrophys.

Previously unobservable mirror asymmetry of the solar magnetic field -- a key ingredient of the dynamo mechanism which is believed to drive the 11-year activity cycle -- has now been measured. This was achieved through systematic monitoring of solar active regions carried out for more than 20 years at observatories in Mees, Huairou, and Mitaka. In this paper we report on detailed analysis of vector magnetic field data, obtained at Huairou Solar Observing Station in China. Electric current helicity (the product of current and magnetic field component in the same direction) was estimated from the data and a latitude-time plot of solar helicity during the last two solar cycles has been produced. We find that like sunspots helicity patterns propagate equatorwards but unlike sunspot polarity helicity in each solar hemisphere does not change sign from cycle to cycle - confirming the theory. There are, however, two significant time-latitudinal domains in each cycle when the sign does briefly invert. Our findings shed new light on stellar and planetary dynamos and has yet to be included in the theory., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures 0 tables. MNRAS Letters, accepted

There exist two major problems in application of the conventional block BiCGSTAB method to the O(a)-improved Wilson-Dirac equation with multiple right-hand-sides: One is the deviation between the true and the recursive residuals. The other is the convergence failure observed at smaller quark masses for enlarged number of the right-hand-sides. The block BiCGGR algorithm which was recently proposed by the authors succeeds in solving the former problem. In this article we show that a preconditioning technique allows us to improve the convergence behavior for increasing number of the right-hand-sides., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures

It is well known that the block Krylov subspace solvers work efficiently for some cases of the solution of differential equations with multiple right-hand sides. In lattice QCD calculation of physical quantities on a given configuration demands us to solve the Dirac equation with multiple sources. We show that a new block Krylov subspace algorithm recently proposed by the authors reduces the computational cost significantly without loosing numerical accuracy for the solution of the O(a)-improved Wilson-Dirac equation., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

We investigate coronal transients associated with a GOES M6.7 class flare and a coronal mass ejection (CME) on 13 July 2004. During the rising phase of the flare, a filament eruption, loop expansion, a Moreton wave, and an ejecta were observed. An EIT wave was detected later on. The main features in the radio dynamic spectrum were a frequency-drifting continuum and two type II bursts. Our analysis shows that if the first type II burst was formed in the low corona, the burst heights and speed are close to the projected distances and speed of the Moreton wave (a chromospheric shock wave signature). The frequency-drifting radio continuum, starting above 1 GHz, was formed almost two minutes prior to any shock features becoming visible, and a fast-expanding piston (visible as the continuum) could have launched another shock wave. A possible scenario is that a flare blast overtook the earlier transient, and ignited the first type II burst. The second type II burst may have been formed by the same shock, but only if the shock was propagating at a constant speed. This interpretation also requires that the shock-producing regions were located at different parts of the propagating structure, or that the shock was passing through regions with highly different atmospheric densities. This complex event, with a multitude of radio features and transients at other wavelengths, presents evidence for both blast-wave-related and CME-related radio emissions., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures; Solar Physics Topical Issue, in press