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The phenomenon of self-assembly of constituent elements to form molecules at low temperatures appears ubiquitously in transition metal compounds with orbital degrees of freedom. Recent progress in local structure studies using synchrotron radiation x-rays is shifting the interest in structural studies in such molecule-forming systems from the low-temperature ordered phase to the short-range order that appears like a precursor at high temperatures. In this study, we discuss both experimentally and theoretically the relationship between the trimer structure that appears in the layered LiV$X_2$ ($X$ = O, S, Se) system with a two-dimensional triangular lattice of vanadium and the zigzag chain-like local structure that appears near the phase transition boundary where molecular formation occurs. The vanadium trimerization that persistently appears in both low-temperature phases of LiVO$_2$ and LiVS$_2$ disappears in LiVSe$_2$, and a regular triangular lattice is thought to be realized in LiVSe$_2$, but this study reveals that the zigzag chain local distortion appears with a finite correlation length. This zigzag chain state local distortions are similar to the motif of local distortions in the high-temperature phase of LiVS$_2$, indicating that the local distortions are persistent away from the trimer phase transition boundary. On the other hand, it is concluded that the zigzag chain order appearing in LiVSe$_2$ is more stable than that in LiVS$_2$ in terms of the temperature variation of atomic displacement and correlation length. The zigzag chain order is considered to be competitive with the trimer order appearing in the LiV$X_2$ system. In this paper, we discuss the similarities and differences between the parameters that stabilize these electronic phases and the local distortions that appear in other molecular formation systems.

We discovered a simple regime where a near-critical plasma irradiated by a laser of experimentally available intensity can self-organize to produce positrons and accelerate them to ultra-relativistic energies. The laser pulse piles up electrons at its leading edge, producing a strong longitudinal plasma electric field. The field creates a moving gamma-ray collider that generates positrons via the linear Breit-Wheeler process -- annihilation of two gamma-rays into an electron-positron pair. At the same time, the plasma field, rather than the laser, serves as an accelerator for the positrons. The discovery of positron acceleration was enabled by a first-of-its-kind kinetic simulation that generates pairs via photon-photon collisions. Using available laser intensities of $10^{22}$$\ $$\rm W/cm^2$, the discovered regime can generate a GeV positron beam with divergence angle of $\sim10^{\circ}$ and total charge of 0.1$\ $pC. The result paves the way to experimental observation of the linear Breit-Wheeler process and to applications requiring positron beams.

A relativistic petawatt laser light can heat heavy metals over keV temperature isochorically and ionize them almost fully. Copious hard X-rays are emitted from the high-Z hot plasma which acts as X-ray sources, while they work as a cooling process of the plasma. The cooling process can affect on the creation of high energy density plasma via the interaction, however, the details are unknown. The X-ray spectrum depends on the plasma temperature, so that it is worthwhile to investigate the radiation cooling effects. We here study the isochoric heating of a solid silver foil irradiated by relativistic laser lights with a help of particle-in-cell simulations including Coulomb collisions, ionizations, and radiation processes. We have conducted a parameter survey varying laser intensity, $10^{18-20}\,\rm{W/cm^2}$, to check the cooling effects while keeping the incident laser energy constant. The silver plasma heated mainly by the resistive heating dissipates its energy by keV X-ray emissions in a picosecond time scale. The radiation power from the silver foil is found to be comparable to the incident laser power when the laser intensity is less than $10^{19}\,{\rm W/cm^2}$ under the constant energy situation. The evolution of the plasma energy density inside the target is then suppressed, due to which a highly compressed collisional shock is formed at the target surface and propagates into the plasma. The radiation spectra of the keV silver plasma are also demonstrated.

Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) measurements were performed on the heavy fermion superconductor Ce3PtIn11 with Tc = 0.32 K. The temperature dependence of both spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T1 and NQR spectra evidences the occurrence of two successive magnetic transitions with TN1 = 2.2 K and TN2 = 2.0 K. In successive magnetic transitions, even though the magnetic moment at the Ce(2) site plays a major role, the magnetic moment at the Ce(1) site also contributes to some extent. While a commensurate antiferromagnetic ordered state appears for TN2 < T < TN1, a partially incommensurate antiferromagnetic ordered state is suggested for T < TN2.

We investigate the crystal structure in multiferroic tetragonal perovskite Sr$_{1/2}$Ba$_{1/2}$MnO$_3$ with high accuracy of the order of 10$^{-3}$ Angstrom for an atomic displacement. The large atomic displacement for Mn ion from the centerosymmetric position, comparable with the off-centering distortion in the tetragonal ferroelectric BaTiO$_3$, is observed in the ferroelectric phase ($T_\mathrm{N}$ $\leq$ $T$ $\leq$ $T_\mathrm{C}$). In stark contrast, in the multiferroic phase ($T$ $\leq$ $T_\mathrm{N}$), the atomic displacement for Mn ion is suppressed, but those for O ions are enlarged. The atomic displacements in the polar crystal structures are also analyzed in terms of the ferroelectric modes. In the ferroelectric phase, the atomic displacements are decomposed into dominant positive Slater, negative Last, and small positive Axe modes. The suppression of Slater and Last modes, the sign change of Last mode, and the enlargement of Axe mode are found in the multiferroic phase. The ferroelectric distortion is well reproduced by a first-principles calculation based on Berry phase method, providing an additional information on competing mechanisms to induce the polarization, electronic $p$-$d$ hybridization vs. magnetic exchange-striction., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, and 4 tables

In metals, orbital motions of conduction electrons on the Fermi surface are quantized in magnetic fields, which is manifested by quantum oscillations in electrical resistivity. This Landau quantization is generally absent in insulators. Here we report a notable exception in an insulator, ytterbium dodecaboride (YbB12). Despite much larger than that of metals, the resistivity of YbB12 exhibits profound quantum oscillations. This unconventional oscillation is shown to arise from the insulating bulk, yet the temperature dependence of their amplitude follows the conventional Fermi liquid theory of metals. The large effective masses indicate the presence of Fermi surface consisting of strongly correlated electrons. Our result reveals a mysterious bipartite ground state of YbB12: it is both a charge insulator and a strongly correlated metal., Comment: This is the original submitted version

We discuss herein the emergence of a large entropy change in metallic Li0.33VS2 derived from the orbitally assisted loose {\sigma} bond formation. Comprehensive structural studies based on synchrotron x-ray and neutron diffraction analyses clarify the fabrication of ribbon chains at 375 K, consisting of multiple three-centered two-electron {\sigma} bonds based on the viewpoint of local chemical bonding. Although the metallic conductivity persists down to the lowest temperature measured, exceptionally large entropy change as a metal, as much as {\Delta}S = 6.6 J/mol K, appears at the transition. Emergence of a large entropy change in a metallic state expects us the possible novel functional materials, such as a heat-storage material with rapid thermal response., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. B: Rapid Communications

We analyze the measured optical conductivity spectra using the density-functional-theory-based electronic structure calculation and density-matrix renormalization group calculation of an effective model. We show that, in contrast to a conventional description, the Bose-Einstein condensation of preformed excitons occurs in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$, despite the fact that a noninteracting band structure is a band-overlap semimetal rather than a small band-gap semiconductor. The system above the transition temperature is therefore not a semimetal, but rather a state of preformed excitons with a finite band gap. A novel insulator state caused by the strong electron-hole attraction is thus established in a real material., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Supplemental Material

Using the density-functional-theory based electronic structure calculations, we study the electronic state of recently discovered mixed-valent manganese oxides $A$Mg$_4$Mn$_6$O$_{15}$ ($A=$ K, Rb, Cs), which are fully spin-polarized ferromagnetic insulators with a cubic crystal structure. We show that the system may be described as a three-dimensional arrangement of the one-dimensional chains of a $2p$ orbital of O and a $3d$ orbital of Mn running along the three axes of the cubic lattice. We thereby argue that in the ground state the chains are fully spin polarized due to the double-exchange mechanism and are distorted by the Peierls mechanism to make the system insulating., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

The Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope has commenced science observations of the Sun starting in late 2016. Since the Sun is much larger than the field of view of individual ALMA dishes, the ALMA interferometer is unable to measure the background level of solar emission when observing the solar disk. The absolute temperature scale is a critical measurement for much of ALMA solar science, including the understanding of energy transfer through the solar atmosphere, the properties of prominences, and the study of shock heating in the chromosphere. In order to provide an absolute temperature scale, ALMA solar observing will take advantage of the remarkable fast-scanning capabilities of the ALMA 12m dishes to make single-dish maps of the full Sun. This article reports on the results of an extensive commissioning effort to optimize the mapping procedure, and it describes the nature of the resulting data. Amplitude calibration is discussed in detail: a path that utilizes the two loads in the ALMA calibration system as well as sky measurements is described and applied to commissioning data. Inspection of a large number of single-dish datasets shows significant variation in the resulting temperatures, and based on the temperature distributions we derive quiet-Sun values at disk center of 7300 K at lambda=3 mm and 5900 K at lambda=1.3 mm. These values have statistical uncertainties of order 100 K, but systematic uncertainties in the temperature scale that may be significantly larger. Example images are presented from two periods with very different levels of solar activity. At a resolution of order 25 arcsec, the 1.3 mm wavelength images show temperatures on the disk that vary over about a 2000 K range., Comment: Solar Physics, accepted: 24 pages, 13 figures

On-the-fly mapping of cm-wave spectral lines has been implemented at the the Tidbinbilla 70-m radio antenna. We describe the implementation and data reduction procedure and present new H92$\alpha$ radio recombination line maps towards Orion A and Sagittarius A. Comparison of the Orion~A map to previous observations suggests that the lines arise largely from gas with electron density of 100--200\,cm$^{-3}$. On-the-fly mapping is very efficient at generating large maps of bright lines (such as radio recombination lines), but will still yield strong efficiency gains for smaller maps of fainter lines, such as the ammonia inversion lines at the 1.3\,cm wavelength., Comment: 8 pages, 3 tables, 8 Figures. Accepted for Publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Journal

Since the 1985 discovery of the phase transition at $T_{\rm HO}=17.5$ K in the heavy-fermion metal URu$_2$Si$_2$, neither symmetry change in the crystal structure nor magnetic ordering have been observed, which makes this "hidden order" enigmatic. Some high-field experiments have suggested electronic nematicity which breaks fourfold rotational symmetry, but direct evidence has been lacking for its ground state at zero magnetic field. Here we report on the observation of lattice symmetry breaking from the fourfold tetragonal to twofold orthorhombic structure by high-resolution synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements at zero field, which pins down the space symmetry of the order. Small orthorhombic symmetry-breaking distortion sets in at $T_{\rm HO}$ with a jump, uncovering the weakly first-order nature of the hidden-order transition. This distortion is observed only in ultrapure sample, implying a highly unusual coupling nature between the electronic nematicity and underlying lattice., Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. Submitted version. Revisions have been made through the review process. See the published version in Nature Communications

The antiferromagnetic structure of Sr3Ir2O7, the bilayer analogue of a spin-orbital Mott insulator Sr2IrO4, was revealed by resonant magnetic x-ray diffraction. Contrasting intensities of the magnetic diffraction at the Ir LIII and LII edges show a Jeff=1/2 character of the magnetic moment as is argued in Sr2IrO4. The magnitude of moment, however, was found to be smaller than that of Sr2IrO4 by a factor of 5-6, implying that Sr3Ir2O7 is no longer a Mott insulator but a weak antiferromagnet. An evident change of the temperature dependence of the resistivity at TN, from almost temperature-independent resistivity to insulating, strongly suggests that the emergent weak magnetism controls the charge gap. The magnetic structure was found to be an out-of-plane collinear antiferromagnetic ordering in contrast to the inplane canted antiferromagnetism in Sr2IrO4, originating from the strong bilayer antiferromagnetic coupling.

Strongly interacting electrons can exhibit novel collective phases, among which the electronic nematic phases are perhaps the most surprising as they spontaneously break rotational symmetry of the underlying crystal lattice. The electron nematicity has been recently observed in the iron-pnictide and cuprate high-temperature superconductors. Whether such a tendency of electrons to self-organise unidirectionally has a common feature in these superconductors is, however, a highly controversial issue. In the cuprates, the nematicity has been suggested as a possible source of the pseudogap phase, whilst in the iron-pnictides, it has been commonly associated with the tetragonal-to-orthorhombic structural phase transition at $T_s$. Here, we provide the first thermodynamic evidence in BaFe2(As1-xPx)2 that the nematicity develops well above the structural transition and persists to the nonmagnetic superconducting regime, resulting in a new phase diagram strikingly similar to the pseudogap phase diagram in the cuprates. Our highly sensitive magnetic anisotropy measurements using microcantilever torque-magnetometry under in-plane field rotation reveal pronounced two-fold oscillations, which break the tetragonal symmetry. Combined with complementary high-resolution synchrotron X-ray and resistivity measurements, our results consistently identify two distinct temperatures - one at $T^{\ast}$, signifying a true nematic transition, and the other at $T_s (< T^{\ast})$, which we show to be not a true phase transition, but rather what we refer to as a "meta-nematic transition", in analogy to the well-known metamagnetic transition in the theory of magnetism. Our observation of the extended nematic phase above the superconducting dome establishes that the nematicity has primarily an electronic origin, inherent in the normal state of high-temperature superconductors., Comment: See the Nature website for the published version with more detailed doping dependence and discussions

Cd2Os2O7 shows a peculiar metal-insulator transition at 227 K with magnetic ordering in a frustrated pyrochlore lattice, but its magnetic structure in the ordered state and the transition origin are yet uncovered. We observed a commensurate magnetic peak by resonant x-ray scattering in a high-quality single crystal. X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering experiments confirmed that the transition is not accompanied with any spatial symmetry breaking. We propose a noncollinear all-in/all-out spin arrangement on the tetrahedral network made of Os atoms. Based on this we suggest that the transition is not caused by Slater mechanism as believed earlier but by an alternative mechanism related to the formation of the specific tetrahedral magnetic order on the pyrochlore lattice in the presence of strong spin-orbit interactions., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett

Magnetically-driven ferroelectric atomic displacements of the order of 10$^{-3} Angstrom have been observed in orthorhombic (perovskite like) YMnO$_3$ by a single-crystal synchrotron x-ray diffraction. The refined polar structure shows the characteristic bond alternation driven by the exchange striction in staggered Mn-O-Mn arrays with $\uparrow\uparrow\downarrow\downarrow$ type ordering, giving rise to a spontaneous polarization along a-axis. First-principles calculations based on the Berry phase method as well as on the experimentally refined crystal structure can reproduce the observed polarization value., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables

The low-lying states in 106Zr and 108Zr have been investigated by means of {\beta}-{\gamma} and isomer spectroscopy at the RI beam factory, respectively. A new isomer with a half-life of 620\pm150 ns has been identified in 108Zr. For the sequence of even-even Zr isotopes, the excitation energies of the first 2+ states reach a minimum at N = 64 and gradually increase as the neutron number increases up to N = 68, suggesting a deformed sub-shell closure at N = 64. The deformed ground state of 108Zr indicates that a spherical sub-shell gap predicted at N = 70 is not large enough to change the ground state of 108Zr to the spherical shape. The possibility of a tetrahedral shape isomer in 108Zr is also discussed., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett

We examine the optical conductivity in antiferromagnetic (AFM) iron pnictides by mean-field calculation in a five-band Hubbard model. The calculated spectra are well consistent with the in-plane anisotropy observed in the measurements, where the optical conductivity along the direction with the AFM alignment of neighboring spins is larger than that along the ferromagnetic (FM) direction in the low-energy region; however, that along the FM direction becomes larger in the higher-energy region. The difference between the two directions is explained by taking account of orbital characters in both occupied and unoccupied states as well as of the nature of Dirac-type linear dispersions near the Fermi level., Comment: 4pages, 3 figures, 1 table