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Three-dimensional doped Dirac insulators foster simply connected (in both topological and trivial regimes) and annular (deep inside the topological regime) Fermi surfaces (FSs) in the normal state, and allow on-site repulsions among fermions with opposite spin ($U_1$) and parity ($U_2$) eigenvalues. From an unbiased leading-order (one-loop) renormalization group analysis, controlled by a suitable $\epsilon$ expansion, we show that this system develops strong propensity toward the nucleation of scalar $s$-wave and odd-parity pseudoscalar $p$-wave pairings, favored by repulsive $U_1$ and $U_2$ interactions, respectively, irrespective of the underlying FS topology. Our results can be pertinent for the observed superconductivity in various doped narrow gap semiconductors, and the theoretical foundation can readily be applied to investigate similar phenomenon in various doped topological materials., Comment: 5 Pages, 1 Figure, 2 Tables (Supplemental Material as ancillary file)

The study of improper phases in the context of multiferroic materials has a long history, but superconductivity has yet to be connected to the network of ferroic orders. In this work, we highlight an overlooked mechanism that couples superconducting order parameters to odd-parity orders in the charge or spin sectors such that the latter emerge as improper orders. For that, we explore a novel perspective of nonsymmorphic symmetries based on extended symmetry groups in real space. We highlight how nonsymmorphic symmetries can generate rather nonintuitive couplings between order parameters. In particular, we find that a bilinear in the superconducting order parameter can couple linearly to odd-parity orders in centrosymmetric systems. Our findings can account for the unusual phenomenology of CeRh$_2$As$_2$, a recently discovered heavy fermion superconductor, and open the door for exploring nonsymmorphic symmetries in the broader context of improper orders with potential applications to functional materials., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

Recent experiments observed a phase transition within the superconducting regime of the heavy-fermion system CeRh$_2$As$_2$ when subjected to a $c$-axis magnetic field. This phase transition has been interpreted as a parity switching from even to odd parity as the field is increased, and is believed to be of first order. If correct, this scenario provides a unique opportunity to study the phenomenon of local nucleation around inhomogeneities in a superconducting context. Here, we study such nucleation in the form of sharp domain walls emerging on a background of spatially varying material properties and hence, critical magnetic field. To this end, we construct a spatially inhomogeneous Ginzburg-Landau functional and apply numerical minimization to demonstrate the existence of localized domain wall solutions and study their physical properties. Furthermore, we propose ultrasound attenuation as an experimental bulk probe of domain wall physics in the system. In particular, we predict the appearance of an absorption peak due to domain wall percolation upon tuning the magnetic field across the first-order transition line. We argue that the temperature dependence of this peak could help identify the nature of the phase transition., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures

Crystalline graphene heterostructures, namely Bernal bilayer and rhombohedral trilayer graphene, subject to electric displacement fields, display a rich confluence of competing orders, resulting in a valley-degenerate, spin-polarized half-metal at moderate doping, and a spin- and valley-polarized quarter-metal at low doping. Here we show that the annular Fermi surface of such a quarter-metal can be susceptible toward the nucleation of a unique spin and valley polarized superconducting state, accommodating interlayer Cooper pairs that break the translational symmetry, giving rise to a Kekul\'e or columnar pair-density-wave. The superconducting ground state produces isolated Fermi pockets of neutral Majorana fermions, featuring a three-fold rotational symmetry, resulting in power-law scaling physical observables with temperature ($T$), such as specific heat $C_v \sim T$., Comment: 6 Pages, 2 Figures, 1 Table: Supplementary Materials as Ancillary File

Motivated by recent experiments [H. Zhou, \emph{et al.}, Science {\bf 375}, 774 (2022) and S. C. de la Barrera, \emph{et al.}, arXiv:2110.13907], here we propose a general mechanism for valley and/or spin degeneracy lifting of the electronic bands in doped Bernal bilayer graphene, subject to electric displacement ($D$) fields. A $D$-field induced layer polarization (LP), when accompanied by Hubbard repulsion driven layer antiferromagnet (LAF) and next-nearest-neighbor repulsion driven quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) orders, lifts the four-fold degeneracy of electronic bands, yielding a quarter metal for small doping, as also observed in ABC trilayer graphene. With the disappearance of the QAH order, electronic bands recover two-fold valley degeneracy, thereby forming a conventional or compensated (with majority and minority carriers) half-metal at moderate doping, depending on the relative strength of LP and LAF. At even higher doping and for weak $D$-field only LAF survives and the Fermi surface recovers four-fold degeneracy. We also show that a pure repulsive electronic interaction mediated triplet $f$-wave pairing emerges from a parent correlated nematic liquid or compensated half-metal when an in-plane magnetic field is applied to the system., Comment: Published version: 6 Pages, 3 Figures (Supplementary: as ancillary file)

Combining mean-field and renormalization group analyses, here we unveil the nature of recently observed superconductivity and parent metallic states in chemically doped rhombohedral trilayer graphene, subject to external electric displacement fields ($D$) [H. Zhou, \emph{et al.}, Nature (London) {\bf 598}, 434 (2021)]. We argue that close to the charge neutrality, on site Hubbard repulsion favors layer antiferromagnet, which when combined with the $D$-field induced layer polarization, produces a spin-polarized, but valley-unpolarized half-metal, conducive to the nucleation of spin-triplet $f$-wave pairing (SC2). At larger doping valence bond order emerges as a prominent candidate for isospin coherent paramagent, boosting condensation of spin-singlet Cooper pairs in the $s$-wave channel (SC1), manifesting a "selection rule" among competing orders. Responses of these paired states to displacement and in-plane magnetic fields show qualitative similarities with experimental observation. With the onset of the quantum anomalous Hall order, the valley degeneracy of half-metal gets lifted, forming a quarter-metal at lower doping [H. Zhou, \emph{et al.}, Nature (London) {\bf 598}, 429 (2021)]., Comment: 5 Pages, 4 Figures (Supplementary Materials as Ancillary file): Published version

Performing a leading-order renormalization group analysis, here we compute the effects of generic local or short-range electronic interactions in monolayer and Bernal bilayer graphene. Respectively in these two systems chiral quasiparticles display linear and biquadratic band touching, leading to linearly vanishing and constant DOS. Consequently, the former system remains stable for weak enough local interactions, and supports a variety of ordered phases only beyond a critical strength of interactions. By contrast, ordered phases can nucleate for sufficiently weak interactions in bilayer graphene. By tuning the strength of all symmetry allowed local interactions, we construct various cuts of the phase diagram at zero and finite temperature and chemical doping. Typically, at zero doping insulating phases (such as charge-density-wave, antiferromagnet, quantum anomalous and spin Hall insulators) prevail at the lowest temperature, while gapless nematic or smectic liquids stabilize at higher temperatures. On the other hand, at finite doping the lowest temperature ordered phase is occupied by a superconductor. Besides anchoring such an organizing principle among the candidate ordered phases, we also establish a selection rule between them and the interaction channel responsible for the breakdown of linear or biquadrtic chiral nodal Fermi liquid. In addition, we also demonstrate the role of the normal state band structure in selecting the pattern of symmetry breaking from a soup of preselected incipient competing orders. As a direct consequence of the selection rule, while an antiferromagnetic phase develops in undoped monolayer and bilayer graphene, the linear (biquadratic) band dispersion favors condensation of a spin-singlet nematic (translational symmetry breaking Kekul\'e) superconductor in doped monolayer (bilayer) graphene, when the on site Hubbard repulsion dominates in these systems., Comment: 40 Pages, 13 Figures, 5 Tables (Published Version): extended abstract, see manuscript

We compute the effects of strong Hubbardlike local electronic interactions on three-dimensional four-component massless Dirac fermions, which in a noninteracting system possess a microscopic global U(1)$\otimes$SU(2) chiral symmetry. A concrete lattice realization of such chiral Dirac excitations is presented, and the role of electron-electron interactions is studied by performing a field theoretic renormalization group (RG) analysis, controlled by a \emph{small} parameter $\epsilon$ with $\epsilon=d-1$, about the lower-critical one spatial dimension. Besides the noninteracting Gaussian fixed point, the system supports four quantum critical and four bicritical points at nonvanishing interaction couplings $\sim \epsilon$. Even though the chiral symmetry is absent in the interacting model, it gets restored (either partially or fully) at various RG fixed points as emergent phenomena. A representative cut of the global phase diagram displays a confluence of scalar and pseudoscalar excitonic and superconducting (such as the $s$-wave and $p$-wave) mass ordered phases, manifesting restoration of (a) chiral U(1) symmetry between two excitonic masses for repulsive interactions and (b) pseudospin SU(2) symmetry between scalar or pseudoscalar excitonic and superconducting masses for attractive interactions. Finally, we perturbatively study the effects of \emph{weak} rotational symmetry breaking on the stability of various RG fixed points., Comment: Published Version: 28 Pages, 3 Figures, 4 Tables

We analyze the stability of time-reversal (${\mathcal T}$) and lattice four-fold ($C_4$) symmetry breaking three-dimensional higher-order topological (HOT) Dirac semimetals (DSMs) and the associated one-dimensional hinge modes in the presence of random pointlike charge impurities. Complementary real space numerical and momentum space renormalization group (RG) analyses suggest that a HOTDSM, while being a stable phase of matter for sufficiently weak disorder, undergoes a continuous quantum phase transition into a trivial metal at finite disorder. However, the corresponding critical exponents (numerically obtained from the scaling of the density of states) are extremely close to the ones found in a dirty, but first-order DSM that on the other hand preserves ${\mathcal T}$ and $C_4$ symmetries, and support two Fermi arc surface states. This observation suggests an emergent \emph{superuniversality} (insensitive to symmetries) in the entire family of dirty DSMs, as also predicted by a leading-order RG analysis. As a direct consequence of the bulk-boundary correspondence, the hinge modes in a system with open boundaries gradually fade away with increasing randomness, and completely dissolve in the trivial metallic phase at strong disorder., Comment: Published version: 12 Pages, 5 Figures, 1 Table

Recently, the notion of topological phases of matter has been extended to higher-order incarnations, supporting gapless modes on even lower dimensional boundaries, such as corners and hinges. We here identify a collection of cubic spin-3/2 fermions with biquadratic touching of Kramers degenerate valence and conduction bands as a platform to strain-engineer higher-order topological (HOT) phases: external uniaxial strain gives birth to a HOT Dirac semimetal or an insulator, depending on its sign, featuring topological \emph{hinge} modes in the strain direction. The insulator in fact exhibits \emph{mixed} topology, and in addition supports edge modes on orthogonal planes. These outcomes are germane when the external strain is applied along one of the $C_{4v}$ or coordinate axes, as well as $C_{3v}$ or body-diagonal, directions. Our findings place HgTe, gray-Sn, 227 pyrochlore iridates and half-Heusler compounds at the frontier of strain-engineered electronic HOT phases., Comment: 6 Pages, 1 Figure (Supplemental Material as ancillary file): Published version

We compute the effects of electronic interactions on gapless spin-3/2 excitations that in a noninteracting system emerge at a bi-quadratic touching of Kramers degenerate valence and conduction bands, known as Luttinger semimetal. This model can describe the low-energy physics of HgTe, gray-Sn, 227 pyrochlore iridates and half-Heuslers. For the sake of concreteness we only consider the short-range components of the Coulomb interaction. By combining mean-field analysis with a renormalization group (RG) calculation, we construct multiple cuts of the global phase diagram of interacting spin-3/2 fermions at zero and finite temperature and chemical doping. Such phase diagrams display a rich confluence of competing orders, among which rotational symmetry breaking nematic insulators and time reversal symmetry breaking magnetic orders are the prominent excitonic phases. We also show that even repulsive interactions can be conducive for both s-wave and d-wave pairings. The reconstructed band structure inside the ordered phases allows us to organize them according to the energy (entropy) gain in the following (reverse) order: s-wave pairing, nematic phases, magnetic orders and d-wave pairings, at zero chemical doping. But, the paired states are always energetically superior over the excitonic ones for finite doping. The phase diagrams obtained from the RG analysis show that an ordered phase with higher energy (entropy) gain is realized at low (high) temperature. In addition, we establish a "selection rule" between the interaction channels and the resulting ordered phases, suggesting that repulsive interactions in the magnetic (nematic) channels are conducive for the nucleation of d-wave (s-wave) pairing. The proposed methodology can shed light on the global phase diagram of other strongly interacting multi-band systems, such as doped Dirac semimetal, topological insulators and the like., Comment: Published version: 36 pages, 21 figures, 4 tables (full abstract: see main text)

Cancer is a disease of cellular regulation, often initiated by genetic mutation within cells, and leading to a heterogeneous cell population within tissues. In the competition for nutrients and growth space within the tumors the phenotype of each cell determines its success. Selection in this process is imposed by both the microenvironment (neighboring cells, extracellular matrix, and diffusing substances), and the whole of the organism through for example the blood supply. In this view, the development of tumor cells is in close interaction with their increasingly changing environment: the more cells can change, the more their environment will change. Furthermore, instabilities are also introduced on the organism level: blood supply can be blocked by increased tissue pressure or the tortuosity of the tumor-neovascular vessels. This coupling between cell, microenvironment, and organism results in behavior that is hard to predict. Here we introduce a cell-based computational model to study the effect of blood flow obstruction on the micro-evolution of cells within a cancerous tissue. We demonstrate that stages of tumor development emerge naturally, without the need for sequential mutation of specific genes. Secondly, we show that instabilities in blood supply can impact the overall development of tumors and lead to the extinction of the dominant aggressive phenotype, showing a clear distinction between the fitness at the cell level and survival of the population. This provides new insights into potential side effects of recent tumor vasculature renormalization approaches.

Computational modelling is helpful for elucidating the cellular mechanisms driving biological morphogenesis. Previous simulation studies of blood vessel growth based on the Cellular Potts model (CPM) proposed that elongated, adhesive or mutually attractive endothelial cells suffice for the formation of blood vessel sprouts and vascular networks. Because each mathematical representation of a model introduces potential artifacts, it is important that model results are reproduced using alternative modelling paradigms. Here, we present a lattice-free, particle-based simulation of the cell elongation model of vasculogenesis. The new, particle-based simulations confirm the results obtained from the previous Cellular Potts simulations. Furthermore, our current findings suggest that the emergence of order is possible with the application of a high enough attractive force or, alternatively, a longer attraction radius. The methodology will be applicable to a range of problems in morphogenesis and noisy particle aggregation in which cell shape is a key determining factor., Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, 2 supplementary videos (on Youtube), submitted to Computational Particle Mechanics, special issue: Jos\'e-Manuel Garcia Aznar (Ed.) Particle-based simulations on cell and biomolecular mechanics

The time evolution of the medium created in heavy ion collisions can be described by hydrodynamical models. After expansion and cooling, the hadrons are created in a freeze-out. Their distribution describes the final state of this medium. In particular their azimuthal asymmetry, characterized by the elliptic flow coefficient $v_2$, is one of the most important observables in heavy ion physics. In recent years it has been revealed that if measuring relative to higher order event planes $\Psi_n$, higher order flow coefficients $v_n$ for $n>2$ can be measured. This is due to initial state fluctuations, previously not described by analytic solutions of relativistic hydrodynamics. In this paper we show the first solutions that utilize higher order asymmetries and thus yield realistic $v_n$ flow coefficients. It is a clear consequence of this that different flow patterns may lead to the same observed flow coefficients. We also compare our results to PHENIX measurements and determine a possible parameter set corresponding to these data., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev. C