We study a nonequilibrium Ising model that stochastically evolves under the simultaneous operation of several spin-flip mechanisms. In other words, the local magnetic fields change sign randomly with time due to competing kinetics. This dynamics models a fast and random diffusion of disorder that takes place in dilute metallic alloys when magnetic ions diffuse. We perform Monte Carlo simulation...

We study theoretically the electronic states in a 5d transition metal oxide Na2IrO3, in which both the spin-orbit interaction and the electron correlation play crucial roles. A tight-binding model analysis together with the first-principles band structure calculation predicts that this material is a layered quantum spin Hall system. Because of the electron correlation, an antiferromagnetic orde...

Electrical control of magnetic properties is crucial for device applications in the field of spintronics. Although the magnetic coercivity or anisotropy has been successfully controlled electrically in metals as well as in semiconductors, the electrical control of Curie temperature has been realized only in semiconductors at low temperature. Here, we demonstrate the room-temperature electrical ...

At low temperature, a thermodynamic system undergoes a phase transition when a physical parameter passes through a singularity point of the free energy. This corresponds to the formation of a new order. At high temperature, thermal fluctuations destroy the order. Correspondingly, the free energy is a smooth function of the physical parameter and singularities only occur at complex values of the...

We show that the Random Energy Model has interesting rejuvenation properties in its frozen phase. Different ‘susceptibilities’ to temperature changes, for the free-energy and for other (‘magnetic’) observables, can be computed exactly. These susceptibilities diverge at the transition temperature, as (1− T/Tc) for the free-energy. A small temperature change in the low temperature phase of spin-g...

The effect of C60 molecular rotation on the nanotribological properties of C60 single crystal surfaces has been studied by atomic/frictional force microscopy. The orientational order-disorder phase transition, in which the high temperature C60 free rotation is reduced to a low temperature hindered rotation, is shown to give rise to an abrupt change in friction and adhesion. This change in frict...

Lawsonite, CaAl(2)Si(2)O(7)(OH)(2)H(2)O, is a novel ferroelectric material which is dominated by ordering and disordering of protons. We report related elastic anomalies in lawsonite. A new approach to extracting acoustic data from resonant ultrasonic spectroscopy has been applied to investigate the ordering and disordering of protons. This approach is based on analysis of entire spectra, rathe...

Finite temperature lattice QCD is probed by varying the temporal boundary conditions of the fermions. We develop the emerging physical behavior in a study of the quenched case and subsequently present first results for a fully dynamical calculation comparing ensembles below and above the phase transition. We show that for low temperature spectral quantities of the Dirac operator are insensitive...

The phase diagram of the classical anisotropic (XXZ) Heisenberg model on the 2-dimensional triangular lattice is investigated using Monte Carlo methods. In the easy-axis limit, two finite temperature vortex unbinding transitions have been observed. In the easy-plane limit, there also appear to be two distinct finite temperature phase transitions which are very close in temperature. The upper tr...

We construct inhomogeneous asymptotically anti-de Sitter black hole solutions corresponding to the spontaneous breaking of translational invariance and the formation of striped order in the boundary field theory. We find that the system undergoes a second-order phase transition in both the fixed density and fixed chemical potential ensembles, for sufficiently large values of the axion coupling....