We examine the claim that the effective action of four-dimensional SU(2) L gauge theory at high and low temperature contains a three-dimensional Chern-Simons term with coefficient being the chemical potential for baryon number. We perform calculations in a two-dimensional toy model and find that the existence of the term is rather subtle.

We investigate the transport properties of a correlated metal within dynamical mean-field theory. Canonical Fermi liquid behavior emerges only below a very low temperature scale T(FL). Surprisingly the quasiparticle scattering rate follows a quadratic temperature dependence up to much higher temperatures and crosses over to saturated behavior around a temperature scale T(sat). We identify these...

The spin diffusion and damped oscillations are studied in the collision of two spin polarized clouds of cold atoms with resonant interactions. The strong density dependence of the diffusion coefficient leads to inhomogeneous spin diffusion that changes from central to surface spin flow as the temperature increases. The inhomogeneity and the smaller finite trap size significantly reduce the spin...

Using a linear optical diffraction technique, we have systematically investigated the defect effects on quantum surface diffusion of hydrogen on Pt(111) surfaces. The quantum tunneling effect was clearly observed for hydrogen diffusion at low temperatures as manifested by a leveling off of the diffusion coefficient on flat surfaces. The strong influence of surface defects on the quantum diffusi...

We consider the Nernst effect in the normal state of the underdoped cuprate superconductors, where recent quantum oscillation experiments have indicated the existence of Fermi surface pockets and quasiparticle ambipolarity in the excitation spectrum. Using an ambipolar d-density-wave model for the pseudogap, we predict a peak in the Nernst coefficient with decreasing temperature below the pseud...