Thermodynamic evidence for the Bose glass transition in twinned YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-delta}$ crystals

We used a micromechanical torsional oscillator to measure the magnetic response of a twinned YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-delta}$ single crystal disk near the Bose glass transition. We observe an anomaly in the temperature dependence of the magnetization consistent with the appearance of a magnetic shielding perpendicular to the correlated pinning of the twin boundaries. This effect is related to the thermodynamic transition from the vortex liquid phase to a Bose glass state.

Thermal rounding exponent of the depinning transition of an elastic string in a random medium

We study numerically thermal effects at the depinning transition of an elastic string driven in a two-dimensional uncorrelated disorder potential. The velocity of the string exactly at the sample critical force is shown to behave as $V sim T^psi$, with $psi$ the thermal rounding exponent. We show that the computed value of the thermal rounding exponent, $psi = 0.15$, is robust and accounts for the different scaling properties of several observables both in the steady-state and in the transient relaxation to the steady-state. In particular, we show the compatibility of the thermal rounding exponent with the scaling properties of the steady-state structure factor, the universal short-time dynamics of the transient velocity at the sample critical force, and the velocity scaling function describing the joint dependence of the steady-state velocity on the external drive and temperature.

Levy ratchets with dichotomic random flashing

Additive symmetric Levy noise can induce directed transport of overdamped particles in a static asymmetric potential. We study, numerically and analytically, the effect of an additional dichotomous random flashing in such Levy ratchet system. For this purpose we analyze and solve the corresponding fractional Fokker-Planck equations and we check the results with Langevin simulations. We study the behavior of the current as function of the stability index of the Levy noise, the noise intensity and the flashing parameters. We find that flashing allows both to enhance and diminish in a broad range the static Levy ratchet current, depending on the frequencies and asymmetry of the multiplicative dichotomous noise, and on the additive Levy noise parameters. Our results thus extend those for dichotomous flashing ratchets with Gaussian noise to the case of broadly distributed noises.

Random-Manifold to Random-Periodic Depinning of an Elastic Interface

We study numerically the depinning transition of driven elastic interfaces in a random-periodic medium with localized periodic-correlation peaks in the direction of motion. The analysis of the moving interface geometry reveals the existence of several characteristic lengths separating different length-scale regimes of roughness. We determine the scaling behavior of these lengths as a function of the velocity, temperature, driving force, and transverse periodicity. A dynamical roughness diagram is thus obtained which contains, at small length scales, the critical and fast-flow regimes typical of the random-manifold (or domain wall) depinning, and at large length-scales, the critical and fast-flow regimes typical of the random-periodic (or charge-density wave) depinning. From the study of the equilibrium geometry we are also able to infer the roughness diagram in the creep regime, extending the depinning roughness diagram below threshold. Our results are relevant for understanding the geometry at depinning of arrays of elastically coupled thin manifolds in a disordered medium such as driven particle chains or vortex-line planar arrays. They also allow to properly control the effect of transverse periodic boundary conditions in large-scale simulations of driven disordered interfaces.

Crossed ratchet effects for magnetic domain wall motion

We study both experimentally and theoretically the driven motion of domain walls in extended amorphous magnetic films patterned with a periodic array of asymmetric holes. We find two crossed ratchet effects of opposite sign that change the preferred sense for domain wall propagation, depending on whether a flat or a kinked wall is moving. By solving numerically a simple $phi^4$-model we show that the essential physical ingredients for this effect are quite generic and could be realized in other experimental systems involving elastic interfaces moving in multidimensional ratchet potentials.