P-V criticality in the extended phase space of black holes in massive gravity

We study the P-V criticality and phase transition in the extended phase space of charged anti-de Sitter black holes in canonical ensemble of ghost-free massive gravity, where the cosmological constant is viewed as a dynamical pressure of the black hole system. We give the generalized thermodynamic first law and the Smarr relation with massive gravity correction. We find that not only when the horizon topology is spherical but also in the Ricci flat or hyperbolic case, there appear the P-V criticality and phase transition up to the combination k+c02c2m2 in the four-dimensional case, where k characterizes the horizon curvature and c2m2 is the coefficient of the second term of massive potential associated with the graviton mass. The positivity of such combination indicate the van der Waals-like phase transition. When the spacetime dimension is larger then four, the Maxwell charge there seems unnecessary for the appearance of critical behavior, but a infinite repulsion effect needed, which can also be realized through negative valued c3m2 or c4m2, which is third or fourth term of massive potential. When c3m2 is positive, a Hawking-Page-like black hole to vacuum phase transition is shown in the five-dimensional chargeless case. For the van der Waals-like phase transition in four and five spacetime dimensions, we calculate the critical exponents near the critical point and find they are the same as those in the van der Waals liquid-gas system.

Electronic Structure Reconstruction across the Antiferromagnetic Transition in TaFe$_{1.23}$Te$_3$ Spin Ladder

With angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we studied the electronic structure of TaFe$_{1.23}$Te$_3$, which is a two-leg spin ladder compound with a novel antiferromagnetic ground state. Quasi-two-dimensional Fermi surface is observed, indicating sizable inter-ladder hopping, which would facilitate the in-plane ferromagnetic ordering through double exchange interactions. Moreover, an energy gap is not observed at the Fermi surface in the antiferromagnetic state. Instead, the shifts of various bands have been observed. Combining these observations with density-functional-theory calculations, we propose that the large scale reconstruction of the electronic structure, caused by the interactions between the coexisting itinerant electrons and local moments, is most likely the driving force behind the magnetic transition. TaFe$_{1.23}$Te$_3$ thus provides a simpler system that contains similar ingredients as the parent compounds of iron-based superconductors, which yet could be readily modeled and understood.

Atomic spin-orbit coupling synthesized with magnetic-field-gradient pulses

We discuss a general scheme for creating atomic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) such as the Rashba or Dresselhaus types using magnetic-field-gradient pulses. In contrast to conventional schemes based on adiabatic center-of-mass motion with atomic internal states restricted to a dressed-state subspace, our scheme works for the complete subspace of a hyperfine-spin manifold by utilizing the coupling between the atomic magnetic moment and external magnetic fields. A spatially dependent pulsed magnetic field acts as an internal-state-dependent impulse, thereby coupling the atomic internal spin with its orbital center-of-mass motion, as in the Einstein-de Haas effect. This effective coupling can be dynamically manipulated to synthesize SOC of any type (Rashba, Dresselhaus, or any linear combination thereof). Our scheme can be realized with most experimental setups of ultracold atoms and is especially suited for atoms with zero nuclear spins.