Breaking Transition Research Articles

Coupled Kite-to-Square Distortion Transition and Physical Properties in 2D Lead Halide Perovskite.

2D lead halide perovskites showcase diverse electrical and optoelectrical properties due to their adaptable structural distortion, which dictates the symmetry characteristics of the material. To accommodate the geometric shape of the cation, the inorganic layer of the 2D perovskite often undergoes specific distortions such as lead-halide bond length elongation/compression and lead atom displacement. The resultant distortion manifests as a quadrilateral shape formed by Pb atoms from four adjacent four octahedrons. The degree of distortion increases as the quadrilateral deviates further from a square shape and vice versa. This quadrilateral shape not only visually represents the magnitude of distortion but also confirms its direction. During the transition from kite to square distortion under external stimuli, the positions of the Pb atoms vividly illustrate the symmetry-breaking process, corresponding to a shift from high to low symmetry states. The electrical and optoelectronic properties, including ferroelectricity, pyroelectricity, piezoelectricity, nonlinear optical properties, and characteristics related to bulky photovoltaic effects, some of them exhibit direction dependence nature. This perspective employed a visible structural distortion approach to elucidate symmetry breaking and coupling distortion transitions with eight optoelectronic physical properties in 2D layered perovskite. We review recent research advancements and outline current challenges that help us to understand the structure-property relationship of 2D perovskite.

Dark matter phenomenology and phase transition dynamics of the next-to-minimal composite Higgs model with a dilaton

In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive study of the next-to-minimal composite Higgs model (NMCHM) extended with a dilaton field χ (denoted as NMCHMχ). A pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (pNGB) η, resulting from the SO(6)→SO(5) breaking, serves as a dark matter (DM) candidate. The inclusion of the dilaton field is helpful for evading the stringent constraints from dark matter direct detection, as it allows for an accidental cancellation between the amplitudes of DM-nucleon scattering, an outcome of the mixing between the dilaton and Higgs fields. The presence of the dilaton field also enriches the phase transition patterns in the early universe. We identify two types of phase transitions: (i) a 1-step phase transition, where the chiral symmetry and electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) occur simultaneously, and (ii) a 2-step phase transition, where the chiral symmetry breaking transition takes place first, followed by a second phase transition corresponding to EWSB. Since the first-order phase transitions can be strong due to supercooling in our model, we also examine the stochastic background of gravitational waves generated by these phase transitions. We find that these gravitational waves hold promise for detection in future space-based gravitational wave experiments, such as LISA, Taiji, BBO, and DECIGO. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Kaiwi shoreline basalts fed by the west rift zone of East Molokaʻi

Bathymetry and acoustic imagery swath mapping, along with observations and samples from four manned submersible and four ROV dives, confirm that a seafloor slope break on the northern approaches to Kaiwi Channel, between the islands of Oʻahu and Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi is a former shoreline, now submerged ∼800 m below present sea level. Subaerially emplaced, low-relief basaltic lavas above the slope break transition to submarine morphologies below. The entire region has been tilted about 1° to the SSE (150°), and is cut by an 8–15 m-high, north-facing scarp, 100–400 m south of the slope break. The distribution of platy, table-top, and rarer mounded branching corals indicates the former presence of fringing reefs around low-relief paleo-islands. We infer that the regional tilt resulted from loading by younger Hawaiian volcanoes, compounded by flexural uplift and back tilting away from the unloaded footwall of a flank landslide to the north.Basalt samples collected from both above and below the slope break have petrography, chemical composition, and age (1.64–1.80 Ma) indicating correlation with the (late-shield) Lower Member of the East Molokaʻi Volcanics, rather than with the more proximal volcano of West Molokaʻi. The most likely source of the Kaiwi basalts is a submarine ridge (rift zone) that extends northwest away from ʻĪlio Point on West Molokaʻi. Although the submarine ridge was previously assumed to be an extension of West Molokaʻi's northwest rift, we conclude that regional bathymetry and gravity are consistent with this feature being an extension of the west rift of East Molokaʻi. A corallary of this interpretation is that the shoreline slope break (SSB 7 of Taylor, 2019) in this area is distinct from and younger than the southern SSB 7 formed on West Molokaʻi volcano (∼1.65 Ma vs. ∼1.8 Ma).

Weak ergodicity breaking transition in a randomly constrained model

Experiments in Rydberg atoms have recently found unusually slow decay from a small number of special initial states. We investigate the robustness of such long-lived states (LLS) by studying an ensemble of locally constrained random systems with tunable range μ. Upon varying μ, we find a transition between thermal and weakly nonergodic (supporting a finite number of LLS) phases. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the LLS observed in the experiments disappear upon the addition of small perturbations so that the transition reported here is distinct from known ones. We then show that the LLS dynamics explores only part of the accessible Hilbert space, thus corresponding to localization in Hilbert space. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Uniaxial Symmetry Breaking in Bacteriorhodopsin at the Thermal Phase Transition of Lipids of Purple Membranes.

The article correlates between symmetry breaking and phase transition. An analogy, extending from physics to biology, is known to exist between these two topics. Bacteriorhodopsin (bR) as a paradigm of membrane proteins has been used as a case study in the present work. The bR, as the sole protein embedded in what is called a purple membrane (PM), has attracted widespread interest in bionanotechnological applications. The lipids of PM have a crucial role in maintaining the crystal lattice of bR inside PM. For this reason, the present work has been concerned with elucidating the thermal phase transition properties of the PM lipids in orthogonal directions. The results indicated that the axial symmetry of bR exhibits considerable changes occurring at the thermal phase transition of lipids. These changes are brought by an anomaly observed in the time course of orthogonal electric responses during the application of thermal fields on PM. The observed anomaly may bear on symmetry breaking in bR occurring at the phase transition of lipids based on such analogy found between symmetry breaking and phase transition. Lipid-protein interactions may underlie the broken axial symmetry of bR at such lipid thermal transition of PM. Accordingly, thermally perturbed axial symmetry of bR may be of biological relevance relying on the essence of the crystal lattice of bR. Most importantly, a question has to be raised in the present study: Can bR, as a helical protein with broken axial symmetry, affect the symmetry breaking of helical light? This may be of potential technical applications based on a recent discovery that bR breaks the symmetry of helical light.

Increase in interplanar distances and formation of amorphous shear bands in deformed diamond

Amorphous transformation-deformation bands have been observed in diamond under cyclic loading (at planetary ball milling) near the graphite-diamond equilibrium line at temperatures below the Debye temperature. The maximum stresses and temperature in the diamond do not exceed 6 GPa and 420 K, respectively. These bands add to the set of plastic deformation mechanisms in diamond. TEM methods and conventional X-rays were used to investigate the mechanisms of plastic deformation of diamond. The observed mechanisms include amorphous deformation bands, bond breaking, twin formation, and phase transitions of diamond-lonsdaleite and diamond-onions. The increased interplanar distances provide evidence of the plastic deformation mechanism due to bond breaking. The distances of 0.222 and 0.255 nm are significantly larger than the initial value of 0.206 nm, which is characteristic of d111 diamond. This increase in distance cannot be attributed to lattice expansion caused by point defects, but rather to the breakage of interatomic bonds.

Plastic phase transitions in tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane perchlorate.

Organic crystal materials with metal-free feature and intrinsically low molecular mass are highly desirable for applications in flexible smart devices. Here, we reported a plastic crystal, tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane perchlorate (Tris-HClO4), which crystallizes in the R3̄ space group at room temperature and undergoes plastic phase transition at 369 K, showing a large entropy gain of 70.5 J mol-1 K-1, much higher than its fusion entropy gain (12.9 J mol-1 K-1). PXRD measurement indicates that it has cubic lattice symmetry in the high-temperature phase. Moreover, it exhibits excellent dielectric permittivity switching properties and robust cyclic stability. This work could be the pathway for chemical designing multifunctional switchable materials with the motive of combining the idea of symmetry breaking and plastic phase transition.

Dynamical mean field theory for models of confluent tissues and beyond

We consider a recently proposed model to understand the rigidity transition in confluent tissues and we derive the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) equations that describes several types of dynamics of the model in the thermodynamic limit: gradient descent, thermal Langevin noise and active drive. In particular we focus on gradient descent dynamics and we integrate numerically the corresponding DMFT equations. In this case we show that gradient descent is blind to the zero temperature replica symmetry breaking (RSB) transition point. This means that, even if the Gibbs measure in the zero temperature limit displays RSB, this algorithm is able to find its way to a zero energy configuration. We include a discussion on possible extensions of the DMFT derivation to study problems rooted in high-dimensional regression and optimization via the square loss function.

Chiral domain dynamics and transient interferences of mirrored superlattices in nonequilibrium electronic crystals

Mirror symmetry plays a major role in determining the properties of matter and is of particular interest in condensed many-body systems undergoing symmetry breaking transitions under non-equilibrium conditions. Typically, in the aftermath of such transitions, one of the two possible broken symmetry states is emergent. However, synthetic systems and those formed under non-equilibrium conditions may exhibit metastable states comprising of both left (L) and right (R) handed symmetry. Here we explore the formation of chiral charge-density wave (CDW) domains after a laser quench in 1T-TaS2 with scanning tunneling microscopy. Typically, we observed transient domains of both chiralities, separated spatially from each other by domain walls with different structure. In addition, we observe transient density of states modulations consistent with interference of L and R-handed charge density waves within the surface monolayer. Theoretical modeling of the intertwined domain structures using a classical charged lattice gas model reproduces the experimental domain wall structures. The superposition (S) state cannot be understood classically within the correlated electron model but is found to be consistent with interferences of L and R-handed charge-density waves within domains, confined by surrounding domain walls, vividly revealing an interference of Fermi electrons with opposite chirality, which is not a result of inter-layer interference, but due to the interaction between electrons within a single layer, confined by domain wall boundaries.

Electrostatic interactions between charge regulated spherical macroions.

We study the interaction between two charge regulating spherical macroions with dielectric interior and dissociable surface groups immersed in a monovalent electrolyte solution. The charge dissociation is modelled via the Frumkin-Fowler-Guggenheim isotherm, which allows for multiple adsorption equilibrium states. The interactions are derived from the solutions of the mean-field Poisson-Boltzmann type theory with charge regulation boundary conditions. For a range of conditions we find symmetry breaking transitions from symmetric to asymmetric charge distribution exhibiting annealed charge patchiness, which results in like-charge attraction even in a univalent electrolyte-thus fundamentally modifying the nature of electrostatic interactions in charge-stabilized colloidal suspensions.

Preparation and characterization of high solid content cationic waterborne polyurethane with core‐shell structures

AbstractIn this study, core‐shell structured cationic waterborne polyurethane (WPU) dispersions with high solid content were prepared. To this end, prepolymer A was synthesized from polytetramethylene ether glycol (PTMG), isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI), castor oil (CO) and 1,4‐butanediol (BDO) without integration of the hydrophilic groups. Prepolymer B with hydrophilic groups was prepared from PTMG, IPDI, CO, BDO and N‐methyldiethanol amine (MDEA). WPU dispersion with a core‐shell structure could be generated by mixing, neutralizing, and emulsifying of the prepolymer A and the prepolymer B. The results indicated that the generation of WPU dispersions through this technique exhibited a milky appearance while the pH values range from 5.30 to 5.60. The optimal combination of prepolymer A and prepolymer B (at a ratio of 5:5) resulted in a dispersion with the highest solid content (50.4%), lowest viscosity (69 mPa·s), and narrowest particle size distribution. As the proportion of prepolymer A to prepolymer B decreases, the tensile strength of WPU film reduces while the elongation at break and glass transition temperature increases. Moreover, initially the contact angle with water was decreased instead of increase. However, modifications in a ratio of prepolymer A and B was not showed any significant impact on the thermal stability performance of the WPU films.

UV aging behavior and mechanism of cold‐mixed epoxy asphalt

AbstractIn environmental conditions, the ultraviolet (UV) light from sunshine will trigger epoxy asphalt (EA) paving materials aging and performance reduction. This work studied the influence of UV aging on the structure and mechanical performance of cold‐mixed epoxy asphalt (CEA) to evaluate its aging mechanism. The chemical structure of CEA was tested by Fourier transform infrared spectra, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and micromorphology was observed through fluorescence microscopy. The mechanical properties of CEA were studied by tensile tests and dynamic mechanical analysis. The results indicated that the toughness of CEA went down due to UV aging, and the elongation at break and glass transition temperature decreased by 35.5% and 6.0°C, respectively. Based on structural analysis, the UV aging mechanism of CEA was summarized as follows: (1) the curing network of epoxy resin was partially broken, and the asphalt particle aggregated; (2) the asphalt and epoxy resin in UV aging‐CEA were oxidized and formed carbonyl group and sulfonic group.Highlights Both asphalt and ER components in CEA underwent oxidation reactions and formed more CO, SO, and CO groups. UV‐CEA showed a decrease in toughness due to destruction of the cured ER cross‐linked network and shortening of the asphalt molecular chain E' and Tg of UV‐CEA was decreased, resulting from a decrease in ER crosslink density and an increase in molecular chain segment mobility of ER and asphalt.

Stationary Pattern Formation in Iron Electrodissolution with Two Cells: Effects of Serial or Parallel Coupling

We investigate the stationary pattern formation for two coupled cells at constant circuit potential. Two configurations are explored: two cells in serial and parallel. In each cell the anode is iron electrodissolution and the cathode is hydrogen ion reductions on a large surface area Pt electrode with sulfuric acid electrolyte. Iron electrodissolution in sulfuric acid exhibits negative differential resistance due to electrode passivation by the surface oxide where the stability of the surface oxide is dependent on electrode potential and pH at the electrode interface. In the presence of ohmic potential drops (e.g., due to solution or external resistance), bistability can occur where the active and passive states co-exist at a given circuit potential. First, we investigated the patterns that emerge for two serially coupled iron electrodissolution in sulfuric acid. Investigation of the forward scan potentiodynamic I-V curves reveals sequential passivation of electrodes in no particular order and a potential region is identified where one electrode is passive and the other is inactive, and thus a stationary pattern is formed. Numerical simulations and equivalent circuit network modeling of the experimental set-up reveals a bidirectional negative coupling topology as a consequence of serial configuration, providing insight into the pattern formation. The patterns are interpreted with a kinetic model which shows that the coupled NDR system can exhibit symmetry breaking transitions in the presence of negative coupling. Next, we studied stationary pattern formation in two parallel cells. In contrast to the serial placement, the potentiodynamic I-V curves reveal simultaneous passivation of the two electrodes. The electrode potential versus circuit potential plot displays a uniform state of electrodes throughout the scan. The corresponding modeling showed that the lack of sequential passivation and the presence of uniform states were due to the inherent bidirectional positive coupling in the system. The experiments demonstrate the rich dynamical response of a coupled negative differential resistance systems to generate stationary patterns similar to Turing patterns that are used to interpret morphogenesis in biological systems. The theoretical understanding and insight gained from modeling and simulating observed patterns of relatively smaller electrochemical cells could be crucial in the accelerated understanding, design, and control of battery packs that utilize serial and parallel coupled electrodes.

Anti-Parity-Time Symmetry in a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger Sonic Lattice.

The Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model is an important cornerstone in modern condensed-matter topology, yet it is the simplest one-dimensional (1D) tight binding approach to dwell into the characteristics of spinless electrons in chains of staggered bonds. Moreover, the chiral symmetry assures that its surface-confining states pin to zero energy, i.e., they reside midgap in the energy dispersion. Symmetry is also an attribute related to artificial media that are subject to parity P and time-reversal T operations. This non-Hermitian family has been thoroughly nourished in a wave-based context, where anti-PT (APT) symmetric systems are the youngest belonging members, permitting refractionless optics, inverse PT-symmetry breaking transition, and asymmetric mode switching. Here, we report the first extension of APT symmetry in an acoustic setting by endowing a SSH lattice with gain and loss components. We show that the in-gap topological defect state hinges on the non-Hermitian phase, in that the broken symmetry suppresses it, yet when PT or APT symmetry is intact, it is observed with either damped or evanescent decay, respectively. Our experiments showcase how the non-Hermitian SSH lattice serves as a utile platform to investigate topological properties across various PT symmetric phases using sound.

Molecule–plasmon–photon hybridization and applications

We study a potential hybrid quantum system with a plasmonic nanocavity coupled to a vibrating mode of a single molecule and another optical cavity mode. To explore some important and valuable applications in quantum physics, we discuss and evaluate several different applications with respect to the plasmon-mediated quantum interface, the plasmon-assisted engineering of two-mode continuous-variable entanglement, and pursuing an indirect and ultrastrong molecule–photon cooperativity. In addition, governed by the relation of symmetry breaking and quantum phase transitions (QPTs),single-molecule-induced QPTs are also studied in this tripartite hybrid quantum system. This theoretical study strongly supports potential applications of this hybrid system in the field of quantum information processing. It is believed that our investigation of molecule–plasmon–photon hybridization can not only open a new avenue toward quantum manipulation, but also provide a fresh and reliable platform to carry out many applications with high efficiency.

Unification of quantum Zeno–anti Zeno effects and parity-time symmetry breaking transitions

Unification of quantum Zeno–anti Zeno effects and parity-time symmetry breaking transitions

Engineering an imaginary Stark ladder in a dissipative lattice: Passive PT symmetry, K symmetry, and localized damping

We study an imaginary stark ladder model and propose a realization of the model in a dissipative chain with linearly increasing site-dependent dissipation strength. Due to the existence of a $K$-symmetry and passive $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry, the model exhibits quite different feature from its Hermitian counterpart. With the increase of dissipation strength, the system first undergoes a passive $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry breaking transition, with the shifted eigenvalues changing from real to complex, and then a $K$-symmetry restoring transition, characterized by the emergence of pure imaginary spectrum with equal spacing. Accordingly, the eigenstates change from $\mathcal{PT}$-unbroken extended states to the $\mathcal{PT}$-broken states, and finally to stark localized states. In the framework of the quantum open system governed by Lindblad equation with linearly increasing site-dependent dissipation, we unveil that the dynamical evolution of single particle correlation function is governed by the Hamiltonian of the imaginary stark ladder model. By studying the dynamical evolution of the density distribution under various initial states, we demonstrate that the damping dynamics displays distinct behaviors in different regions. A localized damping is observed in the strong dissipation limit.

Preparation and properties of visible light-cured strippable film for radioactive decontamination

In this research, solutions of styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer (SBS) in 2-ethoxyethyl methacrylate (EOEMA) were used to prepare strippable films via rapid visible-light curing, where the mixture of camphorquinone (CQ), diphenylsilane (DPS) and diphenyliodonium hexafluorophosphate (Iod) was employed as the photoinitiating system, LED@405 nm, sunlight or household LED panel light as the light source and no any solvent was involved. The double bond conversion for pure EOEMA under LED@405 nm was firstly monitored by real-time FTIR and it reached 72% within 300 s. The rapid-curing of SBS/EOEMA solutions were systematically investigated and it was found that the solution with 16 wt% SBS became completely dried at the presence of 2.16 mol% crosslinker and 3.6 wt% photoinitiating system after 240 s irradiation under LED@405 nm. The tensile strength, elongation at break and glass transition temperature of the resultant strippable film were determined to be about 4.4 ± 0.5 MPa, 130 ± 11.2% and 6.9 °C, respectively, by mechanical properties testing and DSC measurements. Also, the decontamination efficiencies (DE) of household LED panel light/sunlight cured-strippable film for uranium nitrate on stainless steel, glass, and ceramic surface were evaluated to be higher than 90%. These results indicate that this rapid-curing strippable films would be a good candidate material for large-scale radioactive decontamination.

Precordial reverse pattern break on ECG: could it be a discriminator endo/epicardial ablation site of left posteroseptal accessory pathways

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Backrounds The posteroseptal (PS) region may pose difficulty in WPW ablation due to its complex anatomical structure. The posteroseptal region may require the need for a transeptal puncture, CS venogram or coronary angiography due to its right and left endocardial and epicardial proximity. ECG prediction may prevent unnecessary procedures. Negative V1 double QRS transition pattern in the precordial leads is highly specific and validated for a right endocardial AP Purpose To investigate the presence of a reverse pattern break in the left posteroseptal [V1 (+) V3 (+)] WPW patient and compare between endocardial-epicardial ablation localization. Methods We retrospectively included 338 WPW patients into the study. 97 of them successfully ablated with posteroseptal area. Results Thirty-two of the total PS patient (33%) patients had a reverse pattern break or double transition pattern. A total of 4 patients with the middle cardiac vein (MCV) and diverticulum origin were identified. The left pattern break predicts endocardial localization 75% of the time while the right pattern predicts it 95% of the time. Conclusion Double transition and reverse pattern break are common in posteroseptal AP’s ECG. Left reverse pattern break is also highly predictive of endocardial ablation, similar to the right.

Dynamics of optical vortices in van der Waals materials

Quantized vortices are topological defects found in different two-dimensional geometries, from liquid crystals to ferromagnets, famously involved in spontaneous symmetry breaking and phase transitions. Their optical counterparts appear in planar geometries as a universal wave phenomenon, possessing topologically protected orbital angular momentum (OAM). So far, the spatiotemporal dynamics of optical vortices, including vortex-pair creation and annihilation, has been observed only in Bose–Einstein condensates. Here we observe optical vortices in van der Waals materials and measure their dynamics, including events of pair creation and annihilation. Vortices of opposite OAM are involved in pair creation/annihilation events, and their relative signs determine the surrounding field profile throughout their motion. The vortices are made of phonon polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride, which we directly probe using free electrons in an ultrafast transmission electron microscope. Our findings promote future investigations of vortex phenomena in van der Waals platforms, toward their use for chiral plasmonics, quantum simulators, and control over selection rules in light–matter interactions.