Renormalization Effects Research Articles

Supersymmetric proton decay revisited

Encouraged by the advent of a new generation of underground detectors – JUNO, DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande – that are projected to improve significantly on the present sensitivities to various baryon decay modes, we revisit baryon decay in the minimal supersymmetric SU(5) GUT. We discuss the phenomenological uncertainties associated with hadronic matrix elements and the value of the strong coupling alpha _s – which are the most important – the weak mixing angle theta _W, quark masses including one-loop renormalization effects, quark mixing and novel GUT phases that are not visible in electroweak interaction processes. We apply our analysis to a variety of CMSSM, super- and sub-GUT scenarios in which soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters are assumed to be universal at, above and below the GUT scale, respectively. In many cases, we find that the next generation of underground detectors should be able to probe models with sparticle masses that are {{mathcal {O}}}(10) TeV, beyond the reach of the LHC.

Unusual Pressure-Driven Phase Transformation and Band Renormalization in 2D vdW Hybrid Lead Halide Perovskites.

The application of high pressure allows control over the unit cell and interatomic spacing of materials without any need for new growth methods or processing while accessing their materials properties in situ. Under these extreme pressures, materials may assume new structural phases and reveal novel properties. Here, unusual phase transition and band renormalization effects in 2D van der Waals Ruddlesden-Popper hybrid lead halide perovskites, which have shown extraordinary optical properties and immense potential in light emission and conversion technologies, are reported. The results show that (CH3 (CH2 )3 NH3 )2 (CH3 NH3 )Pb2 Br7 (n = 2) layers undergo two distinct phase transitions related to PbBr6 octahedra, butylammonium (BA), and methylammonium (MA) molecule tilting motion that leads to rather unique/anomalous bandgap variation with pressure. In contrast, (CH3 (CH2 )3 NH3 )PbBr4 (n = 1) lacks MA molecules and possesses only one pressure-induced phase transition related to PbBr6 octahedra and BA tilting. In this range, the bandgap reduces monotonically, much similar to other inorganic semiconductors and display surprisingly large redshift from 3 to 2.4 eV. Together with theoretical calculations, this study offers unique insights into these pressure-induced changes and extends the understanding of these highly anisotropic layered soft organic perovskite materials under extreme conditions.

Many-body renormalization of the electron effective mass of InSe

The layered semiconductor InSe has a wide range of attractive electronic and optoelectronic properties, in which the effective mass of the charge carriers plays a key role. Here, we study from first principles the many-body renormalization of the electron effective mass in $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-InSe, taking into account the effects of both electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions. Electron-electron interaction, treated within the many-body $GW$ approximation, leads to around 15% of the increase in the in-plane effective mass over the result from density functional theory, and a more than threefold increase in the out-of-plane electron effective mass. The surprisingly large directional anisotropy in the mass renormalization is explained in terms of the symmetries of band-edge wave functions. The mass enhancement induced by electron-phonon interactions, which we find to mainly originate from Fr\"ohlich electron-phonon coupling, is less than 10% at room temperature, indicating weak polaronic effect. After including the many-body renormalization effects, the calculated electron effective masses of InSe are 0.12 and 0.09 in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions, respectively.

Femtosecond Pump Probe Reflectivity Spectra in CdTe and GaAs Crystals at Room Temperature.

Ultrafast pump probe reflectivity (PPR) signal near band edge is modeled by taking into account band filling (BF) and band gap renormalization (BGR) effects with the carrier density of ~1017/cm3 in GaAs crystal at room temperature. The calculated results indicate that the transient reflectivity ΔR/R is determined by BF and BGR effects. The most interesting feature is that ΔR/R signal experiences a sign change from photo-bleaching (PB) to photo-absorption (PA) due to the competition between BF and BGR effects. We experimentally measured ΔR as a function of photon energy across band edge with carrier density of ~1017/cm3 in GaAs and CdTe crystals, which has a similar trend as that calculated according to our model. In addition, the reflectivity is very sensitive to electron spin orientation, which is well confirmed by the corresponding experiments with 100 fs pump probe reflectivity spectroscopy in bulk CdTe. Our research in this work provides a method to study optoelectronic properties of conventional semiconductors at moderate carrier density excited by ultrafast laser pulse. Importantly, this model can be used for other novel semiconductor materials beyond GaAs and will provide new insights into the underlying spin dependent photophysics properties for new materials.

Effects of Si concentration on electronic structure and optical gap of Si-doped β-Ga2O3

The electronic structures and the optical gaps of Si-doped β-Ga2O3 with different Si concentration are studied by the generalized gradient approximation combined Hubbard U (GGA + U) method based on the density functional theory. The doping formation energy reveals that Si-doped β-Ga2O3 is mainly realized in the form of substitutional Si rather than interstitial Si, and tends to obtain effective doping under O-poor condition. As substitutional Si concentration increases, the optical gap of Si-doped β-Ga2O3 increases while the bandgap narrows, which are mainly attributed to the Burstein-Moss effect and the many-body renormalization effect. The bandgap widening ΔEBM and the bandgap narrowing ΔEBGN of Si-doped β-Ga2O3 as a function of Si carrier concentration can be described by Pisarkiewicz’s model and Schmid’s empirical expression, respectively.

Effective field theory approach to lepton number violating decays K\xb1\u2192 \u03c0\u2213l\xb1l\xb1: short-distance contribution

This is the first paper of our systematic efforts on lepton number violating (LNV) hadronic decays in the effective field theory approach. These decays provide information complementary to popular nuclear neutrinoless double-β (0νββ) decay in that they can probe LNV interactions involving heavier quarks and charged leptons. We may call them hadronic 0νββ decays in short, though β refers to all charged leptons. In this work we investigate the decays K±→ π∓l±l± that arise from short-distance or contact interactions involving four quark fields and two charged lepton fields, which have canonical dimension nine (dim-9) at leading order in low energy effective field theory (LEFT). We make a complete analysis on the basis of all dim-9 operators that violate lepton number by two units, and compute their one-loop QCD renormalization effects. We match these effective interactions in LEFT to those in chiral perturbation theory (χPT) for pseudoscalar mesons, and determine the resulting hadronic low energy constants (LECs) by chiral symmetry and lattice results in the literature. The obtained decay rate is general in that all physics at and above the electroweak scale is completely parameterized by the relevant Wilson coefficients in LEFT and hadronic LECs in χPT. Assuming the standard model effective field theory (SMEFT) is the appropriate effective field theory between some new physics scale and the electroweak scale, we match our LEFT results to SMEFT whose leading effective interactions arise from LNV dim-7 operators. This connection to SMEFT simplifies significantly the interaction structures entering in the kaon decays, and we employ the current experimental bounds to set constraints on the relevant Wilson coefficients in SMEFT.

Electron Transmission through Coordinating Atoms Embedded in Metal-Organic Nanoporous Networks.

On-surface metal-organic nanoporous networks generally refer to adatom coordinated molecular arrays, which are characterized by the presence of well-defined and regular nanopores. These periodic structures constructed using two types of components confine the surface electrons of the substrate within their nanocavities. However, the confining (or scattering) strength that individual building units exhibit is apriori unknown. Here, we study the modification of the substrate's surface electrons by the interaction with a Cu-coordinated TPyB metal-organic network formed on Cu(111) and disentangle the scattering potentials and confinement properties. By means of STM and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy we find almost unperturbed free-electron-like states stemming from the rather weak electron confinement that yields significant coupling between adjacent pores. Electron plane wave expansion simulations match the superlattice induced experimental electronic structure, which features replicating bands and energy renormalization effects. Notably, the electrostatic potential landscape obtained from our abinitio calculations suggests that the molecules are the dominant scattering entities while the coordination metal atoms sandwiched between them act as leaky channels. These metal atom transmission conduits facilitate and enhance the coupling among quantum dots, which are prone to be exploited to engineer the electronic structure of surface electron gases.

Exchange-correlation contributions to thermodynamic properties of the homogeneous electron gas from a cumulant Green's function approach

Thermodynamic properties of the interacting homogeneous electron gas are calculated using a finite-temperature cumulant Green's function approach over a broad range of densities and temperatures up to the warm dense matter regime $T\ensuremath{\sim}{T}_{F}$, where ${T}_{F}$ is the Fermi degeneracy temperature. These properties can be separated into independent particle and exchange-correlation contributions, and our focus here is on the latter. Our approach is based on the Galitskii-Migdal-Koltun and electron number sum rules from the finite temperature many-body Green's function formalism, together with an extension of the cumulant Green's function to finite temperature. Previously this approach yielded exchange-correlation energies and potentials in good agreement with quantum Monte-Carlo calculations. Here the method is extended for various thermodynamic quantities including the chemical potential, total energy, Helmholtz free-energy, electronic equation of state, specific heat, and isothermal compressibility, which optionally include spin dependence. We find that the exchange-correlation contributions are weakly varying at low temperature but exhibit significant temperature dependence in the WDM regime, as well as a crossover from exchange- to correlation-dominated behavior. In contrast to the $T={0}^{+}$ limit, we also find that renormalization effects are largely but not completely suppressed at finite temperature. Comparisons with other approaches at various levels of approximation are also discussed.

Weak-U(1) × strong-U(1) effective gauge field theories and electron-monopole scattering

We present a gauge and Lorentz invariant model for the scattering of matter off magnetic poles, which justifies the presence of velocity-dependent magnetic charges as an effective description of either the behaviour of monopoles in scattering with matter or their production from matter particles at colliders. Hence, in such an approach, perturbativity of the magnetic charge is ensured for relative low velocities of monopoles with respect to matter particles. The model employs a ${\rm U(1)}_{\rm weak} \times {\rm U(1)}_{\rm strong}$ effective gauge field theory under which electrons and monopoles (assumed to be fermions) are appropriately charged. The non-perturbative quantum effects of the strongly coupled sector of the theory lead to dressed effective couplings of the monopole/dyon with the electromagnetic photon, due to non-trivial wave-function renormalization effects. For slowly-moving monopole/dyons, such effects lead to weak coupling, thus turning the bare non-perturbative magnetic charge, which is large due to the Dirac/Schwinger quantization rule, into a perturbative effective, velocity-("$\beta$")-dependent magnetic coupling. Our work thus offers formal support to previous conjectural studies, employing effective U(1)-electromagnetic gauge field theories for the description of monopole production from Standard Model matter, which are used in contemporary collider searches of such objects. This work necessarily pertains to composite monopoles, as seems to be the case of all known monopoles so far, that are solutions of specific particle physics models. This is a consequence of the fact that the wave-function renormalization of the (slowly-moving) monopole fermion turns out to violate unitarity bounds that would characterise asymptotic elementary particle states.

Observation of bandgap renormalization in mesoscopic zinc oxide particles

Deep UV photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy was employed to study the optical properties of mesoscopic zinc oxide (ZnO) particles using the third harmonic laser (λ ~ 260 nm) generated from a Ti: sapphire pulse laser for optical excitation. PL spectrum measured at 15 K exhibits excitonic emissions at 3.362 and 3.375 eV due to the donor bound exciton (DoX) and free exciton (FX) transitions, respectively. The dominant emission peak is observed at around 3.308 eV due to the recombination of free electrons from the conduction band to the holes bound to an acceptor state (FA) along with longitudinal optical (LO) phonon replicas. From the power dependent PL measurement, we observed a redshift of FX and DoX emission peaks with increasing excitation laser power, showing a bandgap renormalization effect. Temperature dependent PL measurements were also performed to explore the bandgap renormalization effect. Fitting of our power dependent PL data with Vashishta, and Kalia model shows the clear trend in a good agreement with the model.

Many-body corrected tight-binding Hamiltonians for an accurate quasiparticle description of topological insulators of the Bi2Se3 family

We generate many-body corrected tight-binding Hamiltonians for topological insulators of the ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Se}}_{3}$ family. To this end, we use ab initio calculated parameters extracted from $GW$ calculations, thus capturing many-body exchange and correlation effects, in contrast to previous tight-binding models. We investigate the effect of many-body renormalizations on the electronic structure of bulk and surface states of semi-infinite systems as well as thin films of these materials. It is shown that the $GW$ self-energy correction brings about profound changes not only in the band-gap values but also in the band dispersion around the inverted gaps with respect to standard density-functional theory (DFT). These changes substantially improve the agreement with experiment. We discuss the strong renormalization effect as being a result of the characteristic overestimation of inverted gaps by standard approximations of DFT (opposite to the underestimation of gaps in topologically trivial materials). In particular, we analyze the consequences that these renormalizations have on the dispersions of the topological surface states and on the surface resonances. For reference, the tight-binding Hamiltonians are provided in the Supplemental Material [30].

Exciton Polarization and Renormalization Effect for Optical Modulation in Monolayer Semiconductors

The ideal quantum confinement structure of monolayer semiconductors offers prominent optical modulation capabilities that are mediated by enhanced many-body interactions. Herein, we establish an electrolyte-gating method for tuning the luminescence properties that are in transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) monolayers. We fabricate electric double-layer capacitors on TMDC/graphite heterostructures to investigate electric-field- and carrier-density-dependent photoluminescence. The exciton peak energy initially shows a slight quadratic red shift of ∼1 meV without carrier accumulations, which is caused by the quantum-confined Stark effect. In contrast, the exciton resonance exhibits a larger red shift up to 10 meV with the accumulated carrier density above 1013 cm-2. These results indicate that the optical transitions can be largely modulated by the carrier density control in S- and Se-based TMDCs, as triggered by the doping-induced band gap renormalization effect. To further inspire this modulation capability, we also apply our method to electrolyte-based TMDC light-emitting devices. Biasing solely in electrolyte-induced p-i-n junctions yields pronounced red shifts up to 40 meV for exciton and trion electroluminescence. Consequently, our approach reveals that the doping effects in the high-carrier-density regimes are potentially significant for efficient optical modulation in monolayer semiconductors.

Effect of propagator renormalization on the band gap of insulating solids

We present momentum-resolved spectral functions and band gaps from bare and self-consistent second-order perturbation theory for insulating periodic solids. We establish that, for systems with large gap sizes, both bare and self-consistent perturbation theory yield reasonable gaps. However, smaller gap sizes require a self-consistent adjustment of the propagator. In contrast to results obtained within a quasiparticle formalism used on top of bare second-order perturbation theory, no unphysical behavior of the band gap is observed. Our implementation of a fully self-consistent, $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Phi}}$-derivable, and thermodynamically consistent finite-temperature diagrammatic perturbation theory forms a framework on which embedding theories such as the dynamical mean-field theory and self-energy embedding theories can be implemented.

Renormalization of the Gamow-Teller operator within the realistic shell model

In nuclear structure calculations, the choice of a limited model space, due to computational needs, leads to the necessity to renormalize the Hamiltonian as well as any transition operator. Here, we present a study of the renormalization procedure and effects of the Gamow-Teller operator within the framework of the realistic shell model. Our effective shell-model operators are obtained, starting from a realistic nucleon-nucleon potential, by way of the many-body perturbation theory in order to take into account the degrees of freedom that are not explicitly included in the chosen model space. The theoretical effective shell-model Hamiltonian and transition operators are then employed in shell-model calculations, whose results are compared with data of Gamow-Teller transition strengths and double-beta half-lives for nuclei which are currently of interest for the detection of the neutrinoless double-beta decay process, in a mass interval ranging from A=48 up to A=136. We show that effective operators are able to reproduce quantitatively the spectroscopic and decay properties without resorting to an empirical quenching neither of the axial coupling constant gA, nor of the spin and orbital gyromagnetic factors. This should assess the reliability of applying present theoretical tools to this problematic.

Effect of charge renormalization on the electric and thermoelectric transport along the vortex lattice of a Weyl superconductor

Building on the discovery that a Weyl superconductor in a magnetic field supports chiral Landau level motion along the vortex lines, we investigate its transport properties out of equilibrium. We show that the vortex lattice carries an electric current $I=\tfrac{1}{2}(Q_{\rm eff}^2/h)(\Phi/\Phi_0) V$ between two normal metal contacts at voltage difference $V$, with $\Phi$ the magnetic flux through the system, $\Phi_0$ the superconducting flux quantum, and $Q_{\rm eff}<e$ the renormalized charge of the Weyl fermions in the superconducting Landau level. Because the charge renormalization is energy dependent, a nonzero thermo-electric coefficient appears even in the absence of energy-dependent scattering processes.

Giant gate-tunable bandgap renormalization and excitonic effects in a 2D semiconductor.

Understanding the remarkable excitonic effects and controlling the exciton binding energies in two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors are crucial in unlocking their full potential for use in future photonic and optoelectronic devices. Here, we demonstrate large excitonic effects and gate-tunable exciton binding energies in single-layer rhenium diselenide (ReSe2) on a back-gated graphene device. We used scanning tunneling spectroscopy and differential reflectance spectroscopy to measure the quasiparticle electronic and optical bandgap of single-layer ReSe2, respectively, yielding a large exciton binding energy of 520 meV. Further, we achieved continuous tuning of the electronic bandgap and exciton binding energy of monolayer ReSe2 by hundreds of milli-electron volts through electrostatic gating, attributed to tunable Coulomb interactions arising from the gate-controlled free carriers in graphene. Our findings open a new avenue for controlling the bandgap renormalization and exciton binding energies in 2D semiconductors for a wide range of technological applications.

Renormalization effects on electric dipole moments in electroweakly interacting massive particle models

We study the renormalization effects on electric dipole moments in the models with new electroweakly interacting massive fermions. The electric dipole moments are generated by the effective operators which arise from integrating out heavy particles at some scale in the models. We give the renormalization group equation for the Wilson coefficients of the effective operators from the scale where the operators are generated to the electroweak scale. Our numerical studies focus on the electric dipole moments in the mini-split supersymmetric scenario and the electroweakly interacting massive particle dark matter scenario. It turns out that the renormalization effects can give an enhancement factor being of the order of O(10)% in the mini-split scenario and being more than two in the minimal dark matter model.

Alkali Metal Doped Mono- and Bilayer Graphene: Band Structure, Raman Spectrum and Electronic Transport

We use ultra-high vacuum (UHV) Raman spectroscopy in tandem with angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) to investigate the doping-dependent Raman spectrum of epitaxially grown graphene. The evolution of the Raman spectra from pristine to heavily Cs doped graphene up to a carrier concentration of 4.4x10^14 cm-2 is investigated [1]. Renormalization effects reduce the electronic bandwidth at this doping level when graphene is at the onset of the Lifshitz transition. Ultraviolet (UV) light allows to probe the optical transition at the saddle point in the Brillouin zone achieving resonance Raman conditions in close vicinity to the van Hove singularity in the joint density of states. The position of the Raman G band of fully doped graphene/Ir(111) shifts down by 60 cm-1 and the G band asymmetry of Cs doped epitaxial graphene on Ir(111) assumes an unusual strong Fano asymmetry opposite to that of the G band of doped graphene on insulators. We compare these results on Cs doped monolayer graphene to studies of Cs doped bilayer graphene. Growth of bilayer graphene is realized by intercalation of carbon atoms under monolayer graphene using molecular beam epitaxy. We probe each step of the intercalation process using UHV Raman which reveals distinct changes in the linshape. Finally, the graphene is transferred from the metal substrate onto Si wafers and probed by UHV electronic transport during alkali metal deposition. Our work demonstrates high sensitivity towards sensing of alkali atoms and a giant decrease of the four-point resistance by three orders of magnitude upon Cs doping. [1] M.G.Hell at al. Nano Letters 2018 18 (9), 6045-6056 Figure 1

Effective determination of surface potential landscapes from metal-organic nanoporous network overlayers

Determining the scattering potential landscape for two-dimensional superlattices provides key insight into fundamental quantum electron phenomena. Theoretical and semiempirical methods have been extensively used to simulate confinement effects of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) on superlattices with a single scatterer in the form of vicinal surfaces and dislocation networks or isolated structures such as quantum corrals and vacancy islands. However, the complexity of the problem increases when the building blocks (or scatterers) are heterogeneous, as in metal-organic nanoporous networks (MONNs), since additional potentials may come into play. Therefore, the parametrization of the surface potential landscape is often inaccurate, leading to incorrect scattering potentials. Here, we address this issue with a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy measurements together with electron plane-wave expansion simulations on a MONN grown on Cu(111). This experimental-theory approach, enables us to capture the 2DEG response to the intricate scattering potential landscape, and reveals systematic modeling procedures. Starting from a realistic geometry of the system, we determine the repulsive scattering potentials for both molecules and coordinated metal adatoms, the latter contradicting the established simulation framework. Moreover, we reveal local asymmetries and subtle renormalization effects of the 2DEG that relate to the interaction of the MONN and the underlying substrate.

Recombination and diffusion processes in electronic grade 4H silicon carbide

Carrier dynamics in n-type 4H-SiC epilayers of varying thicknesses and low Z1/2 defect concentrations are investigated here in wide ranges of excess carrier density and temperature. Several techniques are employed to monitor carrier diffusion and recombination processes, including light induced transient grating (LITG), microwave photoconductance decay (MPCD) and free carrier absorption (FCA) using ps-laser pulses at 355 nm. The observed increase of the diffusion coefficient with the increasing excitation level is explained by the transition from the minority to the bipolar transport regime. Its subsequent decrease with even higher excitations is found to be governed by band-gap renormalization and degeneracy effects. The bulk lifetime, limited by hole traps at 0.19–0.24 eV above the valence band at lower excitations, was found to decrease from few microseconds to hundreds of nanoseconds during the transition regime from the minority to the bipolar transport. Our temperature-dependent measurements confirmed the trap activation energy and provided the approximate functional form of electron and hole lifetimes as τe = 340 × (T/300 K)3/2 ns and τh = 100 × (T/300 K)–1/2 ns, for the temperature T range 80–800 K. It was found to hold for 65 and 120 μm sample thicknesses, while the lifetimes were found to be twice shorter for the sample 35 μm thick.