Strong First-order Transition Research Articles

Magnetocaloric effect and applied refrigeration performance of La(Fe,Si)13-based compounds

As a solid-state refrigeration technology, room-temperature magnetic refrigeration has several significant advantages comparing with conventional gas compression refrigeration, such as environmental friendliness, high energy efficiency and dependable operation. In the present study, the magnetocaloric effect and applied refrigeration performance of La0.8Ce0.2Fe11.6-xMn0.15+xSi1.25Al0.1H1.8 (x = 0, 0.03, 0.06, 0.09, 0.12) compounds were studied systematically. All alloys crystallize mainly in NaZn13-type phase with trace α-Fe phase between 1.36 and 1.80 wt%. The necessary heat treatment improves the formation of main phase. As x increases, the Curie temperature (Tc) decreases gradually from 295.3 K to 273.0 K. All alloys undergo strong field-induced first-order itinerant-electron metamagnetic transition. Under 0–1.5 T, the maximum magnetic entropy changes (-ΔSM)max for La0.8Ce0.2Fe11.6-xMn0.15+xSi1.25Al0.1H1.8 (x = 0, 0.03, 0.06, 0.09, 0.12) compounds vary from 10.9 J/(kg K) to 13.5 J/(kg K). And the maximum adiabatic temperature changes (ΔTad)max vary from 2.7 K to 3.9 K. To study the applied refrigeration performance, a rotary magnetic refrigerator is designed successfully, whose refrigeration temperature and cooling power meet the requirement of cold storage. Successful large-quantity preparation, giant magnetocaloric effect and excellent refrigeration performance suggest that, La0.8Ce0.2Fe11.6-xMn0.15+xSi1.25Al0.1H1.8 (x = 0, 0.03, 0.06, 0.09, 0.12) compounds can be used as the promising candidates for magnetic refrigerants.

Higher orders for cosmological phase transitions: a global study in a Yukawa model

We perform a state-of-the-art global study of the cosmological thermal histories of a simple Yukawa model, and find higher perturbative orders to be important for determining both the presence and strength of strong first-order phase transitions. Using high-temperature effective field theory, we calculate the free energy density of the model up to O\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{O} $$\\end{document}(y5T4), where y is the Yukawa coupling and T is the temperature. The locations of phase transitions are found using the results of lattice Monte-Carlo simulations, and the strength of first-order transitions are evaluated within perturbation theory, to 3-loop order. This is the first global study of any model at this order. Compared to a vanilla 1-loop analysis, accurate to O\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{O} $$\\end{document}(y2T4), reaching such accuracy enables on average a five-fold reduction in the relative uncertainty in the predicted critical temperature Tc, and an additional ∼ 50% strong first-order transitions with latent heat L/Tc4\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ L/{T}_c^4 $$\\end{document}> 0.1 to be identified in our scan.

A Possible Quantum Spin Liquid Phase in the Kitaev–Hubbard Model

The quantum spin liquid (QSL) state of Kitaev-like materials, such as iridium oxides A 2IrO3 and α-RuCl3, has been explored in depth. The half-filled Kitaev–Hubbard model with bond-dependent hopping terms is used to describe the Kitaev-like materials, which is calculated using the state-of-the-art fermionic projected entangled pair states method. We find a QSL phase near the Mott insulator transition, which has a strong first-order transition to the semi-metal phase with the decrease of Hubbard U. We suggest that a promising approach to finding QSL states is by finding iridium oxides that are near the Mott insulator transition.

Phase transition of the two Higgs doublets in early universe

In this paper, we study the phase transition of the two Higgs-doublets model (2HDM) and consider a scenario of a electroweak phase transition at alignment limit. Using the Cornwall–Jackiw–Tomboulis formalism at finite temperature, we consider the phase transition of the aligned 2HDM in the two-loop double-bubble contribution. By requirement of Goldstone theorem, the effective potential is corrected and the results show that the system obeys a second-order phase transition. A possible thermal history of the early universe has been treated out: the universe undergoes a smooth crossover in the SM, a second-order phase transition in this model before going to a strong first-order transition in the new physics as in recent 2HDMs and supersymmetry (from the EW symmetric to the broken phase).

Strange quark matter from a baryonic approach

We construct a model for dense matter based on low-density nuclear matter properties that exhibits a chiral phase transition and that includes strangeness through hyperonic degrees of freedom. Empirical constraints from nuclear matter alone allow for various scenarios, from a strong first-order chiral transition at relatively low densities through a weaker transition at higher densities, even up to a smooth crossover not far beyond the edge of the allowed range. The model parameters can be chosen such that at asymptotically large densities the chirally restored phase contains strangeness and the speed of sound approaches the conformal limit, resulting in a high-density phase that resembles deconfined quark matter. Additionally, if the model is required to reproduce sufficiently massive compact stars, the allowed parameter range is significantly narrowed down, resulting for instance in a very narrow range for the poorly known slope parameter of the symmetry energy, $L\ensuremath{\simeq}(88--92)\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MeV}$. We also find that for the allowed parameter range strangeness does not appear in the form of hyperons in the chirally broken phase and the chiral transition is of first order. Due to its unified approach and relative simplicity---here we restrict ourselves to zero temperature and the mean-field approximation---the model can be used in the future to study dense matter under compact star conditions in the vicinity of the chiral phase transition, for instance to compute the surface tension or to investigate spatially inhomogeneous phases.

A new class of hybrid EoS with multiple critical endpoints for simulations of supernovae, neutron stars and their mergers

We introduce a family of equations of state (EoS) for hybrid neutron star (NS) matter that is obtained by a two-zone parabolic interpolation between a soft hadronic EoS at low densities and a stiff quark matter EoS with color superconductivity at high densities within a finite region of baryonic chemical potentials mu _B^h< mu _B < mu _B^q. We consider two scenarios corresponding to a cross-over and a strong first-order transition between quark and hadron phases considered at finite and zero temperatures. This allows us to analyze the effects of finite entropy on the EoS and mass-radius relation of NS. We demonstrate that the formation of a color superconducting state of quark matter drives the evolution of matter in supernovae explosions under the condition of entropy conservation to higher temperatures than in the case of deconfinement to normal quark matter. Within the presented hybrid EoS scenario, regions of the QCD phase diagram may be accessible to supernovae and NS mergers that can be reached also in terrestrial experiments with relativistic heavy ion collisions.

Magnetic glassy martensite induced reversible magnetocaloric effect in Heusler alloys

Heusler alloys hold great potential to act as cooling medium for next-generation solid state refrigeration due to their substantial entropy changes at field-driven magnetostructural transitions. One of the key impediments in the use of Heusler alloys for efficient cooling lies in the poor reversibility of magnetocaloric effect (MCE). In this work, a highly reversible MCE with large isothermal heat Q of ∼ 4.83–5.3 kJ/kg near room temperature, is achieved in Ni50Mn34In12Ga4 Heusler alloys at the transition between unfrozen canonical spin-glassy martensite and ferromagnetic austenite, crosschecked by indirect and direct methods. Phase field simulations reveal that the presence of spin glass in martensite state can result in reversible field-induced magnetostructural transitions in Heusler alloys, thus effectively circumventing the irreversibility of large MCE at strong first-order transitions without the need of any external stimuli such as mechanical load. The occurrence of such field-induced first-order transitions arose from the negative coupling between magnetic moment and the volume of the material. This work suggests the great power of ferroic glasses in improving the reversibility of promising MCE at first-order phase transitions and may push forward more Heusler alloys close to the practical refrigerant in highly efficient solid-state cooling protocols.

SU(4) Symmetry in Twisted Bilayer Graphene: An Itinerant Perspective.

We study symmetry-broken phases in twisted bilayer graphene at small filling above charge neutrality and at van Hove filling. We argue that the Landau functionals for the particle-hole order parameters at these fillings both have an approximate SU(4) symmetry, but differ in the sign of quartic terms. We determine the order parameter manifold of the ground state and analyze its excitations. For small fillings, we find a strong first-order transition to an SU(3)⊗U(1) manifold of orders that break spin-valley symmetry and induce a 3-1 splitting of fermionic excitations. For van Hove filling, we find a weak first-order transition to an SU(2)⊗SU(2)⊗U(1) manifold of orders that preserves the twofold band degeneracy. We discuss the effect of particle-hole orders on superconductivity and compare with strong-coupling approaches.

Analytical solution of surface tension of quark-hadron phase transition

By using the finite temperature field theory, the one-loop effective potential and the dynamics of the quantum chromodynamics deconfinement phase transition in the framework of Friedberg-Lee model are studied at finite temperature and density. Our results show that there is a first-order deconfinement phase transition for the full phase diagram, and the critical temperature is about 119.8 MeV for a zero chemical potential whereas the critical chemical is around 256.4 MeV when the temperature is fixed at &lt;i&gt;T&lt;/i&gt; = 50 MeV. Moreover, in the thin-wall approximation, we investigate the dynamics of a strong first-order quark-hadron transition via homogeneous bubble nucleation in the Friedberg-Lee model. Under an appropriate boundary condition, the equation of motion for the &lt;inline-formula&gt;&lt;tex-math id="M3"&gt;\begin{document}$ \sigma $\end{document}&lt;/tex-math&gt;&lt;alternatives&gt;&lt;graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="21-20220659_M3.jpg"/&gt;&lt;graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="21-20220659_M3.png"/&gt;&lt;/alternatives&gt;&lt;/inline-formula&gt; field is solved, then the evolutions of the bubble critical configuration with radius &lt;inline-formula&gt;&lt;tex-math id="M4"&gt;\begin{document}$ r $\end{document}&lt;/tex-math&gt;&lt;alternatives&gt;&lt;graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="21-20220659_M4.jpg"/&gt;&lt;graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="21-20220659_M4.png"/&gt;&lt;/alternatives&gt;&lt;/inline-formula&gt; at different temperatures and densities are calculated. The surface tension, the typical radius of the critical bubble and the shift in the coarse-grained free energy each as a function of temperature and chemical potential are obtained. In order to gain the reliability and advantages of the thin-wall approximation, our analytical results based on the thin-wall approximation are compared with those obtained by the exact numerical method accordingly. Finally, some consequences and possible applications of our results in the quark meson model and Polyakov quark meson model are also presented in the end of this paper.

First-order antiferromagnetic transitions of SrMn2P2 and CaMn2P2 single crystals containing corrugated-honeycomb Mn sublattices

SrMn2P2 and CaMn2P2 are insulators that adopt the trigonal CaAl2Si2-type structure containing corrugated Mn honeycomb layers. Magnetic susceptibility χ and heat capacity versus temperature T data reveal a weak first-order antiferromagnetic (AFM) transition at the Néel temperature [Formula: see text] K for SrMn2P2 and a strong first-order AFM transition at [Formula: see text] K for CaMn2P2 Both compounds exhibit isotropic and nearly T-independent [Formula: see text], suggesting magnetic structures in which nearest-neighbor moments are aligned at [Formula: see text] to each other. The 31P NMR measurements confirm the strong first-order transition in CaMn2P2 but show critical slowing down above [Formula: see text] for SrMn2P2, thus also evidencing second-order character. The 31P NMR measurements indicate that the AFM structure of CaMn2P2 is commensurate with the lattice whereas that of SrMn2P2 is incommensurate. These first-order AFM transitions are unique among the class of (Ca, Sr, Ba)Mn2 (P, As, Sb, Bi)2 compounds that otherwise exhibit second-order AFM transitions. This result challenges our understanding of the circumstances under which first-order AFM transitions occur.

Dark matter and nature of electroweak phase transition with an inert doublet

We provide a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the prospects to realize Dark Matter (DM) in the Inert Doublet Model, while simultaneously enhancing the Electroweak Phase Transition (EWPhT) such as to allow for electroweak baryogenesis. Instead of focusing on certain aspects or mass hierarchies, we perform extensive, yet fine-grained, parameter space scans, where we analyze the nature of the EWPhT in both the light and the heavy DM regions, confronting it with the amount of DM potentially residing in the lightest inert-doublet state. Thereby, we point out a viable region where a non-trivial two-step EWPhT can appear, without being in conflict with direct-detection bounds, which could leave interesting imprints in gravitational wave signatures. We propose new benchmarks with this feature as well as update benchmarks with a strong first-order transition in the light of new XENON1T limits. Moreover, taking into account these latest bounds as well as relevant collider constraints, we envisage a region for light DM with a small mass splitting, lifting the usual assumption of exact degeneracy of the new non-DM scalars, such as to avoid collider bounds while providing a fair DM abundance over a rather large DM mass range. This follows from a detailed survey of the impact of co-annihilations on the abundance, dissecting the various channels.

The electro-weak phase transition at colliders: confronting theoretical uncertainties and complementary channels

We explore and contrast the capabilities of future colliders to probe the nature of the electro-weak phase transition. We focus on the real singlet scalar field extension of the Standard Model, representing the most minimal, yet most elusive, framework that can enable a strong first-order electro-weak phase transition. By taking into account the theoretical uncertainties and employing the powerful complementarity between gauge and Higgs boson pair channels in the searches for new scalar particles, we find that a 100 TeV proton collider has the potential to confirm or falsify a strong first-order transition. Our results hint towards this occurring relatively early in its lifetime. Furthermore, by extrapolating down to 27 TeV, we find that a lower-energy collider may also probe a large fraction of the parameter space, if not all. Such early discoveries would allow for precise measurements of the new phenomena to be obtained at future colliders and would pave the way to definitively verify whether this is indeed the physical remnant of a scalar field that catalyses a strong first-order transition.

Real scalar phase transitions: a nonperturbative analysis

We study the thermal phase transitions of a generic real scalar field, without a Z2-symmetry, referred to variously as an inert, sterile or singlet scalar, or ϕ3 + ϕ4 theory. Such a scalar field arises in a wide range of models, including as the inflaton, or as a portal to the dark sector. At high temperatures, we perform dimensional reduction, matching to an effective theory in three dimensions, which we then study both perturbatively to three-loop order and on the lattice. For strong first-order transitions, with large tree-level cubic couplings, our lattice Monte-Carlo simulations agree with perturbation theory within error. However, as the size of the cubic coupling decreases, relative to the quartic coupling, perturbation theory becomes less and less reliable, breaking down completely in the approach to the Z2-symmetric limit, in which the transition is of second order. Notwithstanding, the renormalisation group is shown to significantly extend the validity of perturbation theory. Throughout, our calculations are made as explicit as possible so that this article may serve as a guide for similar calculations in other theories.

Formation and growth of skyrmion crystal phase in a frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnet with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

We study the formation and growth of a skyrmion crystal (SkX) phase in a frustrated antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a triangular lattice with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in the presence of an external magnetic field. We build phase diagrams in the temperature-field parameter plane, featuring first-order phase transitions and tricritical points, and study their evolution with the increasing DMI strength. It is found that already relatively small DMI intensity can lead to the appearance of the SkX phase at low temperatures in the vicinity of the meeting point of the remaining helical, coplanar up-up-down, and canted V-like ordered phases. By means of a parallel tempering (PT) Monte Carlo algorithm we find that the minimum value of DMI, at which the skyrmion phase emerges, Dt≈0.02, is one order of magnitude smaller than previously reported. We demonstrate the efficiency of PT in reliable and precise location of the phase boundaries between different phases separated by either very large (strong first-order transition) or barely detectable energy barriers, where the standard Monte Carlo approach may easily fail to find a stable solution.

Bubble dynamics in a strong first-order quark-hadron transition * *Supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (11675048)

We investigate the dynamics of a strong first-order quark-hadron transition driven by cubic interactions via homogeneous bubble nucleation in the Friedberg-Lee model. The one-loop effective thermodynamic potential of the model and the critical bubble profiles have been calculated at different temperatures and chemical potentials. By taking the temperature and the chemical potential as variables, the evolutions of the surface tension, the typical radius of the critical bubble, and the shift in the coarse-grained free energy in the presence of a nucleation bubble are obtained, and the limit on the reliability of the thin-wall approximation is also addressed accordingly. Our results are compared to those obtained for a weak first-order quark-hadron phase transition; in particular, the spinodal decomposition is relevant.

Phase field simulation of martensitic transformation in pre-strained nanocomposite shape memory alloys

We show in this paper how strain engineering alters the fundamental characteristic of a martensitic transformation (MT) and gives it a new set of properties including large quasi-linear elastic strain response with nearly vanishing hysteresis and low elastic modulus. The work is motivated and inspired by a recent experimental study on elastic and inelastic (transformation) strain matching in a pre-strained nano-composite with Nb nanowires embedded in a NiTi shape memory alloy matrix. In particular, we demonstrate by computer simulation that dislocations at Nb/NiTi interfaces produced by the pre-straining are responsible for the unprecedented properties. Microstructural evolution captured in the simulations reveals that local stress fields associated with the dislocations regulate the nucleation and growth of martensite, turning the otherwise sharp, strong first-order transition into a continuous, high-order like transition. The simulations predict that the stress-strain hysteresis and modulus of the composite decrease with increasing amount of pre-strain, which agrees well with the experimental measurement. This study suggests a design strategy by introducing non-uniform stress fields for enhanced properties of shape memory alloys.

Effect of uniaxial stress on the magnetic phases of CeAuSb2

We present results of measurements of resistivity of \CAS{} under the combination of $c$-axis magnetic field and in-plane uniaxial stress. In unstressed \CAS{} there are two magnetic phases. The low-field A phase is a single-component spin-density wave (SDW), with $\mathbf{q} = (\eta, \pm \eta, 1/2)$, and the high-field B phase consists of microscopically coexisting $(\eta, \eta, 1/2)$ and $(\eta, -\eta, 1/2)$ spin-density waves. Pressure along a $\langle 100 \rangle$ lattice direction is a transverse field to both of these phases, and so initially has little effect, however eventually induces new low- and high-field phases in which the principal axes of the SDW components appear to have rotated to the $\langle 100 \rangle$ directions. Under this strong $\langle 100 \rangle$ compression, the field evolution of the resistivity is much smoother than at zero strain: In zero strain, there is a strong first-order transition, while under strong $\langle 100 \rangle$ it becomes much broader. We hypothesize that this is a consequence of the uniaxial stress lifting the degeneracy between the (100) and (010) directions.

Phase behaviors of deeply supercooled bilayer water unseen in bulk water

Akin to bulk water, water confined to an isolated nanoslit can show a wealth of new 2D phases of ice and amorphous ice, as well as unusual phase behavior. Indeed, 2D water phases, such as bilayer hexagonal ice and monolayer square ice, have been detected in the laboratory, confirming earlier computational predictions. Herein, we report theoretical evidence of a hitherto unreported state, namely, bilayer very low density amorphous ice (BL-VLDA), as well as evidence of a strong first-order transition between BL-VLDA and the BL amorphous ice (BL-A), and a weak first-order transition between BL-VLDA and the BL very low density liquid (BL-VLDL) water. The diffusivity of BL-VLDA is typically in the range of 10-9 cm2/s to 10-10 cm2/s. Similar to bulk (3D) water, 2D water can exhibit two forms of liquid in the deeply supercooled state. However, unlike supercooled bulk water, for which the two forms of liquid can coexist and merge into one at a critical point, the 2D BL-VLDL and BL high-density liquid (BL-HDL) phases are separated by the highly stable solid phase of BL-A whose melting line exhibits the isochore end point (IEP) near 220 K in the temperature-pressure diagram. Above the IEP temperature, BL-VLDL and BL-HDL are indistinguishable. At negative pressures, the metastable BL-VLDL exhibits a spatially and temporally heterogeneous structure induced by dynamic changes in the nanodomains, a feature much less pronounced in the BL-HDL.

Isotropic-nematic transition for hard rods on a three-dimensional cubic lattice.

Using grand-canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations, we investigate the isotropic-nematic phase transition for hard rods of size L×1×1 on a three-dimensional cubic lattice. We observe such a transition for L≥6. For L=6, the nematic state has a negative order parameter, reflecting the co-occurrence of two dominating orientations. For L≥7, the nematic state has a positive order parameter, corresponding to the dominance of one orientation. We investigate rod lengths up to L=25 and find evidence for a very weakly first-order isotropic-nematic transition, while we cannot completely rule out a second-order transition. It was not possible to detect a density jump at the transition, despite using large systems containing several 10^{5} particles. The probability density distributions P(Q) from the GCMC simulations near the transition are very broad, pointing to strong fluctuations. Our results complement earlier results on the demixing (pseudonematic) transition for an equivalent system in two dimensions, which is presumably of Ising type and occurs for L≥7. We compare our results to lattice fundamental measure theory (FMT) and find that FMT strongly overestimates nematic order and consequently predicts a strong first-order transition. The rod packing fraction of the nematic coexisting states, however, agree reasonably well between FMT and GCMC.

Superconductivity and magnetic fluctuations developing in the vicinity of strong first-order magnetic transition in CrAs

We report single crystal preparation, resistivity, and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) measurements for new pressure-induced superconductor CrAs. In the first part, we present the difference between crystals made by different thermal sequences and methods, and show the sample dependence of superconductivity in CrAs. In the latter part, we show NQR data focusing the microscopic electronic state at the phase boundary between the helimagnetic and the paramagnetic phases. They suggest strongly that a quantum critical point is absent on the pressure-temperature phase diagram of CrAs, because of the strong first-order character of the magnetic transition; however, the spin fluctuations are observed in the paramagnetic phase. The close relationship between the spin fluctuations and superconductivity can be seen even in the vicinity of the first-order magnetic transition in CrAs.