Symmetry Breaking Research Articles

Antiferromagnetic magnonic charge current generation via ultrafast optical excitation

Néel spin-orbit torque allows a charge current pulse to efficiently manipulate the Néel vector in antiferromagnets, which offers a unique opportunity for ultrahigh density information storage with high speed. However, the reciprocal process of Néel spin-orbit torque, the generation of ultrafast charge current in antiferromagnets has not been demonstrated. Here, we show the experimental observation of charge current generation in antiferromagnetic metallic Mn2Au thin films using ultrafast optical excitation. The ultrafast laser pulse excites antiferromagnetic magnons, resulting in instantaneous non-equilibrium spin polarization at the antiferromagnetic spin sublattices with broken spatial symmetry. Then the charge current is generated directly via spin-orbit fields at the two sublattices, which is termed as the reciprocal phenomenon of Néel spin-orbit torque, and the associated THz emission can be detected at room temperature. Besides the fundamental significance on the Onsager reciprocity, the observed magnonic charge current generation in antiferromagnet would advance the development of antiferromagnetic THz emitter.

Chirality Transfer of Glycopeptide across Scales Defined by the Continuity of Hydrogen Bonds.

In nature, chirality transfer refines biomolecules across all size scales, bestowing them with a myriad of sophisticated functions. Despite recent advances in replicating chirality transfer with biotic or abiotic building blocks, a molecular understanding of the underlying mechanism of chirality transfer remains a daunting challenge. In this paper, the coassembly of two types of glycopeptide molecules differing in capability of forming intermolecular hydrogen bonds enabled the involvement of discontinuous hydrogen bond, which allowed for a nanoscale chirality transfer from glycopeptide molecules to chiral micelles, yet inhibited the micrometer scale chirality transfer toward helix formation, leading to an achiral transfer from chiral micelles to planar monolayer. Upon stacking the monolayer into a bilayer, the nonsuperimposable front and back faces of the chiral micelles involved in the monolayer ribbons lead to the opposite rotation of two layers toward increasing the continuity of H-bonds. The resultant continuity triggered the symmetry breaking of stacked bilayers and thus reactivated the micrometer-scale chirality transfer toward the final helix. This work delineates a promising step toward a better understanding and replicating the naturally occurring chirality transfer events and will be instructive to future chiral material design.

QCD Kondo effect for single heavy quark in chiral-symmetry broken phase

We consider the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) Kondo effect for a single heavy quark in quark matter composed of light quarks with chiral symmetry breaking. Introducing several spinor structures in QCD Kondo condensates, i.e., particle-projected condensate, antiparticle-projected condensate, and normal condensate without projection, we calculate the attractive energy gained by the heavy quark within the mean-field approximation in the path-integral formalism. We show that the normal condensate is favored at low density and the particle-projected condensate is favored at high density, when the light quark has a nonzero mass. We interpret such a density-dependent transition between the two condensates in terms of the Kondo resonances. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Magneto-induced topological phase transition in inverted InAs/GaSb bilayers

We report a magneto-induced topological phase transition in inverted InAs/GaSb bilayers from a quantum spin Hall insulator to a normal insulator. We utilize a dual-gated Corbino device in which the degree of band inversion, or equivalently the electron and hole densities, can be continuously tuned. We observe a topological phase transition around the magnetic field where a band crossing occurs, accompanied by a bulk-gap closure characterized by a bulk conductance peak (BCP). In another set of experiments, we study the transition under a tilted magnetic field (tilt angle ). We observe the characteristic magnetoconductance around BCP as a function of , which dramatically depends on the density of the bilayers. In a relatively deep inversion (hence a higher density) regime, where the electron-hole hybridization dominates the excitonic interaction, the BCP grows with . On the contrary, in a shallowly inverted (a lower density) regime, where the excitonic interaction dominates the hybridization, the BCP is suppressed indicating a smooth crossover without a gap closure. This suggests the existence of a low-density, correlated insulator with spontaneous symmetry breaking near the critical point. Our highly controllable electron-hole system offers an ideal platform to study interacting topological states as proposed by recent theories. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking by disorder in superconductors

A growing number of superconducting materials display evidence for spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking (TRSB) below their critical transition temperatures. Precisely what this implies for the nature of the superconducting ground state of such materials, however, is often not straightforward to infer. We review the experimental status and survey different theoretical mechanisms for the generation of TRSB in superconductors. In cases where a TRSB complex combination of two superconducting order parameter components is realized, defects, dislocations and sample edges may generate superflow patterns that can be picked up by magnetic probes. However, even single-component condensates that do not break time-reversal symmetry in their pure bulk phases can also support signatures of magnetism inside the superconducting state. This includes, for example, the generation of localized orbital current patterns or spin-polarization near atomic-scale impurities, twin boundaries and other defects. Signals of TRSB may also arise from a superconductivity-enhanced Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida exchange coupling between magnetic impurity moments present in the normal state. We discuss the relevance of these different mechanisms for TRSB in light of recent experiments on superconducting materials of current interest.

Strong-coupling approach to temperature dependence of competing orders of superconductivity: Possible time-reversal symmetry breaking and nontrivial topology

Strong-coupling approach to temperature dependence of competing orders of superconductivity: Possible time-reversal symmetry breaking and nontrivial topology

Detecting hidden order in fractional Chern insulators

Topological phase transitions go beyond Ginzburg and Landau's paradigm of spontaneous symmetry breaking and occur without an associated local order parameter. Instead, such transitions can be characterized by the emergence of nonlocal order parameters, which require measurements on extensively many particles simultaneously—an impossible venture in real materials. On the other hand, quantum simulators have demonstrated such measurements, making them prime candidates for experimental confirmation of nonlocal topological order. Here, building upon the recent advances in preparing few-particle fractional Chern insulators using ultracold atoms and photons, we propose a realistic scheme for detecting the hidden off-diagonal long-range order (HODLRO) characterizing Laughlin states. Furthermore, we demonstrate the existence of this hidden order in fractional Chern insulators, specifically for the ν=1/2-Laughlin state in the isotropic Hofstadter-Bose-Hubbard model. This is achieved by large-scale numerical density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations based on matrix product states, for which we formulate an efficient sampling procedure providing direct access to HODLRO in close analogy to the proposed experimental scheme. We confirm the characteristic power-law scaling of HODLRO, with an exponent 1/ν=2, and show that its detection requires only a few thousand snapshots. This makes our scheme realistically achievable with current technology and paves the way for further analysis of nonlocal topological orders, e.g., in topological states with non-Abelian anyonic excitations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Electronic states in quantum wires on a M"{o}bius strip.

Abstract We study the properties of an electron constrained on wires along an M"{o}bius strip. We considered wires around the strip and along the transverse direction, across the width of the strip. We considered wires around the strip and along the transverse direction, across the width of the strip. For each direction, we investigate how the curvature modifies the electronic states and their corresponding energy spectrum. At the center of the strip, the wires around the surface form quantum rings whose spectrum depends on the strip radius $a$. For wires at the edge of the strip, the inner edge turns into the outer edge. Accordingly, the curvature yields localized states in the middle of the wire. Along the strip width, the effective potential exhibits a parity symmetry breaking leading to the localization of the bound state on one side of the strip.

Branching problem for tensoring two Verma modules and its application to differential symmetry breaking operators

Kobayashi–Pevzner discovered in [Differential symmetry breaking operators: II. Rankin–Cohen operators for symmetric pairs, Selecta Math. (N.S.) 22(2) (2016) 847–911, MR 3477337] that the failure of the multiplicity-one property in the fusion rule of Verma modules of [Formula: see text] occurs exactly when the Rankin–Cohen brackets vanish, and classified all the corresponding parameters. In this paper, we provide yet another characterization for these parameters, and give a precise description of indecomposable components of the tensor product. Furthermore, we discuss when the tensor products of two Verma modules are isomorphic to each other for semisimple Lie algebras [Formula: see text].

Symmetry restoration and uniformly accelerated observers in Minkowski spacetime

We reassess the problem of symmetry restoration induced by observers’ acceleration within the context of interacting quantum field theories in Minkowski spacetime. We argue that the imposition of a frame-independent renormalization condition negates any observed symmetry restoration by a Rindler observer. Technically, we compute the one-loop effective potential of a λφ4 theory for an accelerated observer, employing a distinct methodology from prior investigations. Emphasizing the intricacies of the model’s renormalization, the analysis offers novel insights into the interplay between acceleration and spontaneous symmetry breaking in quantum field theory.

Synthesis and Assembly of Photoresponsive Colloidal Tubes.

Inspired by the sophisticated multicomponent and multistage assembly of proteins and their mixtures in living cells, this study rationally designs and fabricates photoresponsive colloidal tubes that can self-assemble and hybrid-assemble when mixed with colloidal spheres and rods. Time-resolved observation and computer simulation reveal that the assembly is driven by phoretic attraction originating from osmotic pressures. These pressures are induced by the chemical concentration gradients generated by the photochemical reaction caused by colloidal tubes in a H2O2 solution under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. The assembled structure is dictated by the size and shape of the constituent colloids as well as the intensity of the UV irradiation. Additionally, the resulting assembly can undergo self-propelled motion originating from the broken symmetry of the surrounding concentration gradients. This motion can be steered by a magnetic field and used for microscale cargo delivery. The study demonstrates a facile synthesis method for colloidal tubes and highlights their unique potential for controlled, hierarchical self-assembly and hybrid-assembly.

Observation of valley-polarized topological phase transition in surface wave photonic crystals

Simultaneous breaking of inversion symmetry and time-reversal symmetry brings topological phases fundamental in valleytronics, i.e. unpaired Dirac points and edge states. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the valley-polarized topological phase transition of these states. In a surface wave photonic crystal platform with honeycomb lattice, we use unequal metal pillars and magnetically biased gyromagnetic ferrite disks to modulate the breaking of symmetries. Switching of the unpaired Dirac points between K and K’ valleys is observed. More importantly, we realize valley manipulation of the edge states in heterojunctions constructed by specific topological phases. Our research thus paves the way for valley-polarized devices.

Remote epitaxy of single-crystal rhombohedral WS2 bilayers

Compared to transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers, rhombohedral-stacked (R-stacked) TMD bilayers exhibit remarkable electrical performance, enhanced nonlinear optical response, giant piezo-photovoltaic effect and intrinsic interfacial ferroelectricity. However, from a thermodynamics perspective, the formation energies of R-stacked and hexagonal-stacked (H-stacked) TMD bilayers are nearly identical, leading to mixed stacking of both H- and R-stacked bilayers in epitaxial films. Here, we report the remote epitaxy of centimetre-scale single-crystal R-stacked WS2 bilayer films on sapphire substrates. The bilayer growth is realized by a high flux feeding of the tungsten source at high temperature on substrates. The R-stacked configuration is achieved by the symmetry breaking in a-plane sapphire, where the influence of atomic steps passes through the lower TMD layer and controls the R-stacking of the upper layer. The as-grown R-stacked bilayers show up-to-30-fold enhancements in carrier mobility (34 cm2V−1s−1), nearly doubled circular helicity (61%) and interfacial ferroelectricity, in contrast to monolayer films. Our work reveals a growth mechanism to obtain stacking-controlled bilayer TMD single crystals, and promotes large-scale applications of R-stacked TMD.

Continuously Geometrical Tuning to Boost Circular Dichroism in 3D Chiral Metamaterials

AbstractChiral metamaterials possess unique optical chiral responses, and the attainment of remarkable intrinsic chirality typically necessitates the disruption of their mirror symmetry to facilitate cross‐coupling between electric and magnetic dipoles. However, achieving such symmetry breaking in a flexible and controllable manner remains challenging due to the limited range of applications afforded by available methodologies. Here, a method is proposed for fabricating robust three‐dimensional (3D) chiral metamaterials by projecting arbitrary planar chiral metasurfaces onto on‐demand height‐tunable 3D silicon structures, thereby effectively modulating their optical chiral responses through continuously tuning the degree of cross‐coupling between dipoles. Experimental and simulation results demonstrate this approach's ability to precisely control circular dichroism (CD) from a non‐chiral state to various activated and enhanced chirality. Enhancing CD with high precision and continuous control manners can naturally provide an advanced opportunity and platform for the future design and actual applications of chiral optical systems.

Magnetic-induced chiral dynamics in an extended two-leg bosonic ladder

Abstract The realization and detection of chiral physics with ultracold atomic gases provide a unique path
for the exploration of topological phases. Here, we show that the interplay of magnetic field and
interacting particles in an extended two-leg ladder leads to rich chiral Bloch dynamics. Considering
both the on-site contact interaction and nearest-neighbor interactions, the ground state and Bloch
dynamics of the system are studied analytically and numerically. When the system is in the ground
state, the threshold and phase diagram for the transition between zero-momentum state and plane-wave state are analytically obtained, showing the nearest-neighbor interactions along the legs and
rungs have opposite impact on the ground state transition, providing new opportunity to manipulate
the ground state transition. When the ladder is perturbated under an external linear force, chiral
dephasing of Bloch oscillations (BOs), i.e., symmetry breaking damped BOs (the damping rate
of BOs on one leg is larger than the other), are observed. This chirality is absent for vanishing
the magnetic field and atomic interaction. Particularly, the chirality of damped BOs is inversed
when the magnetic field (chiral current) is inversed. In addition, the damping of BOs induced
by different types of atomic interactions is different, and the strength and damping rate of BOs
initialized in different ground states are distinct, offering dynamic ways to detect the different
ground states. Furthermore, the persistent chiral Bloch oscillations observed in single particle case
is predicted analytically, which is a crucial requirement for observation and application of chiral BOs
in nonlinear regime. Our results provide an interesting path towards the exploration of topological
atomic superfluids.

Planar Chlorination Engineering: A Strategy of Completely Breaking the Geometric Symmetry of Fe-N4 Site for Boosting Oxygen Electroreduction.

Introducing asymmetric elements and breaking the geometric symmetry of traditional metal-N4 site for boosting oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are meaningful and challenging. Herein, the planar chlorination engineering of Fe-N4 site was firstly proposed for remarkably improving the ORR activity. The Fe-N4/CNCl catalyst with broken symmetry exhibited a half-wave potential (E1/2) of 0.917V versus RHE, 49mV and 72mV higher than those of traditional Fe-N4/CN and commercial 20 wt% Pt/C catalysts. The Fe-N4/CNCl catalyst also had excellent stability for 25,000 cycles and good methanol tolerance ability. For Zn-air battery test, the Fe-N4/CNCl catalyst had the maximum power density of 228mW/cm2 and outstanding stability during 150h charge-discharge test, as the promising substitute of Pt-based catalysts in energy storage and conversion devices. The density functional theory calculation demonstrated the adjacent C-Cl bond effectively broke the symmetry of Fe-N4 site, downward shifted the d-band center of Fe, facilitated the reduction and release of OH*, and remarkably lower the energy barrier of rate-determining step. This work revealed the enormous potentials of planar chlorination engineering for boosting the ORR activity of traditional metal-N4 site by thoroughly breaking their geometric symmetry. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Breaking of Lateral Symmetry in Two-Dimensional Crystallization-Driven Self-Assembly on a Surface.

Symmetry breaking is prevalent in nature and provides distinctive access to hierarchical structures for artificial materials. However, it is rarely explored in two-dimensional (2D) entities, especially for lateral asymmetry. Herein, we describe a unique symmetry breaking process in surface-initiated 2D living crystallization-driven self-assembly. The 2D epitaxial growth occurs only at one lateral side of the immobilized cylindrical micelle seeds, accessing unilateral platelets with the yield increasing with the seed length, the growth temperature, and poly(2-vinylpyridine) corona length (maximum = 92%). Generally, the tilted immobilization of seeds blocks one lateral side and triggers the lateral symmetry breaking, where the intensity and spatial arrangement of seed-surface interactions dictate the regulation. Segmented unilateral platelets with segmented corona regions are further fabricated with the addition of different blended unimers. Remarkably, discrete slope-like and dense blade-like platelet arrays grow off the surface when seeds are compactly aligned either with spherical micelles or themselves. This strategy provides nanoscale insights into the symmetry breaking in long-range self-assembly and would be promising for the design of innovative colloids and smart surfaces.

Is the effective potential effective for dynamics?

We critically examine the applicability of the effective potential within dynamical situations and find, in short, that the answer is negative. An important caveat of the use of an effective potential in dynamical equations of motion is an explicit violation of energy conservation. An effective potential is introduced in a consistent quasistatic approximation, and its narrow regime of validity is discussed. Two ubiquitous instances in which even the adiabatic effective potential is not valid in dynamics are studied in detail: parametric amplification in the case of oscillating mean fields, and spinodal instabilities associated with spontaneous symmetry breaking. In both cases profuse particle production is directly linked to the failure of the effective potential to describe the dynamics. We introduce a consistent, renormalized, energy conserving dynamical framework that is amenable to numerical implementation. Energy conservation leads to the emergence of asymptotic highly excited, entangled stationary states from the dynamical evolution. As a corollary, decoherence via dephasing of the density matrix in the adiabatic basis is argued to lead to an emergent entropy, formally equivalent to the entanglement entropy. The results suggest novel characterization of asymptotic equilibrium states in terms of order parameter vs energy density. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Percolation transition for random forests in $d\geqslant 3$

AbstractThe arboreal gas is the probability measure on (unrooted spanning) forests of a graph in which each forest is weighted by a factor $\beta >0$ β > 0 per edge. It arises as the $q\to 0$ q → 0 limit of the $q$ q -state random cluster model with $p=\beta q$ p = β q . We prove that in dimensions $d\geqslant 3$ d ⩾ 3 the arboreal gas undergoes a percolation phase transition. This contrasts with the case of $d=2$ d = 2 where no percolation transition occurs.The starting point for our analysis is an exact relationship between the arboreal gas and a non-linear sigma model with target space the fermionic hyperbolic plane $\mathbb{H}^{0|2}$ H 0 | 2 . This latter model can be thought of as the 0-state Potts model, with the arboreal gas being its random cluster representation. Unlike the standard Potts models, the $\mathbb{H}^{0|2}$ H 0 | 2 model has continuous symmetries. By combining a renormalisation group analysis with Ward identities we prove that this symmetry is spontaneously broken at low temperatures. In terms of the arboreal gas, this symmetry breaking translates into the existence of infinite trees in the thermodynamic limit. Our analysis also establishes massless free field correlations at low temperatures and the existence of a macroscopic tree on finite tori.

Insight of hydrogen evolution reaction in slab SnO2 loaded with transition metal atoms

The utilization of hydrogen energy has emerged as a promising solution for clean and sustainable energy sources. The development of cost-effective catalysts with high activity and stability is crucial for efficient hydrogen production. In this work, we investigated the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalytic activity of single transition metal atom (TM = V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) on slab SnO2 by using density functional theory. Our results revealed that the catalytic activity of the slab SnO2 can be significantly enhanced by loading the transition atom. By calculating the Gibbs free energies and exchange current densities in different adsorption configurations of TM-SnO2, single-atom catalyst (SAC) of Mn-loaded SAC exhibits excellent catalytic performance, characterized by a low Gibbs free energy barrier (−0.05 eV). Introducing a TM on the SnO2 surface breaks its local symmetry, while the strong coupling between the metal and H atoms enhances catalytic performance. The synergetic effect of symmetry breaking and metal-H interaction boosts overall catalytic activity. This work not only proposes a novel non-platinum HER catalyst based on SnO2 but also lays a solid foundation for future applications of SnO2-based catalysts.