Subcritical dynamos in rapidly-rotating planar convection

Robert G. Cooper, Paul J. Bushby, Celine Guervilly

We study dynamo action using numerical simulations of planar Boussinesq convection at rapid rotation (low Ekman numbers, Ek), focusing on subcritical dynamo action in which the dynamo is sustained for Rayleigh numbers, Ra, below the critical Rayleigh number for the onset of nonmagnetic convection, Ra$_c$. These solutions are found by first investigating the supercritical regime, in which the dynamo is able to generate a large-scale magnetic field that significantly influences the convective motions, with an associated Elsasser number of order Ek$^{1/3}$. Subcritical solutions are then found by tracking this solution branch into the subcritical regime, taking a supercritical solution and then gradually lowering the corresponding Rayleigh number. We show that decreasing the Ekman number leads to an extension of the subcritical range of Ra/Ra$_c$, down to an optimal value of Ek$=10^{-5}$. For magnetic Prandtl numbers of order unity, subcriticality is then hampered by the emergence of a large-scale mode at lower Ekman numbers when the dynamo driven by the smaller scale convection generates relatively stronger large-scale magnetic field. The inability of the large-scale mode to sustain dynamo action leads to an intermittent behaviour that appears to inhibit subcriticality. The subcritical solutions are also sensitive to the value of the magnetic Reynolds number (or equivalently, the magnetic Prandtl number, Pm), as values of the magnetic Reynolds number greater than 70 are required to produce dynamo action, but large values lead to fluctuations that are able to push the system too far from the subcritical branch and towards the trivial conducting state.

US Cosmic Visions: New Ideas in Dark Matter 2017: Community Report

Marco Battaglieri, Alberto Belloni, Aaron Chou, Priscilla Cushman, Bertrand Echenard, Rouven Essig, Juan Estrada, Jonathan L. Feng, Brenna Flaugher, Patrick J. Fox, Peter Graham, Carter Hall, Roni Harnik, JoAnne Hewett, Joseph Incandela, Eder Izaguirre, Daniel McKinsey, Matthew Pyle, Natalie Roe, Gray Rybka, Pierre Sikivie, Tim M. P. Tait, Natalia Toro, Richard Van De Water, Neal Weiner, Kathryn Zurek, Eric Adelberger, Andrei Afanasev, Derbin Alexander, James Alexander, Vasile Cristian Antochi, David Mark Asner, Howard Baer, Dipanwita Banerjee, Elisabetta Baracchini, Phillip Barbeau, Joshua Barrow, Noemie Bastidon, James Battat, Stephen Benson, Asher Berlin, Mark Bird, Nikita Blinov, Kimberly K. Boddy, Mariangela Bondi, Walter M. Bonivento, Mark Boulay, James Boyce, Maxime Brodeur, Leah Broussard, Ranny Budnik, Philip Bunting, Marc Caffee, Sabato Stefano Caiazza, Sheldon Campbell, Tongtong Cao, Gianpaolo Carosi, Massimo Carpinelli, Gianluca Cavoto, Andrea Celentano, Jae Hyeok Chang, Swapan Chattopadhyay, Alvaro Chavarria, Chien-Yi Chen, Kenneth Clark, John Clarke, Owen Colegrove, Jonathon Coleman, David Cooke, Robert Cooper, Michael Crisler, Paolo Crivelli, Francesco D'Eramo, Domenico D'Urso, Eric Dahl, William Dawson, Marzio De Napoli, Raffaella De Vita, Patrick DeNiverville, Stephen Derenzo, Antonia Di Crescenzo, Emanuele Di Marco, Keith R. Dienes, Milind Diwan, Dongwi Handiipondola Dongwi, Alex Drlica-Wagner, Sebastian Ellis, Anthony Chigbo Ezeribe, Glennys Farrar, Francesc Ferrer, Enectali Figueroa-Feliciano, Alessandra Filippi, Giuliana Fiorillo, Bartosz Fornal, Arne Freyberger, Claudia Frugiuele, Cristian Galbiati, Iftah Galon, Susan Gardner, Andrew Geraci, Gilles Gerbier, Mathew Graham, Edda Gschwendtner, Christopher Hearty, Jaret Heise, Reyco Henning, Richard J. Hill, David Hitlin, Yonit Hochberg, Jason Hogan, Maurik Holtrop, Ziqing Hong, Todd Hossbach, T. B. Humensky, Philip Ilten, Kent Irwin, John Jaros, Robert Johnson, Matthew Jones, Yonatan Kahn, Narbe Kalantarians, Manoj Kaplinghat, Rakshya Khatiwada, Simon Knapen, Michael Kohl, Chris Kouvaris, Jonathan Kozaczuk, Gordan Krnjaic, Valery Kubarovsky, Eric Kuflik, Alexander Kusenko, Rafael Lang, Kyle Leach, Tongyan Lin, Mariangela Lisanti, Jing Liu, Kun Liu, Ming Liu, Dinesh Loomba, Joseph Lykken, Katherine Mack, Jeremiah Mans, Humphrey Maris, Thomas Markiewicz, Luca Marsicano, C. J. Martoff, Giovanni Mazzitelli, Christopher McCabe, Samuel D. McDermott, Art McDonald, Bryan McKinnon, Dongming Mei, Tom Melia, Gerald A. Miller, Kentaro Miuchi, Sahara Mohammed Prem Nazeer, Omar Moreno, Vasiliy Morozov, Frederic Mouton, Holger Mueller, Alexander Murphy, Russell Neilson, Tim Nelson, Christopher Neu, Yuri Nosochkov, Ciaran O'Hare, Noah Oblath, John Orrell, Jonathan Ouellet, Saori Pastore, Sebouh Paul, Maxim Perelstein, Annika Peter, Nguyen Phan, Nan Phinney, Michael Pivovaroff, Andrea Pocar, Maxim Pospelov, Josef Pradler, Paolo Privitera, Stefano Profumo, Mauro Raggi, Surjeet Rajendran, Nunzio Randazzo, Tor Raubenheimer, Christian Regenfus, Andrew Renshaw, Adam Ritz, Thomas Rizzo, Leslie Rosenberg, Andre Rubbia, Ben Rybolt, Tarek Saab, Benjamin R. Safdi, Elena Santopinto, Andrew Scarff, Michael Schneider, Philip Schuster, George Seidel, Hiroyuki Sekiya, Ilsoo Seong, Gabriele Simi, Valeria Sipala, Tracy Slatyer, Oren Slone, Peter F Smith, Jordan Smolinsky, Daniel Snowden-Ifft, Matthew Solt, Andrew Sonnenschein, Peter Sorensen, Neil Spooner, Brijesh Srivastava, Ion Stancu, Louis Strigari, Jan Strube, Alexander O. Sushkov, Matthew Szydagis, Philip Tanedo, David Tanner, Rex Tayloe, William Terrano, Jesse Thaler, Brooks Thomas, Brianna Thorpe, Thomas Thorpe, Javier Tiffenberg, Nhan Tran, Marco Trovato, Christopher Tully, Tony Tyson, Tanmay Vachaspati, Sven Vahsen, Karl van Bibber, Justin Vandenbroucke, Anthony Villano, Tomer Volansky, Guojian Wang, Thomas Ward, William Wester, Andrew Whitbeck, David A. Williams, Matthew Wing, Lindley Winslow, Bogdan Wojtsekhowski, Hai-Bo Yu, Shin-Shan Yu, Tien-Tien Yu, Xilin Zhang, Yue Zhao, Yi-Ming Zhong

This white paper summarizes the workshop "U.S. Cosmic Visions: New Ideas in Dark Matter" held at University of Maryland on March 23-25, 2017.

Dark Sectors 2016 Workshop: Community Report

Jim Alexander, Marco Battaglieri, Bertrand Echenard, Rouven Essig, Matthew Graham, Eder Izaguirre, John Jaros, Gordan Krnjaic, Jeremy Mardon, David Morrissey, Tim Nelson, Maxim Perelstein, Matt Pyle, Adam Ritz, Philip Schuster, Brian Shuve, Natalia Toro, Richard G Van De Water, Daniel Akerib, Haipeng An, Konrad Aniol, Isaac J. Arnquist, David M. Asner, Henning O. Back, Keith Baker, Nathan Baltzell, Dipanwita Banerjee, Brian Batell, Daniel Bauer, James Beacham, Jay Benesch, James Bjorken, Nikita Blinov, Celine Boehm, Mariangela Bondí, Walter Bonivento, Fabio Bossi, Stanley J. Brodsky, Ran Budnik, Stephen Bueltmann, Masroor H. Bukhari, Raymond Bunker, Massimo Carpinelli, Concetta Cartaro, David Cassel, Gianluca Cavoto, Andrea Celentano, Animesh Chaterjee, Saptarshi Chaudhuri, Gabriele Chiodini, Hsiao-Mei Sherry Cho, Eric D. Church, D. A. Cooke, Jodi Cooley, Robert Cooper, Ross Corliss, Paolo Crivelli, Francesca Curciarello, Annalisa D'Angelo, Hooman Davoudiasl, Marzio De Napoli, Raffaella De Vita, Achim Denig, Patrick deNiverville, Abhay Deshpande, Ranjan Dharmapalan, Bogdan Dobrescu, Sergey Donskov, Raphael Dupre, Juan Estrada, Stuart Fegan, Torben Ferber, Clive Field, Enectali Figueroa-Feliciano, Alessandra Filippi, Bartosz Fornal, Arne Freyberger, Alexander Friedland, Iftach Galon, Susan Gardner, Francois-Xavier Girod, Sergei Gninenko, Andrey Golutvin, Stefania Gori, Christoph Grab, Enrico Graziani, Keith Griffioen, Andrew Haas, Keisuke Harigaya, Christopher Hearty, Scott Hertel, JoAnne Hewett, Andrew Hime, David Hitlin, Yonit Hochberg, Roy J. Holt, Maurik Holtrop, Eric W. Hoppe, Todd W. Hossbach, Lauren Hsu, Phil Ilten, Joe Incandela, Gianluca Inguglia, Kent Irwin, Igal Jaegle, Robert P. Johnson, Yonatan Kahn, Grzegorz Kalicy, Zhong-Bo Kang, Vardan Khachatryan, Venelin Kozhuharov, N. V. Krasnikov, Valery Kubarovsky, Eric Kuflik, Noah Kurinsky, Ranjan Laha, Gaia Lanfranchi, Dale Li, Tongyan Lin, Mariangela Lisanti, Kun Liu, Ming Liu, Ben Loer, Dinesh Loomba, Valery E. Lyubovitskij, Aaron Manalaysay, Giuseppe Mandaglio, Jeremiah Mans, W. J. Marciano, Thomas Markiewicz, Luca Marsicano, Takashi Maruyama, Victor A. Matveev, David McKeen, Bryan McKinnon, Dan McKinsey, Harald Merkel, Jeremy Mock, Maria Elena Monzani, Omar Moreno, Corina Nantais, Sebouh Paul, Michael Peskin, Vladimir Poliakov, Antonio D Polosa, Maxim Pospelov, Igor Rachek, Balint Radics, Mauro Raggi, Nunzio Randazzo, Blair Ratcliff, Alessandro Rizzo, Thomas Rizzo, Alan Robinson, Andre Rubbia, David Rubin, Dylan Rueter, Tarek Saab, Elena Santopinto, Richard Schnee, Jessie Shelton, Gabriele Simi, Ani Simonyan, Valeria Sipala, Oren Slone, Elton Smith, Daniel Snowden-Ifft, Matthew Solt, Peter Sorensen, Yotam Soreq, Stefania Spagnolo, James Spencer, Stepan Stepanyan, Jan Strube, Michael Sullivan, Arun S. Tadepalli, Tim Tait, Mauro Taiuti, Philip Tanedo, Rex Tayloe, Jesse Thaler, Nhan V. Tran, Sean Tulin, Christopher G. Tully, Sho Uemura, Maurizio Ungaro, Paolo Valente, Holly Vance, Jerry Vavra, Tomer Volansky, Belina von Krosigk, Andrew Whitbeck, Mike Williams, Peter Wittich, Bogdan Wojtsekhowski, Wei Xue, Jong Min Yoon, Hai-Bo Yu, Jaehoon Yu, Tien-Tien Yu, Yue Zhang, Yue Zhao, Yiming Zhong, Kathryn Zurek

Effect of hole doping on the London penetration depth of Bi:2212 and Bi(Y):2212

W. Anukool, S. Barakat, C. Panagopoulos, J. R. Cooper

We report measurements of AC susceptibility and hence the in-plane London penetration depth on the same samples of Bi:2212 and Bi(Y):2212 for many values of the planar hole concentration/CuO2 unit (p). These support the scenario in which the pseudogap weakens the superconducting response only for p less than approximately 0.19.

Diamagnetism of YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6+x}$ crystals above $T_c$~: evidence for Gaussian fluctuations

I. Kokanović, D. J. Hills, M. L. Sutherland, R. Liang, J. R. Cooper

The magnetization of three high-quality single crystals of YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6+x}$, from slightly overdoped to heavily underdoped,has been measured using torque magnetometry. Striking effects in the angular dependence of the torque for the two underdoped crystals, a few degrees above the superconducting transition temperature ($T_c$) are described well by the theory of Gaussian superconducting fluctuations using a single adjustable parameter. The data at higher temperatures ($T$) are consistent with a strong cut-off in the fluctuations for $T\gtrsim1.1T_c$. Numerical estimates suggest that inelastic scattering could be responsible for this cut-off.

The electronic specific heat of Ba1-xKxFe2As2 (x=0 to 1.0) from 2K to 380K

J. G. Storey, J. W. Loram, J. R. Cooper, Z. Bukowski, J. Karpinski

Using a high-resolution differential technique we have determined the electronic specific heat coefficient gamma(T) of Ba1-xKxFe2As2 with x=0 to 1.0, at temperatures (T) from 2K to 380K and in magnetic fields H=0 to 13T. In the normal state gamma_n(x,T) increases strongly with x at low temperature, compatible with a mass renormalisation ~12 at x=1, and decreases weakly with x at high temperature. A superconducting transition is seen in all samples from x=0.2 to 1, with transition temperatures and condensation energies peaking sharply at x=0.4. Superconducting coherence lengths xi_{ab}~20Å and xi_c~3Å are estimated from an analysis of Gaussian fluctuations. For many dopings we see features in the H and T-dependences of gamma_s(T,H) in the superconducting state that suggest superconducting gaps in three distinct bands. A broad "knee" and a sharp mean-field-like peak are typical of two coupled gaps. However, several samples show a shoulder above the sharp peak with an abrupt onset at T_{c,s} and a T-dependence gamma_s(T)\propto\sqrt{1-T/T_{c,s}}. We provide strong evidence that the shoulder is not due to doping inhomogeneity and suggest it is a distinct gap with an unconventional T-dependence Delta_s(T)\propto(1-T/T_{c,s})^{0.75} near T_{c,s}. We estimate band fractions and T=0 gaps from 3-band alpha-model fits to our data and compare the x-dependences of the band fractions with spectroscopic studies of the Fermi surface.

The pseudogap in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+δ}$ is not bounded by a line of phase transitions - thermodynamic evidence

J. R. Cooper, J. W. Loram, I. Kokanović, J. G. Storey, J. L. Tallon

We discuss a recent resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) study of YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+δ}$, which infers a line of phase transitions bounding the pseudogap phase and argue that this scenario is not supported by thermodynamic evidence. We show that the anomalies in RUS, heat capacity and thermal expansion at the superconducting transition temperatures agree well. But there are large discrepancies between RUS and thermodynamic measurements at $T^*$ where the pseudogap phase transitions are purported to occur. Moreover, the frequency and temperature dependence of the RUS data for the crystal with $δ= 0.98$, interpreted in terms of critical slowing down near an electronic phase transition, is five orders of magnitude smaller than what is expected. For this crystal the RUS data near $T^*$ are more consistent with non-equilibrium effects such as oxygen relaxation.

The pseudogap in hole-doped cuprates: possible insights from the Kondo effect

J. R. Cooper

The "states-non-conserving" fermion density of states (DOS), deduced from the specific heat of hole-doped cuprates, could arise from a Kondo or heavy fermion-like DOS being suppressed by anti-ferromagnetic spin fluctuations. The large Fermi surface predicted by band theory and observed experimentally, is still expected for zero pseudogap, but with an effective mass corresponding to a Kondo temperature ~ 800 K. A finite pseudogap could divide it into Fermi arcs. Theoretical results for the asymmetric Anderson model can account for the experimental Wilson ratio.

Nernst effect of epitaxial YBCO films doped with Ca and Zn

I. Kokanović, J. R. Cooper, M. Matusiak

We report Nernst effect measurements for some crystalline films of Ca and Zn-doped yttrium barium copper oxide grown by pulsed laser deposition. We argue that our results and most of the published data for LSCO are consistent with the theory of Gaussian superconducting fluctuations.

The magnetic susceptibility of YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6+x}$ crystals: unusual Curie behavior and small contributions from charge density waves

I. Kokanović, J. R. Cooper

We report measurements of the magnetic susceptibility of twinned single crystals of YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6+x}$ from just above their superconducting transition temperatures to 300 K with magnetic fields of up to 5 T applied parallel and perpendicular to the CuO$_2$ planes at 7 values of $x$. Appropriate analysis allows the relatively small, but still important, Curie terms to be separated from other contributions to the susceptibility. Our data support a picture in which the Curie terms arise from oxygen disorder in the Cu-O chains. This agrees with published work on polycrystalline samples where the sample cooling rate was varied, but here we show that the Curie plots flatten out above 200 K. We identify small effects of charge density wave (CDW) instabilities in the temperature ($T$) derivative of the in-plane susceptibility $dχ_{ab}(T)/dT$ and discuss their $x$-dependence. For $x=$0.67 we make a detailed comparison with published high energy X-ray diffraction data using a minimal model involving Fermi arcs, thereby obtaining values for the CDW energy gap and the Helmholtz free energy in a coherence volume. At 80 and 100 K the latter is comparable with, or smaller than $k_BT$ respectively, highlighting the probable importance of thermal fluctuations. We note that the effect of the Lorentz force on charge carriers in the Fermi arcs could provide a simple mechanism for enhancing the CDWs in high magnetic fields, as suggested by recent experiments.

Temperature and field dependence of the intrinsic tunnelling structure in overdoped Bi$_{2}$Sr$_{2}$CaCu$_{2}$O$_{8+δ}$

T. M. Benseman, J. R. Cooper, G. Balakrishnan

We report intrinsic tunnelling data for mesa structures fabricated on three over- and optimally-doped $\rm{Bi_{2.15}Sr_{1.85}CaCu_{2}O_{8+δ}}$ crystals with transition temperatures of 86-78~K and 0.16-0.19~holes per CuO$_2$ unit, for a wide range of temperature ($T$) and applied magnetic field ($H$), primarily focusing on one over-doped crystal(OD80). The differential conductance above the gap edge shows clear dip structure which is highly suggestive of strong coupling to a narrow boson mode. Data below the gap edge suggest that tunnelling is weaker near the nodes of the d-wave gap and give clear evidence for strong $T$-dependent pair breaking. These findings could help theorists make a detailed Eliashberg analysis and thereby contribute towards understanding the pairing mechanism. We show that for our OD80 crystal the gap above $T_c$ although large, is reasonably consistent with the theory of superconducting fluctuations.

On the possibility that STS "gap-maps" of cuprate single crystals are dominated by k-space anisotropy and not by nano-scale inhomogeneity

J. R. Cooper

The results of a computer analysis of a simple 2D quantum mechanical tunnelling model are reported. These suggest that the spatial dependence of the superconducting energy gap observed by Scanning Tunnelling Spectroscopy (STS) studies of single crystals of the high Tc superconductor Bi:2212 is not necessarily caused by nanoscale inhomogeneity. Instead the spatial dependence of the STS data could arise from the momentum (k) dependence of the energy gap, which is a defining feature of a d-wave superconductor. It is possible that this viewpoint could be exploited to obtain k-dependent information from STS studies.

Plasma instability in the front of ejected energetic electrons and Type III solar radiobursts

Vladimir Krasnoselskikh, Immanuel Christopher Jebaraj, Tom Robert Franck Cooper, Andrii Voschepynets, Thierry Dudok de Wit, Marc Pulupa, Forrest Mozer, Oleksiy Agapitov, Michael Balikhin, Stuart D. Bale

Type III radio bursts are a signature of the flux of near-relativistic electrons ejected during solar flares. These bursts are frequently observed by spacecraft such as the Parker Solar Probe. It is traditionally believed that these electron beams generate Langmuir waves through the two-stream instability, which are then converted into electromagnetic waves. In this study, we revise that model by examining how the electron distribution becomes truncated due to the "time-of-flight" effect as the beam travels through a randomly inhomogeneous, and gently varying solar-wind plasma. Rather than the two-stream instability, this truncation destabilizes the distribution and leads to the generation of Langmuir waves via a linear instability; we confine our analysis to this linear regime and do not take into account the back reaction of the generated Langmuir waves on the electron distribution, which is nonlinear. The instability grows until slower electrons arrive and dampen the waves. Our qualitative analysis shows that the resulting wave intensity growth and decay closely match the intensity-time profile of observed Type III radio bursts at the fundamental frequency, supporting this modified theory.