High-energy magnetic excitations in the cuprate superconductor Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8+δ): towards a unified description of its electronic and magnetic degrees of freedom.

We investigate the high-energy magnetic excitation spectrum of the high-T(c) cuprate superconductor Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8+δ) (Bi-2212) using Cu L(3) edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering. Broad, dispersive magnetic excitations are observed, with a zone boundary energy of ∼ 300 meV and a weak dependence on doping. These excitations are strikingly similar to the bosons proposed to explain the high-energy "kink" observed in photoemission. A phenomenological calculation of the spin response, based on a parametrization of the the angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy derived electronic structure and Yang-Rice-Zhang quasiparticles, provides a reasonable prediction of the energy dispersion of the observed magnetic excitations. These results indicate a possible unified framework to reconcile the magnetic and electronic properties of the cuprates and we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such an approach.

Phase diagram of two-dimensional polar condensates in a magnetic field.

Spin-1 condensates in the polar (antiferromagnetic) phase in two dimensions are shown to undergo a transition of the Ising type, in addition to the expected Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition of half-vortices, due to the quadratic Zeeman effect. We establish the phase diagram in terms of temperature and the strength of the Zeeman effect using Monte Carlo simulations. When the Zeeman effect is sufficiently strong, the Ising and KT transitions meet. For very strong Zeeman field the remaining transition is of the familiar integer KT type.

Non-Fermi-liquid fixed point for an imbalanced gas of fermions in 1+ϵ dimensions.

We consider a gas of two species of fermions with population imbalance. Using the renormalization group in d=1+ϵ spatial dimensions, we show that for spinless fermions and 2>ϵ>0 a fixed point appears at finite attractive coupling where the quasiparticle residue vanishes, and identify this with the transition to Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell order (inhomogeneous superconductivity). When the two species of fermions also carry spin degrees of freedom we find a fixed point indicating a transition to spin density wave order.