Publications

The morphology of thin stellar streams can be used to test the nature of dark matter. It is therefore crucial to extend searches for globular cluster streams to other galaxies than the Milky Way. In this paper, we investigate the current and future prospects of detecting globular cluster streams in external galaxies in resolved stars (e.g. with WFIRST) and using integrated light (e.g. with HSC, LSST and Euclid). In particular, we inject mock-streams to data from the PAndAS M31 survey, and produce simulated M31 backgrounds mimicking what WFIRST will observe in M31. Additionally, we estimate the distance limit to which globular cluster streams will be observable. Our results demonstrate that for a 1 hour (1000 sec.) exposure, using conservative estimates, WFIRST should detect globular cluster streams in resolved stars in galaxies out to distances of ~3.5 Mpc (~2 Mpc). This volume contains 199 (122) galaxies of which >90% are dwarfs. With integrated light, thin streams can be resolved out to ~100 Mpc with HSC and LSST and to ~600 Mpc with WFIRST and Euclid. The low surface brightness of the streams (typically >30 mag/arcsec2), however, will make them difficult to detect, unless the streams originate from very young clusters. We emphasize that if the external galaxies do not host spiral arms or galactic bars, gaps in their stellar streams provide an ideal test case for evidence of interactions with dark matter subhalos. Furthermore, obtaining a large samples of thin stellar streams can help constrain the orbital structure and hence the potentials of external halos.

We explore the interplay of electron-electron correlations and spin-orbit coupling in the model Fermi liquid Sr2RuO4 using laser-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Our precise measurement of the Fermi surface confirms the importance of spin-orbit coupling in this material and reveals that its effective value is enhanced by a factor of about two, due to electronic correlations. The self-energies for the β and γ sheets are found to display significant angular dependence. By taking into account the multi-orbital composition of quasiparticle states, we determine self-energies associated with each orbital component directly from the experimental data. This analysis demonstrates that the perceived angular dependence does not imply momentum-dependent many-body effects, but arises from a substantial orbital mixing induced by spin-orbit coupling. A comparison to single-site dynamical mean-field theory further supports the notion of dominantly local orbital self-energies, and provides strong evidence for an electronic origin of the observed non-linear frequency dependence of the self-energies, leading to `kinks' in the quasiparticle dispersion of Sr2RuO4.

Finite-temperature, grand-canonical computations based on field theory are widely applied in areas including condensed matter physics, ultracold atomic gas systems, and lattice gauge theory. However, these calculations have computational costs scaling as $N_s^3$ with the size of the lattice or basis set, $N_s$. We report a new approach based on systematically controllable low-rank factorization which reduces the scaling of such computations to $N_s N_e^2$, where $N_e$ is the average number of fermions in the system. In any realistic calculations aiming to describe the continuum limit, $N_s/N_e$ is large and needs to be extrapolated effectively to infinity for convergence. The method thus fundamentally changes the prospect for finite-temperature many-body computations in correlated fermion systems. Its application, in combination with frameworks to control the sign or phase problem as needed, will provide a powerful tool in {\it ab initio} quantum chemistry and correlated electron materials. We demonstrate the method by computing exact properties of the two-dimensional Fermi gas with zero-range attractive interaction, as a function of temperature in both the normal and superfluid states.

The Immersed Boundary (IB) method has been widely used to solve fluid-structure interaction problems, including those where the structure interacts with polymeric fluids. In this paper, we examine the convergence of one such scheme for a well known two-dimensional benchmark flow for the Oldroyd-B constitutive model, and we show that the traditional IB-based scheme fails to adequately capture the polymeric stress near to embedded boundaries. We analyze the reason for such failure, and we argue that this feature is not specific to the case study chosen, but a general feature of such methods due to lack of convergence in velocity gradients near interfaces. In order to remedy this problem, we build a different scheme for the Oldroyd-B system using the Immersed Boundary Smooth Extension (IBSE) scheme, which provides convergent viscous stresses near boundaries. We show that this modified scheme produces convergent polymeric stresses through the whole domain, including on embedded boundaries, and produces solutions in good agreement with known benchmarks.

At crystalline interfaces where a valence-mismatch exists, electronic, and structural interactions may occur to relieve the polar mismatch, leading to the stabilization of non-bulk-like phases. We show that spontaneous reconstructions at polar La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 interfaces are correlated with suppressed ferromagnetism for film thicknesses on the order of a unit cell. We investigate the structural and magnetic properties of valence-matched La0.7Sr0.3CrO3/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 interfaces using a combination of high-resolution electron microscopy, first principles theory, synchrotron X-ray scattering and magnetic spectroscopy and temperature-dependent magnetometry. A combination of an antiferromagnetic coupling between the La0.7Sr0.3CrO3 and La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 layers and a suppression of interfacial polar distortions are found to result in robust long-range ferromagnetic ordering for ultrathin La0.7Sr0.3MnO3. These results underscore the critical importance of interfacial structural and magnetic interactions in the design of devices based on two-dimensional oxide magnetic systems.

Chiral superconductors are a class of unconventional superconductors that host topologically protected chiral Majorana fermions at interfaces and domain walls quasiparticles that could serve as a platform for topological quantum computing. Here we show that, in analogy to a qubit, the out-of-equilibrium superconducting state in such materials can be described by a Bloch vector and predict that they can be controlled on ultrafast timescales. The all-optical control mechanism is universal, permitting arbitrary rotations of the order parameter, and can induce a dynamical change of handedness of the condensate. It relies on transient breaking of crystal symmetries via choice of pulse polarization to enable arbitrary rotations of the Bloch vector. The mechanism extends to ultrafast timescales and the engineered state persists after the pump is switched off. We predict that these phenomena should appear in graphene or magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, as well as Sr2RuO4. Furthermore, we show that chiral superconductivity can be detected in time-resolved pump–probe measurements. This paves the way towards a robust mechanism for ultrafast control and measurement of chirally ordered phases and Majorana modes.

Chiral superconductors are a class of unconventional superconductors that host topologically protected chiral Majorana fermions at interfaces and domain walls, quasiparticles that could serve as a platform for topological quantum computing. Here we show that, in analogy to a qubit, the out-of-equilibrium superconducting state in such materials can be described by a Bloch vector and predict that they can be controlled on ultrafast timescales. The all-optical control mechanism is universal, permitting arbitrary rotations of the order parameter, and can induce a dynamical change of handedness of the condensate. It relies on transient breaking of crystal symmetries via choice of pulse polarization to enable arbitrary rotations of the Bloch vector. The mechanism extends to ultrafast timescales and the engineered state persists after the pump is switched off. We predict that these phenomena should appear in graphene or magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, as well as Sr2RuO4. Furthermore, we show that chiral superconductivity can be detected in time-resolved pump–probe measurements. This paves the way towards a robust mechanism for ultrafast control and measurement of chirally ordered phases and Majorana modes.