arXiv subjects

P. Gentile

Publications and source records attributed to P. Gentile.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Unconventional mixed state in the nematic superconductor LiFeAs

In the mixed state of type-II bulk superconductors, the magnetic field penetrates in the form of vortices enclosing one magnetic flux quantum: this is the conventional Abrikosov vortex lattice. Here, by using transverse muon-spin spectroscopy, we demonstrate the presence of an unconventional vortex lattice in LiFeAs single crystals. We also show evidence that the new mixed phase consists of stripes of "coreless" vortices, which are bound states of two spatially separated half-quantum vortices.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Anisotropic superconductivity in the quasi-one-dimensional superconductor V$_2$Ga$_5$

The intermetallic quasi-one-dimensional binary superconductor V$_2$Ga$_5$ was recently found to exhibit a topologically nontrivial normal state, making it a natural candidate for a topological superconductor (TSC). By combining dc-magnetization, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and muon-spin rotation ({$\mu$SR) measurements on high-quality V$_2$Ga$_5$ single crystals, we investigate the electronic properties of its normal- and superconducting (SC) ground states. NMR measurements in the normal state indicate a strong anisotropy in both the line shifts and the relaxation rates. Such anisotropy persists also in the superconducting state, as shown by the magnetization- and $\mu$SR-spectroscopy results. In the latter case, data collected at different temperatures, pressures, and directions of the magnetic field evidence a fully-gapped, strongly anisotropic superconductivity. At the same time, hydrostatic pressure is shown to only lower the $T_c$ value, but not to change the superfluid density nor its temperature dependence. Lastly, we discuss the search for topological signatures in the normal state of V$_2$Ga$_5$, as well as a peak splitting in the FFT of the $\mu$SR spectrum, possibly related to an unconventional vortex lattice. Our results suggest that V$_2$Ga$_5$ is a novel system, whose anisotropy plays a key role in determining its unusual electronic properties.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2024

A 350-MHz Green Bank Telescope Survey of Unassociated Fermi LAT Sources: Discovery and Timing of Ten Millisecond Pulsars

We have searched for radio pulsations towards 49 Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) 1FGL Catalog $\gamma$-ray sources using the Green Bank Telescope at 350 MHz. We detected 18 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in blind searches of the data; 10 of these were discoveries unique to our survey. Sixteen are binaries, with eight having short orbital periods $P_B < 1$ day. No radio pulsations from young pulsars were detected, although three targets are coincident with apparently radio-quiet $\gamma$-ray pulsars discovered in LAT data. Here, we give an overview of the survey and present radio and $\gamma$-ray timing results for the 10 MSPs discovered. These include the only isolated MSP discovered in our survey and six short-$P_B$ binary MSPs. Of these, three have very low-mass companions ($M_c$ $\ll$ 0.1M$_{\odot}$) and hence belong to the class of black widow pulsars. Two have more massive, non-degenerate companions with extensive radio eclipses and orbitally modulated X-ray emission consistent with the redback class. Significant $\gamma$-ray pulsations have been detected from nine of the discoveries. This survey and similar efforts suggest that the majority of Galactic $\gamma$-ray sources at high Galactic latitudes are either MSPs or relatively nearby non-recycled pulsars, with the latter having on average a much smaller radio/$\gamma$-ray beaming ratio as compared to MSPs. It also confirms that past surveys suffered from an observational bias against finding short-$P_B$ MSP systems.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Nematic superconductivity in the topological semimetal CaSn$_{3}$

The superconducting behavior of the topological semimetal CaSn$_{3}$ was investigated by means of magnetotransport and muon spectroscopy $μ$SR measurements, both providing strong evidence of nematic behavior. Magnetotransport detects an anisotropic upper critical field, characterized by a twofold symmetry about $C_{4}$ axis, thus breaking the rotational symmetry of the underlying cubic lattice. Transverse-field $μ$SR data support such picture, with the muon depolarization rate depending strongly on the magnetic field direction, here applied along the [110] or [001] crystal directions. In the former case, the absence of any additional muon depolarization suggests an unconventional vortex lattice. In the latter case, a vortex lattice encompassing a sample volume of at least 52% indicates the bulk nature of CaSn$_{3}$ superconductivity. The resulting superfluid density in the (001) planes shows a gapped low-temperature behavior, with a superconducting gap value $Δ(0)\simeq 0.61(7)$ meV. Additional zero-field $μ$SR results indicate that the superconducting state is time-reversal-invariant. This fact and the breaking of rotational symmetry in a fully-gapped superconductor are consistent with an unconventional pairing state in a multi-dimensional representation, thus making CaSn$_{3}$ an important example of nematic superconductor.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2021

Inverse Proximity Effects at Spin-Triplet Superconductor-Ferromagnet Interface

We investigate inverse proximity effects in a spin-triplet superconductor (TSC) interfaced with a ferromagnet (FM), assuming different types of magnetic profiles and chiral or helical pairings. The region of the coexistence of spin-triplet superconductivity and magnetism is significantly influenced by the orientation and spatial extension of the magnetization with respect to the spin configuration of the Cooper pairs, resulting into clearcut anisotropy signatures. A characteristic mark of the inverse proximity effect arises in the induced spin-polarization at the TSC interface. This is unexpectedly stronger when the magnetic proximity is weaker, thus unveiling immediate detection signatures for spin-triplet pairs. We show that an anomalous magnetic proximity can occur at the interface between the itinerant ferromagnet, SrRuO$_3$, and the unconventional superconductor Sr$_2$RuO$_4$. Such scenario indicates the potential to design characteristic inverse proximity effects in experimentally available SrRuO$_3$-Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ heterostructures and to assess the occurrence of spin-triplet pairs in the highly debated superconducting phase of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2020

In-situ high resolution TEM observation of Aluminum solid-state diffusion in Germanium nanowires: fabricating sub-10 nm Ge quantum dots

Aluminum-germanium nanowires (NWs) thermal activated solid state reaction is a promising system as very sharp and well defined one dimensional contacts can be created between a metal and a semiconductor, that can become a quantum dot if the size becomes sufficiently small. In the search for high performance devices without variability, it is of high interest to allow deterministic fabrication of nanowire quantum dots, avoiding sample variability and obtaining atomic scale precision on the fabricated dot size. In this paper, we present a reliable fabrication process to produce sub-10 nm Ge quantum dots (QDs), using a combination of ex-situ thermal annealing via rapid thermal annealing (RTA) and in-situ Joule heating technique in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). First we present in-situ direct joule heating experiments showing how the heating electrode could be damaged due to the formation of Al crystals and voids at the vicinity of the metal/NW contact, likely related with electro-migration phenomena. We show that the contact quality can be preserved by including an additional ex-situ RTA step prior to the in-situ heating. The in-situ observations also show in real-time how the exchange reaction initiates simultaneously from several locations underneath the Al contact pad, and the Al crystal grows gradually inside the initial Ge NW with the growth interface along a Ge(111) lattice plane. Once the reaction front moves out from underneath the contact metal, two factors jeopardize an atomically accurate control of the Al/Ge reaction interface. We observed a local acceleration of the reaction interface due to the electron beam irradiation in the transmission electron microscope as well as the appearance of large jumps of the interface in unpassivated Ge wires while a smooth advancement of the reaction interface was observed in wires with an Al2O3 protecting shell on the surface. Carefully controlling all aspects of the exchange reaction, we demonstrate a fabrication process combining ex-situ and in-situ heating techniques to precisely control and produce axial Al/Ge/Al NW heterostructures with an ultra-short Ge segment down to 8 nanometers. Practically, the scaling down of Ge segment length is only limited by the microscope resolution.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2020

Modeling the uncertainties of solar-system ephemerides for robust gravitational-wave searches with pulsar timing arrays

The regularity of pulsar emissions becomes apparent once we reference the pulses' times of arrivals to the inertial rest frame of the solar system. It follows that errors in the determination of Earth's position with respect to the solar-system barycenter can appear as a time-correlated bias in pulsar-timing residual time series, affecting the searches for low-frequency gravitational waves performed with pulsar timing arrays. Indeed, recent array datasets yield different gravitational-wave background upper limits and detection statistics when analyzed with different solar-system ephemerides. Crucially, the ephemerides do not generally provide usable error representations. In this article we describe the motivation, construction, and application of a physical model of solar-system ephemeris uncertainties, which focuses on the degrees of freedom (Jupiter's orbital elements) most relevant to gravitational-wave searches with pulsar timing arrays. This model, BayesEphem, was used to derive ephemeris-robust results in NANOGrav's 11-yr stochastic-background search, and it provides a foundation for future searches by NANOGrav and other consortia. The analysis and simulations reported here suggest that ephemeris modeling reduces the gravitational-wave sensitivity of the 11-yr dataset; and that this degeneracy will vanish with improved ephemerides and with the longer pulsar timing datasets that will become available in the near future.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

Spin-Orbital Textures and Interferometers by Nanoscale Geometric Design of Quantum Rings with Orbital Rashba Coupling

We derive an effective continuum model for describing the propagation of electrons in ballistic one-dimensional curved nanostructure which are marked by a strong interplay of spin-orbital degrees of freedom due to local electronic states with $d-$orbital symmetry, atomic spin-orbit and orbital Rashba couplings. We demonstrate how a planar inhomogeneous spatial curvature of the nanochannel can generate both spin and orbital textures represented through loops on the corresponding Bloch spheres. In particular, we employ the paradigmatic case of an elliptically shaped quantum ring to investigate the role of geometry in steering the electron transport at low energy. We find that in this regime spin and orbital textures exhibit equal windings around the radial or out-of-plane directions. Remarkably, the spin and orbital windings can be not only tuned through a modification of the nanoscale shape, as for the spin Rashba effect, but also via a change in the electron density by electrical gating. We show that the presence of textures is related to patterns in the geometric Aharonov-Anandan phase acquired in a cycle within the quantum ring. Furthermore, differently from the single band Rashba-coupled nanoring, a manipulation of the conductance can be achieved by electron density variation and, indirectly, through changes of the strength of the inversion asymmetric interactions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

The NANOGrav 11-Year Data Set: Limits on Gravitational Wave Memory

The mergers of supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) promise to be incredible sources of gravitational waves (GWs). While the oscillatory part of the merger gravitational waveform will be outside the frequency sensitivity range of pulsar timing arrays (PTAs), the non-oscillatory GW memory effect is detectable. Further, any burst of gravitational waves will produce GW memory, making memory a useful probe of unmodeled exotic sources and new physics. We searched the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) 11-year data set for GW memory. This dataset is sensitive to very low frequency GWs of $\sim3$ to $400$ nHz (periods of $\sim11$ yr $-$ $1$ mon). Finding no evidence for GWs, we placed limits on the strain amplitude of GW memory events during the observation period. We then used the strain upper limits to place limits on the rate of GW memory causing events. At a strain of $2.5\times10^{-14}$, corresponding to the median upper limit as a function of source sky position, we set a limit on the rate of GW memory events at $<0.4$ yr$^{-1}$. That strain corresponds to a SMBHB merger with reduced mass of $ηM \sim 2\times10^{10}M_\odot$ and inclination of $ι=π/3$ at a distance of 1 Gpc. As a test of our analysis, we analyzed the NANOGrav 9-year data set as well. This analysis found an anomolous signal, which does not appear in the 11-year data set. This signal is not a GW, and its origin remains unknown.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

The NANOGrav 11-Year Data Set: Evolution of Gravitational Wave Background Statistics

An ensemble of inspiraling supermassive black hole binaries should produce a stochastic background of very low frequency gravitational waves. This stochastic background is predicted to be a power law, with a spectral index of -2/3, and it should be detectable by a network of precisely timed millisecond pulsars, widely distributed on the sky. This paper reports a new "time slicing" analysis of the 11-year data release from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) using 34 millisecond pulsars. Methods to flag potential "false positive" signatures are developed, including techniques to identify responsible pulsars. Mitigation strategies are then presented. We demonstrate how an incorrect noise model can lead to spurious signals, and show how independently modeling noise across 30 Fourier components, spanning NANOGrav's frequency range, effectively diagnoses and absorbs the excess power in gravitational-wave searches. This results in a nominal, and expected, progression of our gravitational-wave statistics. Additionally we show that the first interstellar medium event in PSR J1713+0747 pollutes the common red noise process with low-spectral index noise, and use a tailored noise model to remove these effects.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

The Discovery of Six Recycled Pulsars from the Arecibo 327-MHz Drift-Scan Pulsar Survey

Recycled pulsars are old ($\gtrsim10^{8}$ yr) neutron stars that are descendants from close, interacting stellar systems. In order to understand their evolution and population, we must find and study the largest number possible of recycled pulsars in a way that is as unbiased as possible. In this work, we present the discovery and timing solutions of five recycled pulsars in binary systems (PSRs J0509$+$0856, J0709$+$0458, J0732$+$2314, J0824$+$0028, J2204$+$2700) and one isolated millisecond pulsar (PSR J0154$+$1833). These were found in data from the Arecibo 327-MHz Drift-Scan Pulsar Survey (AO327). All these pulsars have a low dispersion measure (DM) ($\lesssim 45 \, \rm{pc}\, cm^{-3}$), and have a DM-determined distance of $\lesssim$ 3 kpc. Their timing solutions, have data spans ranging from 1 to $\sim$ 7 years, include precise estimates of their spin and astrometric parameters, and for the binaries, precise estimates of their Keplerian binary parameters. Their orbital periods range from about 4 to 815 days and the minimum companion masses (assuming a pulsar mass of 1.4 $\rm{M_{\odot}}$) range from $\sim$ 0.06--1.11 $\rm{M_{\odot}}$. For two of the binaries we detect post-Keplerian parameters; in the case of PSR~J0709$+$0458 we measure the component masses but with a low precision, in the not too distant future the measurement of the rate of advance of periastron and the Shapiro delay will allow very precise mass measurements for this system. Like several other systems found in the AO327 data, PSRs J0509$+$0854, J0709$+$0458 and J0732$+$2314 are now part of the NANOGrav timing array for gravitational wave detection.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

The NANOGrav 11-Year Data Set: Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries

Observations indicate that nearly all galaxies contain supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at their centers. When galaxies merge, their component black holes form SMBH binaries (SMBHBs), which emit low-frequency gravitational waves (GWs) that can be detected by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). We have searched the recently-released North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) 11-year data set for GWs from individual SMBHBs in circular orbits. As we did not find strong evidence for GWs in our data, we placed 95\% upper limits on the strength of GWs from such sources as a function of GW frequency and sky location. We placed a sky-averaged upper limit on the GW strain of $h_0 < 7.3(3) \times 10^{-15}$ at $f_\mathrm{gw}= 8$ nHz. We also developed a technique to determine the significance of a particular signal in each pulsar using ``dropout' parameters as a way of identifying spurious signals in measurements from individual pulsars. We used our upper limits on the GW strain to place lower limits on the distances to individual SMBHBs. At the most-sensitive sky location, we ruled out SMBHBs emitting GWs with $f_\mathrm{gw}= 8$ nHz within 120 Mpc for $\mathcal{M} = 10^9 \, M_\odot$, and within 5.5 Gpc for $\mathcal{M} = 10^{10} \, M_\odot$. We also determined that there are no SMBHBs with $\mathcal{M} > 1.6 \times 10^9 \, M_\odot$ emitting GWs in the Virgo Cluster. Finally, we estimated the number of potentially detectable sources given our current strain upper limits based on galaxies in Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) and merger rates from the Illustris cosmological simulation project. Only 34 out of 75,000 realizations of the local Universe contained a detectable source, from which we concluded it was unsurprising that we did not detect any individual sources given our current sensitivity to GWs.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

Effects of geometry on spin-orbit Kramers states in semiconducting nanorings

The holonomic manipulation of spin-orbital degenerate states, encoded in the Kramers doublet of narrow semiconducting channels with spin-orbit interaction, is shown to be intimately intertwined with the geometrical shape of the nanostructures. The presence of doubly degenerate states is not sufficient to guarantee a non-trivial mixing by only changing the Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We demonstrate that in nanoscale quantum rings the combination of arbitrary inhomogeneous curvature and adiabatic variation of the spin-orbit amplitude, e.g. through electric-field gating, can be generally employed to get non-trivial combinations of the degenerate states. Shape symmetries of the nanostructure act to constrain the adiabatic quantum evolution. While for circular rings the geometric phase is not generated along a non-cyclic path in the parameters space, remarkably, for generic mirror-symmetric shape deformed rings the spin-orbit driving can lead to a series of dynamical quantum phase transitions. We explicitly show this occurrence and propose a route to detect such topological transitions by measuring a variation of the electron tunneling amplitude into the semiconducting channel.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Studying the solar system with the International Pulsar Timing Array

Pulsar-timing analyses are sensitive to errors in the solar-system ephemerides (SSEs) that timing models utilise to estimate the location of the solar-system barycentre, the quasi-inertial reference frame to which all recorded pulse times-of-arrival are referred. Any error in the SSE will affect all pulsars, therefore pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are a suitable tool to search for such errors and impose independent constraints on relevant physical parameters. We employ the first data release of the International Pulsar Timing Array to constrain the masses of the planet-moons systems and to search for possible unmodelled objects (UMOs) in the solar system. We employ ten SSEs from two independent research groups, derive and compare mass constraints of planetary systems, and derive the first PTA mass constraints on asteroid-belt objects. Constraints on planetary-system masses have been improved by factors of up to 20 from the previous relevant study using the same assumptions, with the mass of the Jovian system measured at 9.5479189(3)$\times10^{-4}$ $M_{\odot}$. The mass of the dwarf planet Ceres is measured at 4.7(4)$\times10^{-10}$ $M_{\odot}$. We also present the first sensitivity curves using real data that place generic limits on the masses of UMOs, which can also be used as upper limits on the mass of putative exotic objects. For example, upper limits on dark-matter clumps are comparable to published limits using independent methods. While the constraints on planetary masses derived with all employed SSEs are consistent, we note and discuss differences in the associated timing residuals and UMO sensitivity curves.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2016

The International Pulsar Timing Array: First Data Release

The highly stable spin of neutron stars can be exploited for a variety of (astro-)physical investigations. In particular arrays of pulsars with rotational periods of the order of milliseconds can be used to detect correlated signals such as those caused by gravitational waves. Three such "Pulsar Timing Arrays" (PTAs) have been set up around the world over the past decades and collectively form the "International" PTA (IPTA). In this paper, we describe the first joint analysis of the data from the three regional PTAs, i.e. of the first IPTA data set. We describe the available PTA data, the approach presently followed for its combination and suggest improvements for future PTA research. Particular attention is paid to subtle details (such as underestimation of measurement uncertainty and long-period noise) that have often been ignored but which become important in this unprecedentedly large and inhomogeneous data set. We identify and describe in detail several factors that complicate IPTA research and provide recommendations for future pulsar timing efforts. The first IPTA data release presented here (and available online) is used to demonstrate the IPTA's potential of improving upon gravitational-wave limits placed by individual PTAs by a factor of ~2 and provides a 2-sigma limit on the dimensionless amplitude of a stochastic GWB of 1.7x10^{-15} at a frequency of 1 yr^{-1}. This is 1.7 times less constraining than the limit placed by (Shannon et al. 2015), due mostly to the more recent, high-quality data they used.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2015

Control of magnetism in singlet-triplet superconducting heterostructures

We analyze the magnetization at the interface between singlet and triplet superconductors and show that its direction and dependence on the phase difference across the junction are strongly tied to the structure of the triplet order parameter as well as to the pairing interactions. We consider equal spin helical, opposite spin chiral, and mixed symmetry pairing on the triplet side and show that the magnetization vanishes at $ϕ=0$ only in the first case, follows approximately a $\cosϕ$ behavior for the second, and shows higher harmonics for the last configuration. We trace the origin of the magnetization to the magnetic structure of the Andreev bound states near the interface, and provide a symmetry-based explanation of the results. Our findings can be used to control the magnetization in superconducting heterostructures and to test symmetries of spin-triplet superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

X-Ray Observations of Black Widow Pulsars

We describe the first X-ray observations of five short orbital period ($P_B < 1$ day), $γ$-ray emitting, binary millisecond pulsars. Four of these, PSRs J0023+0923, J1124$-$3653, J1810+1744, and J2256$-$1024 are `black-widow' pulsars, with degenerate companions of mass $\ll0.1 M_{\odot}$, three of which exhibit radio eclipses. The fifth source, PSR J2215+5135, is an eclipsing `redback' with a near Roche-lobe filling $\sim$0.2 solar mass non-degenerate companion. Data were taken using the \textit{Chandra X-Ray Observatory} and covered a full binary orbit for each pulsar. Two pulsars, PSRs J2215+5135 and J2256$-$1024, show significant orbital variability while PSR J1124$-$3653 shows marginal orbital variability. The lightcurves for these three pulsars have X-ray flux minima coinciding with the phases of the radio eclipses. This phenomenon is consistent with an intrabinary shock emission interpretation for the X-rays. The other two pulsars, PSRs J0023+0923 and J1810+1744, are fainter and do not demonstrate variability at a level we can detect in these data. All five spectra are fit with three separate models: a power-law model, a blackbody model, and a combined model with both power-law and blackbody components. The preferred spectral fits yield power-law indices that range from 1.3 to 3.2 and blackbody temperatures in the hundreds of eV. The spectrum for PSR J2215+5135 shows a significant hard X-ray component, with a large number of counts above 2 keV, which is additional evidence for the presence of intrabinary shock emission and is similar to what has been detected in the low-mass X-ray binary to millisecond pulsar transition object PSR J1023+0038.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2008

Coherent Diffraction Imaging of Single 95nm Nanowires

Photonic or electronic confinement effects in nanostructures become significant when one of their dimension is in the 5-300 nm range. Improving their development requires the ability to study their structure - shape, strain field, interdiffusion maps - using novel techniques. We have used coherent diffraction imaging to record the 3-dimensionnal scattered intensity of single silicon nanowires with a lateral size smaller than 100 nm. We show that this intensity can be used to recover the hexagonal shape of the nanowire with a 28nm resolution. The article also discusses limits of the method in terms of radiation damage.

physics.ins-det↗