arXiv subjects

William Thomas

Publications and source records attributed to William Thomas.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Synthesis and stability of high-$T_c$ LaH$_{10\pm\delta}$ films at high pressures

High-pressure hydrides hold the record for the highest superconducting critical temperatures across all classes of superconductors. Currently lanthanum decahydride, LaH$_{10}$, exhibits the highest critical temperature among binaries, with $T_c \approx$ 250 K at pressures between 140-180 GPa. Here, we report the synthesis of LaH$_{10\pm\delta}$ films in two DACs at pressures of 168 GPa and 176 GPa via in situ laser heating of elemental lanthanum films with ammonia borane (NH$_3$BH$_3$) as the hydrogen donor. The high-symmetry fcc lanthanum sublattice (space group $Fm\bar3m$) is resolved using synchrotron X-ray diffraction, with unit cell parameters in excellent agreement with previous studies on bulk samples. We provide confirmation of high-$T_c$ superconductivity in LaH$_{10\pm\delta}$ with highest $T_c$ of 247 K at 176 GPa evidenced in electrical measurements. The characteristic suppression of superconductivity is observed in magnetic fields. Furthermore, combined diffraction and electrical measurements reveal remarkable temporal stability of both the crystal structure and the high-$T_c$ superconductivity over the full measurement period of about 300 days post laser heating. Our work establishes film precursors using physical vapour deposition (PVD) techniques as a practical route to hydride formation, opening a pathway toward the controlled synthesis of promising ternary hydrides and the integration of micro-fabricated device geometries in diamond anvil cells.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2026

Quasimorphisms and Poincar\'e duality in dimension 3

We study $\mathrm{PD}^3$ groups which admit an unbounded quasimorphism to $\mathbb{R}$ with coarsely connected quasikernel. We show that such a group $G$ must either arise as the fundamental group of a torus or Klein-bottle bundle over $S^1$, or be quasiisometric to a Riemannian manifold $(\mathbb{R}^3,g)$ of bounded geometry, with the quasikernel being coarsely equivalent to $\mathbb{H}^2$. If $G$ is moreover hyperbolic, it admits a faithful action on $S^1$ by quasisymmetric homeomorphisms. Our approach features a coarse generalisation of Shapiro's lemma, and a new definition of homological isoperimetric inequalities for metric spaces; these tools make use of Margolis's framework for coarse homological algebra.

math.GR↗

arXiv2024

Absence of Induced Ferromagnetism in Epitaxial Uranium Dioxide Thin Films

Recently, Sharma et al. [Adv. Sci. 9, 2203473 (2022)] claimed that thin films (around 20 nm) of UO2 deposited on perovskite substrates exhibit strongly enhanced paramagnetism (called induced ferromagnetism by the authors). Moments of up to 3 Bohr magneton/U atom were claimed in magnetic fields of 6 T. We have reproduced such films and, after characterisation, have examined them with X-ray circular magnetic dichroism (XMCD) at the uranium M edges, a technique that is element specific. We do not confirm the published results. We find a small increase, as compared to the bulk, in the magnetic susceptibility of UO2 in such films, but the magnetisation versus field curves, measured by XMCD, are linear with field and there is no indication of any ferromagnetism. The absence of any anomaly around 30 K (the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature of bulk UO2) in the XMCD signal suggests the films do not order magnetically.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Geometric realisation over aspherical groups

We prove that the direct sums of extensions of scalars of relation modules are geometrically realisable as the second homotopy group of a finite 2-complex. We use this to exhibit a finite 2-complex with fundamental group the $(10,15)$ torus knot group and non-free $\pi_2$, yielding exotic presentations of a group for which no such examples had previously been known. We conclude by constructing stably free non-free modules over an infinite family of Baumslag-Solitar groups; it remains to determine whether these modules are geometrically realisable by finite 2-complexes.

math.AT↗

arXiv2023

High-temperature superconductivity in A15-type La4H23 below 100 GPa

High-temperature superconductivity has been observed in binary hydrides such as LaH10 at pressures above 150 GPa. Hydrogen cage structures have been identified as a common motif beneficial for high critical temperatures Tc. Efforts are now focused on finding hydride high-temperature superconductors at lower pressures. We present evidence for high-temperature superconductivity in binary La4H23 with A15-type structure featuring hydrogen cages at a pressure of P = 95 GPa. We synthesise La4H23 from a lanthanum film capped with a palladium catalyst promoting the dissociation of hydrogen. In resistance measurements, we observe superconductivity with a transition temperature Tc = 90 K. In X-ray diffraction on the same sample, we identify the A15-type cubic body centred structure of the lanthanum sublattice. From comparison with earlier XRD and structure prediction studies, we identify this phase with La4H23. Our study reinforces the concept of hydrogen cages for high-temperature superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Using Machine Learning to Predict the Outcome of English County twenty over Cricket Matches

Cricket betting is a multi-billion dollar market. Therefore, there is a strong incentive for models that can predict the outcomes of games and beat the odds provided by bookers. The aim of this study was to investigate to what degree it is possible to predict the outcome of cricket matches. The target competition was the English twenty over county cricket cup. The original features alongside engineered features gave rise to more than 500 team and player statistics. The models were optimized firstly with team features only and then both team and player features. The performance of the models was tested over individual seasons from 2009 to 2014 having been trained over previous season data in each case. The optimal model was a simple prediction method combined with complex hierarchical features and was shown to significantly outperform a gambling industry benchmark.

stat.ML↗