Related papers: Surprising lateral interactions between negatively…

We present a density-functional theory study addressing the energetics and electronic structure properties of isolated oxygen adatoms at the SrTiO3(001) surface. Together with a surface lattice oxygen atom, the adsorbate is found to form a…

Using total energy calculations, based on interaction potentials from the embedded atom method, we show that the presence of the tip not only lowers the barrier for lateral diffusion of the adatom towards it, but also shifts the…

Strong electron interactions in solids increase effective mass, and shrink the electronic bands [1]. One of the most unique and robust experimental facts about iron-based superconductors [2-4] is the renormalization of the conduction band…

We present a theory of electron-mediated interaction between adatoms in graphene. In the case of resonant scattering, relevant for hydrogentated graphene, a long-range 1/r interaction is found. This interaction can be viewed as a fermionic…

We simulate bulk materials under strong currents by following in real-time the dynamics of the electrons under an electric field. By changing the intensity of the electric field, our method can model, for the first time, non-linear effects…

Chemical interactions between two surfaces in contact play a crucial role in determining the mechanical and tribological behavior of solid interfaces. These interactions can be quantified via adhesion energy, that is a measure of the…

Events from alpha interactions on the surfaces of germanium detectors are a major contribution to the background in germanium-based searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay. Surface events are subject to charge trapping, affecting their…

The process of anomalous transfer of interstitial atoms during impact deformation of the crystal surface is described theoretically. As shown that surface impact leads to the formation of a wave of inhomogeneous atomic displacements in the…

Nominally identical materials exchange net electric charge during contact through a mechanism that is still debated. `Mosaic models', in which surfaces are presumed to consist of a random patchwork of microscopic donor/acceptor sites, offer…

We study the potential and the charge distribution across the interface of a plasma and a dielectric wall. For this purpose, the charge bound to the wall is modelled as a quasi-stationary electron surface layer which satisfies Poisson's…

Amorphous solids appear to react elastically to small external strains, but in contrast to ideal elastic media, plastic responses abound immediately, at any value of the strain. Such plastic responses are quasi-localized in nature, with the…

We present results of ab initio theoretical investigations of the excitation spectra of correlated electrons in metals (Al, K, and Li) and their interplay with inelastic scattering experiments. We resolve various anomalies contained in the…

A wide variety of interacting particle assemblies driven by an external force are characterized by a transition between a blocked and a moving phase. The origin of this deblocking transition can be traced back to the presence of either…

Recently the oxygen-reconstructed tantalum surface Ta(001)-p(3$\times$3)-O has experienced considerable attention due its use as a potential platform for Majorana physics in adatom chains. Experimental studies using scanning tunneling…

Recent experiments have shown that sodium, a prototype simple metal at ambient conditions, exhibits unexpected complexity under high pressure. One of the most puzzling phenomena in the behaviour of dense sodium is the pressure-induced drop…

We predict a repulsive Casimir-Polder-type dispersion interaction between a single neutron and a metal or dielectric surface. We consider a scenario where a single neutron is subject to an external magnetic field. Due to its intrinsic…

The jamming transition characterizes athermal systems of particles interacting via finite range repulsive potentials, and occurs on increasing the density when particles cannot avoid making contacts with those of their first coordination…

In material systems with slab geometry, the surface contribution to physical responses is commonly expected to diminish rapidly with increasing thickness, giving way to the bulk response. Here, we show that this conventional wisdom is…

We show that optical properties of linear molecular aggregates undergo drastic changes when aggregates are deposited on a metal surface. The dipole-dipole interactions of monomers with their images can result in strong {re-structuring of…

I review some recent results on understanding the physics of metals in an exact non-perturbative way through the powerful field-theoretic concepts of emergent symmetries and 't Hooft anomalies. A 't Hooft anomaly is a discrete topological…