SmB$_6$, known to be a Kondo insulator, has received intense scrutiny in recent years due to its paradoxical experimental signatures: while some quantities show an insulating behavior, others point to a metallic state. This has led to the conjecture that SmB$_6$ hosts nontrivial excitations within its bulk gap, and has spawned several theories to that effect. In principle, there exists an alternative possibility: the system is a metal but unusually with both metal- and insulator-like properties. Inspired by this possibility, I consider a minimal model of a Kondo insulator---a flat band hybridized with a parabolic band---that is slightly electron doped, i.e., the chemical potential is in the conduction band but close to the band edge. By calculating the dc conductivity, ac conductivity, specific heat, and quantum oscillations at the phenomenological level, I show that these quantities exhibit unusual behaviors that are, surprisingly, qualitatively consistent with those observed experimentally in SmB$_6$. The rapid change of band curvature around the chemical potential arising from the strong particle-hole asymmetry and the narrow gap in the model, a feature not usually encountered in the textbook cases of metals or insulators, is at the heart of the unusual behaviors.
Multi-orbital charge density wave excitations and concomitant phonon anomalies in Bi$_2$Sr$_2$LaCuO$_{6+δ}$
电荷密度波（CDW）在欠掺杂铜氧化物超导体中普遍存在。作为价电子密度的调制，空穴掺杂铜氧化物中的CDW同时具有Cu-3d和O-2 p轨道特征，这是由于这些轨道在费米能级附近的强杂化。在这里，我们调查欠掺杂的Bi $_2$ Sr $_{1.4}$ La $_{0.6}$ CuO $_{6+δ}$使用共振非弹性X射线散射（RIXS），发现一个短程CDW存在于铜和O亚晶格中的氧化铜（CuO 2）平面具有可比的周期性和相关长度。此外，我们发现键拉伸和键屈曲声子异常伴随着CDW。与稍微过掺杂的Bi $_2$ Sr $_{1.8}$ La $_{0.2}$ CuO $_{6+δ}$相比，其中既没有CDW也没有声子异常出现，我们强调指出，在CDW波矢（QCDW）附近诱导了尖锐的强度异常，与扩散强度增强的键伸缩声子在波矢远大于QCDW。我们的研究结果提供了一个全面的图片准静态CDW，其色散激发，和相关的电子-声子异常，这是理解竞争的铜酸盐电子不稳定性的关键。
Investigating the origin of topological-Hall-like resistivity in Zn-doped Mn2Sb ferrimagnet
East China Normal University（华东师范大学）；Anhui University（安徽大学）；Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院上海技术物理研究所）；Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学）；University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）
Comment on ``Magnetoresistance Anomalies in Antiferromagnetic YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$: Fingerprints of Charged Stripes''
在最近的一封信中，Ando等人（cond-mat/9905071）在空穴掺杂的反铁磁YBa $_2$ Cu $_3$ O $_{6+x}$中发现了异常磁阻（MR），他们将其归因于带电条纹，即，将孔分离成线。在这篇评论中，我们表明，这些实验虽然有趣，但并不能证明条纹的存在。在我们看来，异常行为是由于（a，b）平面的电阻率的各向异性在散装和磁场相关的反铁磁（AF）域结构。畴壁不太可能是带电的条纹。
