In a recent paper (Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 210602), Kozin and Kyriienko claim to realize "genuine" ground state time crystals by studying models with long-ranged and infinite-body interactions. Here we point out that their models are doubly problematic: they are unrealizable ${\it and}$ they violate well established principles for defining phases of matter. Indeed with infinite body operators allowed, almost all quantum systems are time crystals. In addition, one of their models is highly unstable and another amounts to isolating, via fine tuning, a single degree of freedom in a many body system--allowing for this elevates the pendulum of Galileo and Huygens to a genuine time crystal.
In a recent comment by Fernández, it has been argued that our solution method of an effective Hamiltonian based on the characteristic polynomial [Phys. Lett. A 443 (2022) 128215] had been developed several years earlier by Fried and Ezra [J. Chem. Phys. 90 (1989) 6378]. We show here several important differences between our treatment and the resummation method proposed previously by Fried and Ezra.
In this Comment, we explain the reason for the discrepancy between two sets of tunneling data obtained on Ni- and Zn-doped Bi2212 single crystals (presented in H. Hancotte et al., Phys. Rev. B 55, R3410 (1997) and A. Mourachkine, to be published in J. of Superconductivity, cond-mat/9902355).
Madsen et al. [arXiv:1307.2577] claim that one-dimensional insulating crystals and one-dimensional insulating quasicrystals are topologically equivalent and, thus, trivial. In this comment, we clarify that in topological classification of one-dimensional systems, quasiperiodicity plays a role similar to that of a symmetry. Hence, periodic systems are out of the quasiperiodic topological space, and the equivalence between quasicrystals and crystals becomes immaterial.
Reply to "Comment on <Emergence of a superconducting state from an antiferromagnetic phase in single crystals of the heavy fermion compound Ce2PdIn8> by Uhlirova et al."
In this Comment, we show that the experimental data reported by Li {\it et al.} (Phys. Rev. B {\bf 77}, 134501 (2008)) do not support the phonon specular reflection at low temperatures for high-T_c cuprates, because the phonon mean free path \ell calculated from their thermal conductivity data is much smaller than the averaged sample width above \sim 100 mK for both Nd_{2}CuO_{4} and YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{6.0} single crystals.
This is a reply to the comment from Khemani, Moessner and Sondhi (KMS) [arXiv:2109.00551] on our manuscript [Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 030401 (2017)]. The main new claim in KMS is that the short-ranged model does not support an MBL DTC phase. We show that, even for the parameter values they consider and the system sizes they study, the claim is an artifact of an unusual choice of range for the crucial plots. Conducting a standard finite-size scaling analysis on the same data strongly suggests that the system is in fact a many-body localized (MBL) discrete time crystal (DTC). Furthermore, we have c…
This comment regards a central aspect of the referred-to paper, the issue of convergence of the large coordination-number expansion. Perturbation expansions of expressions containing a large number of parameters are generally invalid due to the non-analyticity of the expanded expressions. I refer to recent work where these issues are analyzed and discussed in detail in relation to a benchmark example of a cluster model. As discussed therein, methods which are uncontrollable and for which their convergence is not foreseeable are not only useless but can mislead, particularly if models derived f…
In a recent paper [Phys. Rev. Lett. 112 156801 (2014)], Grushin et al. studied a Fermi-Hubbard-model for spinful electrons on a honeycomb lattice coupled to an external polarized electric field. By computing the Floquet Hamiltonian perturbatively to order $ω^{-1}$ (where $ω$ is the frequency of the drive) they predicted that, for specific values of the driving and filling, the system can transition into a Fractional Chern Insulator. In this comment we point out that: i) the calculation of the Floquet Hamiltonian misses some terms of order $ω^{-1}$ and ii) the assumption that the Floquet bands …
The Letter by N. Y. Yao et. al. [1,2] presents three models for realizing a many-body localized discrete time-crystal (MBL DTC): a short-ranged model [1], its revised version [2], as well as a long-range model of a trapped ion experiment [1,3]. We show that none of these realize an MBL DTC for the parameter ranges quoted in Refs. [1,2]. The central phase diagrams in [1] therefore cannot be reproduced. The models show rapid decay of oscillations from generic initial states, in sharp contrast to the robust period doubling dynamics characteristic of an MBL DTC. Long-lived oscillations from specia…
In the recent publication, Phys. Rev. B 102, 144420 (2020), Cabrera-Baez et al. present a study of the effects of Cd-substitution for Zn in the ferromagnetic compound GdFe2Zn20. As part of this paper, they claim that for GdFe2Zn18.6Cd1.4 the effective moment of Gd is reduced by 25% and the saturated moment of Gd is reduced by over 40%. We regrew representative members of the GdFe2Zn(20-x)Cdx series and did not find any such reductions. In addition, we measured several crystals from the growth batch that was used by Cabrera-Baez et al. and did not see such reductions. Although there is a modest…
This paper comments on the recently reported quantum oscillations in underdoped YBCO crystals. The implications to other experiments and some hurdles to validating the proposed interpretation are discussed.
In a recent letter, J. P. Wright et al [Phys. Rev. Lett. 87,266401 (2001) and cond-mat/0111119] have investigated the crystal structure of magnetite below the Verwey transition temperature (TV) by means of X-ray and neutron powder diffraction. We show that the interpretation given by J. P. Wright et al. is unsupported by their own crystallographic data which demonstrate, instead, the lack of atomic long-range CO in magnetite below the Verwey transition.
We introduce PyCrystalField, a Python software package for calculating single-ion crystal electric field (CEF) Hamiltonians. This software can calculate a CEF Hamiltonian \textit{ab initio} from a point charge model for any transition or rare earth ion in either the $J$ basis or the $LS$ basis, perform symmetry analysis to identify nonzero CEF parameters, calculate the energy spectrum and observables such as neutron spectrum and magnetization, and fit CEF Hamiltonians to any experimental data. The theory, implementation, and examples of its use are discussed.
The effect of surface degradation of the thermolectric cobaltite on Raman spectra is discussed and compared to experimental results from Co3O4 single crystals. We conclude that on NaCl flux grown NaxCoO2 crystals a surface layer of Co3O4 easily forms that leads to the observation of an intense phonon around 700 cm-1 [Phys. Rev. B 70, 052502 (2004)]. Raman spectra on freshly cleaved crystals from optical floating zone ovens do not show such effects and have a high frequency phonon cut-off at approximately 600 cm -1 [Phys. Rev. Lett 96, 167204 (2006)]. We discuss the relation of structural dimen…
In their recent communication (Phys. Rev. B 64, 060406(R) (2001)) Cornelius and Gardner have reported the results of magnetization and susceptibility studies on single crystals of the pyrochlore Ho2Ti2O7. The observed field dependence of magnetization is totally unexpected, as it seems to suggest that the magnetic moments in this compound do not obey the 'ice-rule'. We have re-measured the magnetization curves for Ho2Ti2O7 single crystal for the three principal directions of an applied magnetic field and found nearly perfect agreement with the predictions for a nearest-neighbor spin-ice model.
We systematically examine uncertainties from fitting rare earth single-ion crystal electric field (CEF) Hamiltonians to inelastic neutron scattering data. Using pyrochlore and delafossite structures as test cases, we find that uncertainty in CEF parameters can be large despite visually excellent fits. These results show Yb$^{3+}$ compounds have particularly large $g$-tensor uncertainty because of the few available peaks. In such cases, additional constraints are necessary for meaningful fits.
In this Comment it is argued that Stishov et al. [Phys. Rev. B 86, 064433 (2012)] incorrectly estimated concentrations of (supposed) paramagnetic centers with μ_eff = 4.8μ_B in the investigated CoSi crystals. Correct estimation gives concentrations of such centers from 25 to 50 times smaller than reported (appr. 0.04 to 0.16% instead of appr. 2 to 4%). Also the reported data on temperature dependence of resistivity ρ(T) of four CoSi crystals prepared in different Labs are so close to each other at T = 250 to 300K that it is extremely unlikely to be reproducible for any reasonable accuracy of r…
In the pressure range 5-12 GPa the fractional valence of cerium is independent of pressure because of the coexistence of two or more structural phases. The observation of a single crystallographic structure in this pressure range arises from a non-equilibrium situation induced by the initial conditions of the high pressure experiment.
We present transverse field muon spin rotation/relaxation measurements on single crystals of the spin-1/2 kagome antiferromagnet Herbertsmithite. We find that the spins are more easily polarized when the field is perpendicular to the kagome plane. We demonstrate that the difference in magnetization between the different directions cannot be accounted for by Dzyaloshinksii-Moriya type interactions alone, and that anisotropic axial interaction is present.