Metal–insulator transitions of fermionic mixtures with mass imbalance in disordered optical lattice

We study the metal–insulator transitions in the half-filled Anderson–Hubbard model with mass imbalance by the typical medium theory using the equation of motion method as an impurity solver. The nonmagnetic ground state phase diagram of the system with mass imbalance is constructed numerically. In addition to the three phases showed up in the balanced case, the phase diagram of the mass imbalanced case contains a spin-selective localized phase, where one spin component is metallic while the other spin component is insulating. We find that if one increases the mass imbalance the metal region in the phase diagram is reduced, while both Anderson and Mott insulator regions are enlarged.

Effect of Mismatched Electron-Hole Effective Masses on Superfluidity in Double Layer Solid-State Systems

Superfluidity has been predicted and now observed in a number of different electron-hole double-layer semiconductor heterostructures. In some of the heterostructures, such as GaAs and Ge-Si electron-hole double quantum wells, there is a strong mismatch between the electron and hole effective masses. We systematically investigate the sensitivity to unequal masses of the superfluid properties and the self-consistent screening of the electron-hole pairing interaction. We find that the superfluid properties are insensitive to mass imbalance in the low density BEC regime of strongly-coupled boson-like electron-hole pairs. At higher densities, in the BEC-BCS crossover regime of fermionic pairs, we find that mass imbalance between electrons and holes weakens the superfluidity and expands the density range for the BEC-BCS crossover regime. This permits screening to kill the superfluid at a lower density than for equal masses.

Efficiency of eclogite removal from continental lithosphere and its implications for cratonic diamonds

Continental lithospheric mantle (CLM) may have been built from subducted slabs, but the apparent lack of concurrent oceanic crust in CLM, known as the mass imbalance problem, remains unresolved. Here, we present a simple dynamic model to evaluate the likelihood of losing dense eclogitized oceanic crust from CLM by gravitational instability. Our model allowed us to assess the long-term evolution of such crust removal, based on how thermal and viscosity profiles change over time across the continental lithosphere. We found that the oceanic crust incorporated early into CLM can quickly escape to the asthenosphere, whereas that incorporated after a certain age would be preserved in CLM. This study provides a plausible explanation for the mass imbalance problem posed by the oceanic ridge origin hypothesis of CLM and points to the significance of preservation bias inherent to the studies of cratonic diamonds.