The first stretchable energy-harvesting electronic-skin device capable of differentiating and generating energy from various mechanical stimuli, such as normal pressure, lateral strain, bending, and vibration, is presented. A pressure sensitivity of 0.7 kPa(-1) is achieved in the pressure region <1 kPa with power generation of tens of μW cm(-2) from a gentle finger touch.

The controllability over strongly correlated electronic states promises unique electronic devices. A recent example is an optically induced ultrafast switching device based on the transition between the correlated Mott insulating state and a metallic state of a transition metal dichalcogenide 1T-TaS2. However, the electronic switching has been challenging and the nature of the transition has been veiled. Here we demonstrate the nanoscale electronic manipulation of the Mott state of 1T-TaS2. The voltage pulse from a scanning tunnelling microscope switches the insulating phase locally into a metallic phase with irregularly textured domain walls in the charge density wave order inherent to this Mott state. The metallic state is revealed as a correlated phase, which is induced by the moderate reduction of electron correlation due to the charge density wave decoherence.

Chiral edge states are the hallmark of two- and three-dimensional topological materials, but their one-dimensional (1D) analog has not yet been found. We report that the 1D topological edge states, solitons, of the charge density wave system of indium atomic wires self-assembled on a silicon surface have chirality. The system is described by a coupled double Peierls-dimerized atomic chain, where the interchain coupling induces dynamical sublattice symmetry breaking. This changes its topological symmetry from Z₂× Z₂to Z₄ and endows solitons with a chiral degree of freedom. Chiral solitons can produce quantized charge transport across the chain that is topologically protected and controllable by the soliton's chirality. Individual right- and left-chiral solitons in indium wires are directly identified by scanning tunneling microscopy.

We test the AdS/CFT correspondence by computing the partition function of some N = 2 quiver Chern-Simons-matter theories on three-sphere. The M-theory backgrounds are of the Freund-Rubin type with the seven-dimensional internal space given as Sasaki-Einstein manifolds Q 1,1,1 or V 5,2 .Localization technique reduces the exact path integral to a matrix model, and we study the large-N behavior of the partition function. For simplicity we consider only non-chiral models which have a real-valued partition function. The result is in full agreement with the prediction of the gravity duals, i.e. the free energy is proportional to N 3/2 and the coefficient matches correctly the volume of Q 1,1,1 and V 5,2 .

We investigate the superconformal indices for the Chern-Simons-matter theories proposed for M2-branes probing the cones over N 010 /Z k , Q 111 , M 32 with N = 2, 3 supersymmetries and compare them with the corresponding dual gravity indices. For N 010 , we find perfect agreements. In addition, for N 010 /Z k , we also find an agreement with the gravity index including the contributions from two types of D6-branes wrapping RP 3 . For Q 111 , we find that the model obtained by adding fundamental flavors to the N = 6 theory has the right structure to be the correct model. For M 32 , we find the matching with the gravity index modulo contributions from peculiar saddle points. arXiv:1102.4273v2 [hep-th]

Chiral objects can be found throughout nature [1][2][3][4] ; in condensed matter chiral objects are often excited states protected by a system's topology. The use of chiral topological excitations to carry information has been demonstrated, where the information is robust against external perturbations 5,6 . For instance, reading, writing, and transfer of binary information have been demonstrated with chiral topological excitations in magnetic systems, skyrmions [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] , for spintronic devices [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . The next step is logic or algebraic operations of such topological bits [20][21][22] . Here, we show experimentally the switching between chiral topological excitations or chiral solitons of di erent chirality in a one-dimensional electronic system with Z 4 topological symmetry 23,24 . We found that a fast-moving achiral soliton merges with chiral solitons to switch their handedness. This can lead to the realization of algebraic operation of Z 4 topological charges 25 . Chiral solitons could be a platform for storage and operation of robust topological multi-digit information.Topological particle-like excitations can be used as information carriers in next-generation non-volatile memory and logic devices on the basis of their non-perturbative topological robustness. Promising candidates for topological information carriers using such topological excitations have been discussed actively in magnetic systems-for example, domain walls for racetrack memory devices 5,6 and skyrmions 7-14 , two-dimensional chiral spin configurations protected topologically [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . However, neighbouring domain walls with opposite chirality would annihilate each other under the influence of an applied field in the former case. On the other hand, ironically, the chirality of skyrmions is very difficult to switch due to the intrinsic parity-breaking chiral interaction 6,26 . For these reasons, although binary-digit memory devices based on skyrmions have been successful demonstrated, the realization of logic operations with magnetic topological excitations faces huge obstacles requiring sophisticated nanoscale fabrication and precise material engineering [20][21][22] . On the other hand, topological excitations have been known for a long time in one-dimensional electronic systems; a Peierlsdistorted atomic chain such as polyacetylene has two topologically distinct ground states, which are connected by a unique topological soliton [27][28][29][30][31] . This topological excitation does not have such chirality 24 as magnetic solitons 32-34 and skyrmions 7-14 . However, our team recently discovered new kinds of topological solitons having chirality in double Peierls chains of indium atomic wires 23,24 . Double Peierls chains uniquely have topologically distinct four-fold degenerate ground states: the topology of the energetically degenerate ground states is distinguished in the topological order-parameter space using the order parameters m x and m z , representing sublattice dim...

In the Cohen-Glashow Very Special Relativity we exhibit possible modifications to the Maxwell theory and to the quantum electrodynamics Lagrangian in some generality, and discuss characteristic features depending on the modifications. Modified gauge transformations in SIM(2)-invariant theories are introduced and the related gauge fields, with two polarization states, can have nonzero mass. Also considered are SIM(2)-covariant modifications to the Proca-type field equations for a massive spin-1 particle. * Electronic address:

The topological properties of photonic microstructures are of great interest because of their experimental feasibility for fundamental study and potential applications. Here, we show that robust guided-mode-resonance states exist in photonic domain-wall structures whenever the complex photonic band structures involve certain topological correlations in general. Using the non-Hermitian photonic analogy of the one-dimensional Dirac equation, we derive essential conditions for photonic Jackiw-Rebbi-state resonances taking advantage of unique spatial confinement and spot-like spectral features which are remarkably robust against random parametric errors. Therefore, the proposed resonance configuration potentially provides a powerful method to create compact and stable photonic resonators for various applications in practice.