D. Nozadze and T. Vojta, to appear in Europhysics Letters

1. Electrical resistivity due to rare magnetic clustersThomas Vojta, Missouri University of Science and Technology, DMR 0906566 • Magnetic alloys such as Ni1-xVx can undergo a transition from a magnetic state to a nonmagnetic one when the composition x is varied. • Close to the critical composition (the threshold for the onset of magnetic order), the material features rare magnetic clusters embedded in a nonmagnetic host (as shown in the figure on the right) • These magnetic clusters strongly scatter the electrons that transport electric current, thus significantly enhancing the electrical resistivity at low temperatures • P.I. Vojta and his student David Nozadze developed a theory for calculating the electrical resistivity in these materials. They also determined similar properties such as the thermal resistivity and the thermoelectric power Rare region in a diluted magnet Graduate student David Nozadze D. Nozadze and T. Vojta, to appear in Europhysics Letters

2. Undergraduate research and educationThomas Vojta, Missouri University of Science and Technology, DMR 0906566 • Undergraduate research at the forefront of science • in 2010/2011, three undergraduate students have been involved in Vojta’s research • students gain early experiences with state-of-the-art materials research • they are trained in modern computation and simulation methods such as parallel programming Pegasus Computer Cluster operated by Vojta’s group Undergradute students John Igo, Chris Svoboda, and Thanh Nguyen (left to right)