Motivated by recent experiments, we address an ambiguity between the intrinsic in-plane spin projection of 2-dimensional surface states on 3-dimensional topological insulators and their ensemble spin polarization induced by a non-equilibrium charge current. Standard expressions from a Boltzmann equation approach in the relaxation-time approximation at zero and finite temperature are used to emp...

We review the anomalous properties of heavy fermion compounds like CeCu6−xAux or CeMIn5 close to a zero temperature phase transition called a quantum critical point. Anomalous behavior of the resistivity, specific heat and magnetic properties observed in various compounds suggests a fundamental breakdown of the Fermi liquid theory. Recent measurements on YbRh2Si2, field-tuned through the quantu...