A recent development in studies of random non-Hermitian quantum systems is reviewed. Delocalization was found to occur under a sufficiently large constant imaginary vector potential even in one and two dimensions. The phenomenon has a physical realization as flux-line depinning in type-II...

We consider creep processes in plastically deformed materials as a critical process such as proposed by Zaitsev (Physica A 189 (1992) 411). We give arguments that the low-temperature creep rate necessarily has two different modes. During the first (fast) stage of stress relaxation, dislocations...