Doublon relaxation in the Bose-Hubbard model

Decay of a high-energy double occupancy state, doublon, in a narrow-band lattice requires creation of a coherent many-particle excitation. This leads to an exponentially long relaxation time of such a state. We show that, if the average occupation number is sufficiently small, the corresponding exponent may be evaluated exactly. To this end we develop the quasiclassical approach to calculation of the high-order tree-level decay amplitudes.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Weak antilocalization in HgTe quantum wells and topological surface states: Massive versus massless Dirac fermions

HgTe quantum wells and surfaces of three-dimensional topological insulators support Dirac fermions with a single-valley band dispersion. In the presence of disorder they experience weak antilocalization, which has been observed in recent transport experiments. In this work we conduct a comparative theoretical study of the weak antilocalization in HgTe quantum wells and topological surface states. The difference between these two single-valley systems comes from a finite band gap (effective Dirac mass) in HgTe quantum wells in contrast to gapless (massless) surface states in topological insulators. The finite effective Dirac mass implies a broken internal symmetry, leading to suppression of the weak antilocalization in HgTe quantum wells at times larger than certain t_M, inversely proportional to the Dirac mass. This corresponds to the opening of a relaxation gap 1/t_M in the Cooperon diffusion mode which we obtain from the Bethe-Salpeter equation including relevant spin degrees of freedom. We demonstrate that the relaxation gap exhibits an interesting nonmonotonic dependence on both carrier density and band gap, vanishing at a certain combination of these parameters. The weak-antilocalization conductivity reflects this nonmonotonic behavior which is unique to HgTe QWs and absent for topological surface states. On the other hand, the topological surface states exhibit specific weak-antilocalization magnetoconductivity in a parallel magnetic field due to their exponential decay in the bulk.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, version as publishe

Superflow in Solid 4He

Kim and Chan have recently observed Non-Classical Rotational Inertia (NCRI) for solid $^4$He in Vycor glass, gold film, and bulk. Their low $T$ value of the superfluid fraction, $\rho_{s}/\rho\approx0.015$, is consistent with what is known of the atomic delocalization in this quantum solid. By including a lattice mass density $\rho_{L}$ distinct from the normal fluid density $\rho_{n}$, we argue that $\rho_{s}(T)\approx\rho_{s}(0)-\rho_{n}(T)$, and we develop a model for the normal fluid density $\rho_{n}$ with contributions from longitudinal phonons and ``defectons'' (which dominate). The Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) and macroscopic phase inferred from NCRI implies quantum vortex lines and quantum vortex rings, which may explain the unusually low critical velocity and certain hysteretic phenomena.Comment: 4 page pdf, 1 figur

Order from Disorder in Graphene Quantum Hall Ferromagnet

Valley-polarized quantum Hall states in graphene are described by a Heisenberg O(3) ferromagnet model, with the ordering type controlled by the strength and sign of valley anisotropy. A mechanism resulting from electron coupling to strain-induced gauge field, giving leading contribution to the anisotropy, is described in terms of an effective random magnetic field aligned with the ferromagnet z axis. We argue that such random field stabilizes the XY ferromagnet state, which is a coherent equal-weight mixture of the $K$ and $K'$ valley states. Other implications such as the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless ordering transition and topological defects with half-integer charge are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Bound States in a Quantized Hall Ferromagnet

We report on a study of the quasielectron-quasihole and skyrmion-antiskyrmion bound states in the $\nu=1$ quantum Hall regime. The short range attraction potential is assumed to be determined by a point magnetic impurity. The calculations are performed within the strong field approximation when the binding energy and the characteristic electron-electron interaction energy are smaller than the Landau level spacing. The Excitonic Representation technique is used in that case.Comment: 8 page

Electron spin-orbit splitting in InGaAs/InP quantum well studied by means of the weak antilocalization and spin-zero effects in tilted magnetic fields

The coupling between Zeeman spin splitting and Rashba spin-orbit terms has been studied experimentally in a gated InGaAs/InP quantum well structure by means of simultaneous measurements of the weak antilocalization (WAL) effect and beating in the SdH oscillations. The strength of the Zeeman splitting was regulated by tilting the magnetic field with the spin-zeros in the SdH oscillations, which are not always present, being enhanced by the tilt. In tilted fields the spin-orbit and Zeeman splittings are not additive, and a simple expression is given for the energy levels. The Rashba parameter and the electron g-factor were extracted from the position of the spin zeros in tilted fields. A good agreement is obtained for the spin-orbit coupling strength from the spin-zeros and weak antilocalization measurements.Comment: Accepted for publication in Semiconductors Science and Technolog

Magnetic Force Exerted by the Aharonov-Bohm Line

The problem of the scattering of a charge by the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) flux line is reconsidered in terms of finite width beams. It is shown that despite the left-right symmetry in the AB scattering cross-section, the charge is scattered asymmetrically. The asymmetry (i.e. magnetic force) originates from almost forward scattering within the angular size of the incident wave. In the paraxial approximation, the real space solution to the scattering problem of a beam is found as well as the scattering S-matrix. The Boltzmann kinetics and the Landau quantization in a random AB array are considered.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX. Discussions of paraxial approximation to the Aharonov-Bohm solution (Cornu spiral) and S-matrix, are extended. References are adde

Decay of metastable current states in one-dimensional resonant tunneling devices

Current switching in a double-barrier resonant tunneling structure is studied in the regime where the current-voltage characteristic exhibits intrinsic bistability, so that in a certain range of bias two different steady states of current are possible. Near the upper boundary V_{th} of the bistable region the upper current state is metastable, and because of the shot noise it eventually decays to the stable lower current state. We find the time of this switching process in strip-shaped devices, with the width small compared to the length. As the bias V is tuned away from the boundary value V_{th} of the bistable region, the mean switching time \tau increases exponentially. We show that in long strips \ln\tau \propto (V_{th} -V)^{5/4}, whereas in short strips \ln\tau \propto (V_{th} -V)^{3/2}. The one-dimensional geometry of the problem enables us to obtain analytically exact expressions for both the exponential and the prefactor of \tau. Furthermore, we show that, depending on the parameters of the system, the switching can be initiated either inside the strip, or at its ends.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, update to published versio

Sound and Heat Absorption by a 2D Electron Gas in an Odd-Integer Quantized-Hall Regime

The absorption of bulk acoustic phonons in a two-dimensional (2D) GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure is studied (in the clean limit) where the 2D electron-gas (2DEG), being in an odd-integer quantum-Hall state, is in fact a spin dielectric. Of the two channels of phonon absorption associated with excitation of spin waves, one, which is due to the spin-orbit (SO) coupling of electrons, involves a change of the spin state of the system and the other does not. We show that the phonon-absorption rate corresponding to the former channel (in the paper designated as the second absorption channel) is finite at zero temperature ($T$), whereas that corresponding to the latter (designated as the first channel) vanishes for $T\to 0$. The long-wavelength limit, being the special case of the first absorption channel, corresponds to sound (bulk and surface) attenuation by the 2DEG. At the same time, the ballistic phonon propagation and heat absorption are determined by both channels. The 2DEG overheat and the attendant spin-state change are found under the conditions of permanent nonequilibrium phonon pumping.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figure

Dimensional Control of Antilocalisation and Spin Relaxation in Quantum Wires

The spin relaxation rate $1/\tau_s (W)$ in disordered quantum wires with Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling is derived analytically as a function of wire width $W$. It is found to be diminished when $W$ is smaller than the bulk spin-orbit length $L_{\rm SO}$. Only a small spin relaxation rate due to cubic Dresselhaus coupling $\gamma$ is found to remain in this limit. As a result, when reducing the wire width $W$ the quantum conductivity correction changes from weak anti- to weak localization and from negative to positive magnetoconductivity.Comment: 4.0 pages, 3 figures, final version, Refs. updated, introduction and formula for spin relaxation rate adde