Quantum Interference of Coulomb Interaction and Disorder: Phase Shift of Friedel Oscillations and an Instability of the Fermi Sea

We investigate the influence of interference between Coulomb interaction and impurity scattering on the static electronic response $\chi (0,q)$ in disordered metals to leading order in the effective Coulomb interaction. When the transport relaxation time $\tau _{tr}$ is much shorter than the quasiparticle life time, we find a \mbox{sgn}(2p_F-q)/\sqrt{|2p_F-q|} divergence of the polarization function at the Fermi surface ($q=2p_F$). It causes a phase shift of the Friedel oscillations as well as an enhancement of their amplitude. Our results are consistent with experiments and may be relevant for understanding the stability of the amorphous state of certain alloys against crystallization.Comment: 11 pages, 4 PostScript figures appended as a self-extracting tar archive; includes output instruction

Interference of two electrons entering a superconductor

The subgap conductivity of a normal-superconductor (NS) tunnel junction is thought to be due to tunneling of two electrons. There is a strong interference between these two electrons, originating from the spatial phase coherence in the normal metal at a mesoscopic length scale and the intrinsic coherence of the superconductor. We evaluated the interference effect on the transport through an NS junction. We propose the layouts to observe drastic Aharonov-Bohm and Josephson effects.Comment: 8 pages REVTex, [PostScript] figures upon reques

Spectral statistics of disordered metals in the presence of several Aharonov-Bohm fluxes

The form factor for spectral correlations in a diffusive metal is calculated in the presence of several Aharonov-Bohm fluxes. When the fluxes $\phi$ are equal, the correlations are universal functions of $n g^2 \phi$ where $g$ is the dimensionless conductance and $n$ is the number of applied fluxes. This explains recent flux dependence of the correlations found numerically at the metal-insulator transition.Comment: 3 pages, Latex, 1 figure, to appear in Phys. Rev. B Rapid Com

Spectral Correlations from the Metal to the Mobility Edge

We have studied numerically the spectral correlations in a metallic phase and at the metal-insulator transition. We have calculated directly the two-point correlation function of the density of states $R(s,s')$. In the metallic phase, it is well described by the Random Matrix Theory (RMT). For the first time, we also find numerically the diffusive corrections for the number variance $$ predicted by Al'tshuler and Shklovski\u{\i}. At the transition, at small energy scales, $R(s-s')$ starts linearly, with a slope larger than in a metal. At large separations $|s - s'| \gg 1$, it is found to decrease as a power law $R(s,s') \sim - c / |s -s'|^{2-\gamma}$ with $c \sim 0.041$ and $\gamma \sim 0.83$, in good agreement with recent microscopic predictions. At the transition, we have also calculated the form factor $\tilde K(t)$, Fourier transform of $R(s-s')$. At large $s$, the number variance contains two terms $= B ^\gamma + 2 \pi \tilde K(0) where$\tilde{K}(0)$is the limit of the form factor for$t \to 0$.Comment: 7 RevTex-pages, 10 figures. Submitted to PR

Spin Stiffness of Mesoscopic Quantum Antiferromagnets

We study the spin stiffness of a one-dimensional quantum antiferromagnet in the whole range of system sizes $L$ and temperatures $T$. We show that for integer and half-odd integer spin case the stiffness differs fundamentally in its $L$ and $T$ dependence, and that in the latter case the stiffness exhibits a striking dependence on the parity of the number of sites. Integer spin chains are treated in terms of the non-linear sigma model, while half-odd integer spin chains are discussed in a renormalization group approach leading to a Luttinger liquid with Aharonov-Bohm type boundary conditions.Comment: 12 pages, LaTe

Universal Spectral Correlations in Diffusive Quantum Systems

We have studied numerically several statistical properties of the spectra of disordered electronic systems under the influence of an Aharonov Bohm flux $\varphi$, which acts as a time--reversal symmetry breaking parameter. The distribution of curvatures of the single electron energy levels has a modified Lorentz form with different exponents in the GOE and GUE regime. It has Gaussian tails in the crossover regime. The typical curvature is found to vary as $-E_c\ln (E_c\varphi^2/\Delta)$ ($E_c$ is the Thouless energy and $\Delta$ the mean level spacing) and to diverge at zero flux. We show that the harmonics of the variation with $\varphi$ of single level quantities (current or curvature) are correlated, in contradiction with the perturbative result. The single level current correlation function is found to have a logarithmic behavior at low flux, in contrast to the pure symmetry cases. The distribution of single level currents is non--Gaussian in the GOE--GUE transition regime. We find a universal relation between $g_d$, the typical slope of the levels, and $g_c$, the width of the curvature distribution, as was proposed by Akkermans and Montambaux. We conjecture the validity of our results for any chaotic quantum system.Comment: 23 pages of RevTEX, 11 figures avaiable upon request; submitted to PRB; report number levs0